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Photo TR: Bremen fair, Germany (including Olympia Looping)


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Hi all

 

I was really pleased with the response my photos from Düsseldorf fair in July, so here's a bunch of photos from my latest German trip, the Bremen. Hope you enjoy them!

 

The fair in on until November 2nd, so there's still time to visit. The website address is www.freimarkt.de

 

 

(in a shameless bit of self-promotion, if anyone missed the Düsseldorf photos, they're right here: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45278&highlight=dusseldorf

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One of the highlights of the fair for me was "Freimarkt bei nacht". The fair itself is in the car park of a large exhibition centre, and one of the exhibition halls gets turned into a huge temporary nightclub. We joined the party until 5am, and it was still in full swing as we left.

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Inside the Beck's Hanszelt beer hall. This place is utterly huge and must sell a massive amount of beer during the fair. I didn't realise there were so many varieties of Beck's in existence!

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One of the many bars in the Beck's Hanszelt. You're not just limited to beer, you can get cocktails, and whatever sort of meal you can imagine

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The Beck's Hanszelt tent, right in the centre of the fair, is absolutely huge. Here you can see how it compares with Wildwasser, which itself is massive.

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The Showboat beer hall. Absolutely gorgeous, though I do wish Germany would follow the UK in adopting the smoking ban. This place reeked of smoke.

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Commander, a Mondial Shake, and possibly the most impressive looking spin ride in the world. Note the huge lighting rigs inside the roof. As with all such rides on the German fair circuit, people are welcome to walk all around the ride, with no safety barriers whatsoever, and to get a seat on a busy night, you really need to jump on as the ride slows. If you wait for it to stop, you've left it way too late!

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Break Dancer No2 - one of only 4 giant Break Dance rides Huss ever made, 3 of which tour Germany.

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The Huss Frisbee. Huss used to manufacture all their rides in Bremen, so it's no surprise to see so many here.

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Countdown, the Huss Shot & Drop, which gives much longer rides than any theme park model I've ridden.

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Die Krake, the Schwarzkopf Polyp. 30 years old, though you'd never guess it. The cars spin incredibly quickly, and it is genuinely one of the most fun rides I've ever been on.

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Happy Traveller, the smaller of the 2 Huss Break Dances at the fair. The decor is incredibly camp and adorable, but they still give a long full speed ride

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Here you can see people standing around Commander. As you can tell from the angle of the cars, the ride is at full speed when I took this photo.

 

These guys standing around the ride aren't staff, they're either waiting to jump on for the next ride, or just generally hanging out. Staff do keep an eye out for anyone getting too close, but do it in a very low-key way, giving a very relaxed atmosphere around the ride.

 

However until you're used to it, walking around a ride that is running at 100% speed with no barrier is a truly terrifying experience!

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Olympia Looping. The trouble with this ride is that it's always difficult to get far enough back to get all 5 loops in one photo!

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Friday night fireworks. "Top In" is the rather odd name for a set of Dodgems

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Frisbee, with Star Flyer and he Daemonium ghost train in the background.

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Claimed to be the largest portable wheel in the world. This is true, although it does share the record with several other wheels around Europe.

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Krinoline. I don't even know how to begin describing this ride, it's incredibly silly and great fun.

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Dusk descends upon the fair, which stays open until roughly 00:30

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Flash, the 2nd ever KMG Inversion, attending its first ever fair.

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The Top Spin, one of the first ever built ,though you'd never guess from its condition. Gave quite long rides, much longer than any theme park.

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2 of the fair's 3 coasters.

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Olympia Looping. A very good ride, though not quite the masterpiece that Alpina Bahn and Dreier Looping are.

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Roll up, roll up, ride the campest Huss Break Dance on Earth.

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Wildwasser 3, the world's largest portable Log Flume, and substantially bigger than a lot of park flumes.

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Happy Traveller cleverly markets itself as a "family" Break Dance, allowing it to get onto fairs that already have a "normal" Break Dance. When you ride it though, you soon see they don't tame it much at all!

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Wildwasser 3, the triple decker flume, can't fail to impress.

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The crowds before it got REALLY busy!

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Hollenblitz, claimed to be the world's biggest indoor travelling coaster. I can't imagine it has much competition, this thing is HUGE. Oh, and it's full of laser and lighting effects. And it has spinning cars.

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Toboggan Rutschbahn, a 101 year old helter skelter style slide, with a difference - to ride it you have to jump onto an inclined conveyor belt, which moves VERY quickly!

 

And yes, people fall over, but they just laugh it off and try again. One of our group accidentally found himself riding the conveyor lying feet-first on his back!

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Don't ask me why, but one car on Break Dancer No2 is a themed bull, one of the themes Huss provides to parks. It was very popular though, and it was almost a "special" victory when I managed to jump on early enough to get it!

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Wildwasser's theming is incredible. The tunnel section features scenes that put many theme park rides to shame.

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Top Spin, Flash, and Star Flyer all in one shot

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Break Dancer No2. The Break Dance is THE ride that symbolises German fairs. Rather than standing in a queue, people buy their tokens, stand around the ride (with no safety barrier whatsoever), and jump on as the ride slows. It's survival of the fittest once the ride gets busy, and loading can be done and dusted in well under 30 seconds.

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The wheel through the dwarfed exhibition centre.

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The nostalgia fair in the old town, featuring rides that date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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I really need to go to a german fair in the near future.

 

You made some awesome nightshots.

 

Was it a one price fair or do you need to pay per ride.

I prefer the last system as a I won't ride all the flatrides.

 

---Hans

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Awesome!!!! I can't wait till I get to Oktoberfest next year! A co-worker went to one of these "smaller" fairs on a supplier visit recently and he showed me lots of pictures of the insides of some of the beer halls. They did not go on any of the rides though and the name of the town that they were in escapes me at the moment.

 

Anyhow...great report - these festivals look like so much fun!!!

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Thanks for the comments

 

The KMG Inversion - well, I've ridden this one and Dominator in Holland (both at their debut fairs, oddly enough). Both had the cars locked into place most of the time, and the ride was fairly average. Occasionally, Flash released the cars, and the ride became unbelivably intense - even by German fair standards. I think KMG may have messed up their calculations, and may have to work out how to run these rides in future!

 

And no, I've not heard of any pay-one-price fairs in Germany, mainly because a fair tens to be made up of rides from many different showmen. We have a few pay-one-price fairs in the UK, but I really hate them, as they tend to have no atmosphere, as the showmen have less incentive to hype things up.

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Excellent post and pics! I envy you Brits for your proximity to the German fairs. They truly are amazing. I've been fortunate to visit both Oktoberfest in Munich and the Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart and can attest to their unequaled intensity. I keep hoping to see Wiener Looping (now that Wieland S. has restored it) back on the fair circuit ...

 

Cheers!

 

-S

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Nice TR! I really need to get myself over to Germany next year and go to one of these fairs. For a flatride lover like myself, it would be heaven. lol

 

Also, I remember seeing a video of one of those Inversion rides when the seats were unlocked; the way they would snap and spin looked really viscious!

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