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The Dutch Embassy Celebrated this Weekend the Harbour Festival

A traditional Harbour Festival celebrating different maritime cultures and traditions took place

July 20th, 2016
Ingrida Haringová, News from Berlin
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The weekend on the river in front of the Dutch embassy belonged to the traditional harbour festival. There were boat parades, harbor tours, tug-tug and bumper boat race and a maritime exhibition. Moreover, there was a port market with culinary specialties, game activities for children and lots of music.

This weekend, the Berlin port, built in 1298, celebrated its 718th birthday and the 26th Hafenfest, which was organized by the association for preservation and promotion of historic inland waterways.

At the festival, visitors could find steamboat tours, boat ballet, theatre, different genres of music, and attend museum tours at twelve different locations. Opposite to the Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment, the history of Berlin was explained on multilingual-guided tours.

In addition to the traditional boating and marine activities, such as sailing on the Spree, visitors could experience “Venice in Berlin”, an Italian gondolier-style experience. The public was invited to taste   various maritime delicacies, such as baked fish, smoked fish, international wines and much more. As well, after taking part in the pirate course held in the “creative house”, kids could obtain a pirate diploma. On Sunday, the mayor of Berlin came and joined the celebrations as well.

The festival combined different maritime cultures and brought different people together - there were performances by kids and young people, old people, Italian gondolier singers and jazz musicians. Furthermore, the festival also offered lectures about wildlife near the river and the history of the harbour.

The connection between the harbor and the Netherlands is long-term. Next year will mark 30 years since the historical sail from the Netherlands through the DDR into Berlin. When Berlin was celebrating the 750th jubilee, the Dutch ships received historic allowance to pass the DDR to enter Berlin. Some of them even continued into East Berlin. The journey was completed once more in 2014. This time, the journey took the participants a cross a united Berlin.

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News from Berlin