April 1st – 6th: International Women's Film Festival Dortmund+Cologne
The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund+Cologne is Germany’s largest forum for women in the film industry and presents outstanding films by women spanning all genres and styles.
For more than 40 years the festival has been promoting the influence of women in all fields of the cinema industry -- mainly as directors, but also as cinematographers, producers, scriptwriters, composers, songwriters and actors.
From early April: cherry blossom season, Bonn and Berlin
It's cherry blossom season! You'll see these delicate blooms all over the country, but two cities are particularly well known for their stunning seas of flowers: Bonn and Berlin.
Head to the Altstadt area of Bonn for a spectacular canopy of blossoms – Heerstrasse and Breitestrasse are the streets to seek out.
Nature being the fickle beast she is, you never quite know when the trees are going to start blossoming, but fortunately, local photo shop Print and Paint are on Bonn blossom watch, and regularly update their website and Instagram account. Once they've bloomed, the flowers last around seven to ten days, then they begin to fall.
There are also plenty of blossoms to be found in the north-east of the country, in Berlin: along the Berlin wall trail (Mauerweg) between Teltow and Berlin Lichterfelde, you'll find 'cherry blossom avenue'. Over 1,000 trees were planted by Japan's TV Asahi network as a reunification gift in the 90s, turning the former border strip into a sea of pink.
The city also holds an annual cherry blossom festival every April – 5th and 6th – in the Gardens of the World in Marzahn, which also has cherry trees in the Japanese section of its vast gardens.
[embed]https://youtu.be/SZhcpc7VJpg[/embed]
April 11th – 21st: Festival Days at the State Opera, Berlin
The Berlin State Opera's annual classical music festival is one of Germany's cultural highlights in April. It's been running since 1996 and offers a varied programme of musical theatre and concerts with international stars at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Philharmonie Berlin.
April 1st – June 24th, white asparagus season
White asparagus season (commonly known as Spargelzeit) officially kicks off in April and you'll find this sought-after 'white gold' in multiple restaurant dishes, at markets, and even pop-up stands across the country. It's no secret how beloved the delicate stalks are in Germany.
READ ALSO: Spargelzeit - Six things to know about the German love affair with asparagus
Fun fact: the white stuff is not a different type of asparagus to the more familiar green stalks, it's just grown underground to avoid the sun. This means it doesn't produce any chlorophyll so doesn't turn green. This process also makes the white stalks sweeter!
Hardcore asparagus lovers might want to make a beeline for 'asparagus country', i.e. Lower Saxony, which apparently grows every fifth spear of asparagus that's eaten in Germany. Here you'll find a 750-kilometre asparagus food trail.
April 19th – May 5th: Nuremberg’s Volksfest
An annual Volksfest (or folk festival) is a tradition in many larger towns in Germany each year, which typically combines a beer or wine festival and a travelling funfair with carnival-type rides.
If you spend a spring or summer season anywhere in southern or western Germany, you’re bound to hear about a few different Volksfeste in some of the nearby cities.
Kicking off the Volksfest season is Nuremberg’s spring festival, which attracts visitors from all around Franconia and beyond.
Here you’ll find boisterous beer-drinking tents serving up locally brews by the litre next to rollercoasters and racing carousels that can really test your stomach.
READ ALSO: Six spring festivals to mark the changing of the seasons in Germany
Easter celebrations, various dates and locations
Germany does Easter brilliantly and while many of the Easter Egg markets (like the one in the old town of Michelstadt) are at the end of March, there are still plenty of other Easter markets to enjoy in April, including several in Berlin, from Alexanderplatz to Potsdamerplatz.
Whichever one you go to, you'll find festively decorated artisan stands, Easter decor, eggs, and plenty of seasonal food and drink. And, at Alexanderplatz, there's an impressive Easter egg house with thousands of crocheted eggs – the largest collection in the world.
Down in Nuremberg, the Easter market (April 4th – 21st) has over 100 stands, including the ubiquitous painted eggs and Easter decorations, but also plenty of household products and tableware.
There are also other more religious celebrations, such as the annual horse ride to honour Saint George (the Georgiritt) on Easter Monday.
Taking place in Traunstein, Bavaria, the event sees hundreds of people dress up in traditional costumes to ride decorated horses to a chapel where the horses are then blessed by a priest. The day ends with a traditional sword dance.
April 26th – May 4th: Tree Blossom Festival, Werder (Havel)
Gazing at tree blossoms while enjoying various local fruit wines is the name of the game at the Baumblütenfest found just west of Berlin in the town of Werder on the Havel River.
Similar to Germany's spring fests, you’ll find a mix of funfair, drinking and song and dance here. But instead of beer tents, there are open-air courtyards in vibrant gardens, surrounded by the sweet scents and sounds of spring.
This year the courtyards and gardens open to visitors on April 26th, the funfair on 30th and the rest of the fair kicks-off on May 1st.
[embed]https://youtu.be/BjUV-byB8ls[/embed]
April 30th – May 1st, Walpurgis Night, Harz mountains
This pagan celebration dates back to pre-Christian times, and people still celebrate it to mark the start of spring and ward off evil spirits by lighting bonfires, dressing up as witches and dancing.
It's celebrated across Germany, but the Harz mountains is one of the most famous spots and you'll find events across the region, particularly in the towns of Bad Grund, Braunlage, Hahnenklee, Sankt Andreasberg, Schierke and Thale.
One must-visit spot is the Witches' dance floor (Hexentanzplatz) on a plateau near Thale. Legend has it that this is where witches would meet to perform a dance ritual to the Brocken mountain.
Take the glass-floored cable car to the 450-metre-high plateau on Walpurgis Night now and you'll find fireworks, laser shows and thousands of people dancing in full witchy, devilish or fantasy costume.
Comments