Every year in the beginning of June there is here in Neumünster the city festival called Holstenköste. It is a four-day event with several music stages around the city center, food/ drink stalls and funfair rides. I haven’t been at this festival since 2005 as that was the year I moved away from here. Even though my hometown is pretty boring they still do good with this festival. This year the festival had at least during the first two days wonderful sunshine so it was pretty packed there. After those initial two days there was just a rain and we didn’t even bother going there on those days.

The whole event was first held in 1974 and evolved to the current size over the years. This city festival is pretty much THE EVENT OF THE YEAR for many people living here. But of course other cities also got their own festivals such as the Kieler Woche which is around two weeks after my hometowns festival and much much bigger. Talking about size, this city festival here attracts roughly 200.000 people during those four days, not bad for such a boring town I would say.

Besides all the delicious food everywhere on the festival area there are also those funfair rides. It was Nathan’s first time being in one and he looked rather confused. We also went to the ferris wheel which is one of the main marks of the festival for a few decades already. You know, I am terribly afraid of heights and that the cabins of the ferris wheel were open didn’t help either. However I managed rather well and wasn’t afraid at all this time, am I evolving? We were there with several friends of my wife and we all went to the ferris wheel except of MIL who seemed very afraid of it. Nathan was just Nathan and sat the entire time in my lap looking bored, I guess as a baby you just don’t care if you are suddenly around 50m in the air…

It is too bad about the terrible weather during the last two days of the festival but there is always another year, and another and another. As mentioned before there is another festival in the next city soon as we will most likely try to go there as it is even bigger. I am really wondering what my Chinese mother-in-law thinks about these events and about the food. In her opinion she can make any food we ate so far much better than the restaurants but somehow she hasn’t even started yet to make and of those dishes. Even stranger, she never says she can make better food than the restaurants in China, or perhaps she tried and failed and thus doesn’t want to mention it anymore. MIL is full of mysteries it seems.

Does your city got a similar festival?

Be sure to follow me also on Facebook and on Twitter as I will post there occasionally pictures which do not find their way into my blog posts.

https://www.facebook.com/CrazyChineseFamily

https://twitter.com/CraChineseFam