© dpa
Berlin's Carnival of Cultures kicks off on Friday afternoon with a street party. (File photo)
© dpa
It tends to get very busy, especially on Saturday and Sunday evenings. (File photo)
© dpa
The colourful parade always attracts tens of thousands of spectators at Whitsun. (File photo)
The traditional Carnival of Cultures in Berlin, featuring a street festival and a grand parade, begins this Friday before Pentecost and ends on Monday evening.
The street festival in Kreuzberg on Blücherplatz, featuring four stages and numerous food and drink stalls, opens on Friday afternoon at 5 pm. On Saturday and Sunday, it runs from 12 noon to 11 pm, and on Whit Monday it closes at 6 pm. It tends to get very busy, particularly on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
There will be road closures around Blücherplatz from Thursday until Tuesday morning: In addition to Blücherplatz itself, Blücherstraße between Mehringdamm and Mittenwalder Straße; Zossener Straße between Gitschiner Straße and Baruther Straße; Johanniterstraße between Zossener Straße and Brachvogelstraße; Tempelhofer Ufer between Mehringdamm and Hallesche-Tor-Brücke; the entire length of Waterloo-Ufer; and Gitschiner Straße between Zossener Straße and Alexandrinenstraße, as well as the Hallesches-Tor-Brücke and Zossener Brücke. The closures will remain in place until Tuesday at 6 am.
The children’s carnival in Kreuzberg kicks off on Saturday. This includes a fancy dress parade with several thousand children, starting at 12.30 pm from Mariannenplatz via Rio-Reiser-Platz, Oranienstraße and Wiener Straße to Görlitzer Park. The children’s carnival festival begins there at 2 pm with stage performances and games. Road users should expect disruption between 12.30 pm and 2 pm. The highlight of the four-day event is the street parade on Whit Sunday from 1.30 pm until the evening. Due to a construction site in Kreuzberg, the route will run through Friedrichshain, as it did last year. The parade starts at the junction of Frankfurter Allee and Proskauer Straße, then proceeds along Frankfurter Allee and Karl-Marx-Allee. The following road closures and restrictions apply:
The organisers appealed to the tens of thousands of visitors expected to attend to behave responsibly, to use the toilets, and not to enter or trample on the cordoned-off grass verge on Karl-Marx-Allee. The Carnival of Cultures has its origins in Kreuzberg and Neukölln in 1996. In response to racism and numerous attacks, it was intended to send a message of diversity and peaceful coexistence. If you plan to attend the parade or the street festival, we strongly recommend travelling by public transport.