Hamburg Japanese Cherry Blossom fireworks on the Alster

The Kirschbluetenfest in Hamburg is on the last days of may

Waiting for the firewors to begin during the Kirschbluetenfest 2008

Last friday we were going to go to the cinema. My wife called me earlier to cancel because that night the "Kirschbluetenfest" was going to be celebrated on the Alster. I had seen some advertising but I did not pay much attention to it. I imagined some sort of fireworks with no special importance. But when my wife told me about it, then I decided to give it a try.

The fireworks were suppossed to start around 22:30, on the Außenalster or Upper Alster. We arrived around 21:00 and the areas around the Alster Lake were already full with people. It was not as irrelevant as I thought. We found a small place were we sat and waited for the fireworks to begin. Not only there were loads of people around us, but loads of small boats on the Alster as well. I guess the view from the boats was even better. We were siting two meters away from the Lake, but the view from the boats was much better I suppose.

My wife told me something about the history of the Cherry Blossom fireworks festival in Hamburg or as it is called in German the "Kirschbluetenfest". The Fireworks is a present from the Japanese society of Hamburg to the city of Hamburg. In fact around where we were sitting, some people were dressed in Kimonos and some stands were selling Sushi. My wife told me it has something to do with the famous Cherry Trees in Japan, and that some decades ago, some Japanese brought Cherry trees to Hamburg and gave them as a present to the city. Or so the story goes.

The fireworks began on time. We thought that a boat was going to be doing the show, but it was not like that. The fireworks were fired from the left side of the Upper Alster, around the area where the Consulates are.

Anyway, we had a nice view and as we were on a first row we could see everything pretty well. Here I leave you some photos of the 2008 Kirschbluetenfest in Hamburg.