The crowds that gather for the annual German-American Volksfest in Berlin this summer will be taking part in the 51st year of the festival, which was first staged to help rebuild relations between the two countries following the dark days of the first half of the twentieth century.
Some 500,000 people from all across the globe are expected to attend the festival this year – running from July 28 to August 14 – to celebrate the increasingly large slice of Americana that is served up in Berlin for more than two and a half weeks during the summer. This year the celebration will be even closer to the throbbing heart of the metropolis, staged for the first time on the central Heidestraße, giving it the added convenience of being right next to Berlin’s main train station, the Hauptbahnhof.
When the first festival took place in 1961, its aim was to help improve relations between the American servicemen stationed in post-war Berlin and the local people. As relations thawed and then improved over the course of the twentieth century, however, it has turned into a celebration of American life and the indelible role played by German immigrants. As it stands, three-quarters of people in the US have some form of European heritage, with more than a third of those people able to trace back a certain German line on their family trees.
With such inextricable links, it is not hard to see why the festival is so popular, with organisers spending a great deal of time and money trying to capture the attention of local people and tourists alike.
Central to the festival’s set-up is a life-sized replica façade of an all-American main street that will be fully stocked with participants serving up the most American of dishes, with hearty Southern soul food and steaks topping the menus. And for those who like a little more challenge with their chow, there will be burger- and sausage-eating contest, embracing the peculiarly American phenomenon of competitive eating. Samples of the rich musical heritage of all aspects of American life will provide the entertainment on the open-air performance stage throughout the two weeks of the festival, with country, blues, jazz and soul musicians all taking to the microphone.
The festival in the past has been a smorgasboard of visitors, reaching out beyond the American expats in Germany and German America-philes to draw in the tourists from all over Europe who flock to Berlin due to its ever-growing reputation as an exciting city-break destination. Berlin is a central hub for flights from airports in all corners of Europe, making access to the city – and to the festival location itself – easy for all.
