Bremen Samba Carnival

Costumes are important for the participants. Samba bands come from all over Germany, Holland and Brazil to this event. Some have papier-mache puppets on stilts.

The event started in the marketplace with speeches and an alternative version/performance of Romeo and Juliet by actors and athletes and puppets. The theme of the carnival this year is 'high on love'. The bands then processed along the main street for more than an hour, stopping to play every few yards. We ran ahead and watched them from near the theatre, where we could get some mulled wine to warm us up. Hard to say which band was my favourite. I got excited to see a band from Amersfoort, NL, (because my brother and family once lived there. Now they live in NZ!) I blipped this lady because of her energy and because she doesn't seem to like AFD, the nasty right wing party that is getting a toe hold in areas where there are immigrants.

When all the bands had passed, we bought some kebabs (brought to East Germany by Turkish guest workers, back in the day) and went home to rest.

Later, us grown ups left the child with a babysitter, and cycled off to the Slachthopf (Slaughterhouse!) which was converted into an ents centre about 40 years ago. There were three stages with live Samba music and a disco. Lord, how we danced! Maybe the Brazilian cocktail helped. Our favourite was the Sambeatles: a band that played Beatles songs really well, set to Samba rhythms. The 'Beatles' had teeshirts with their names on them : Juan, Pablo, Jorge y Gringo! We'd been joined by a friend of Kim, her new ballroom dance partner.

We left at about 2 am, cycled back, and I might have got to bed at about 4. Can't really remember now. Great second visit to the Bremen carnival. I was here last year, too.