simon8899 Posted October 11, 2013 Posted October 11, 2013 (edited) Bremen Freimarkt is one of the highlights in northern Germany carnivals. This year the major coaster highlight again the Olympia Looping. Also coming tons of other rides like 2 Break Dancer, Frisbee, Monster, TopSpin, Waveswinger. Edit: Got this mixed up - tallest portable drop tower will go to Hamburg! Local Marcel Gode made a good picture slideshow of pictures he made during the ongoing construction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxEbZYYgtPw Stay tuned for a PhotoTR - maybe already next week if weather permits. Carnical layout for this year Edited November 3, 2013 by simon8899
simon8899 Posted October 20, 2013 Author Posted October 20, 2013 Finally Freimarkt time again. Offering a good ride Oevre with some fun flats. Also here the Olympia Looping and the biggest portable log flume, the Wildwasser III. As most Bremen showmen own HUSS rides and they also mostly make the home Freimarkt their last stop of the season this years carnival aagain offered a wide range of HUSS flats. Coming in from the catnral station this amazing inversion flat by Moser Rides was first Olympia Looping running great as always First drop goodness And another colorful Musik Express Well visited early in the day Grearly themed Mack Kolumbusjolle owned by Bremen showmen Howey Yearly visit to the topless mermaid Speaking of Mack rides - here is another one The most beautiful Schwarzkopf Monster on the German carnivals Lots of fine made paintbrush Each car is individual Speaking of cars The first and smaller of two Break Dancer on the Freimarkt Huss Frisbee always a fun ride One of the older Top Spin around The program consisted of 6 slow inversions with a fixed gondola and a nice 7-inversion multi-spin Bouncy Zamperla Jumper No German carnival without a Zierer Waveswinger Wild Mouse XXL was the second coaster this year Always fun to have a Huss Flipper Big Break Dancer No.2 At lower crowds running a great 5+ minute program Konga XXL soaring high over the fairground Classic kiddie ride with the Bremen City Musicians on top of the cashiers box A final spin on Olympia rounded a great afternoon
Andrewoplis Posted October 20, 2013 Posted October 20, 2013 Really cool stuff! Random question, how long does it take to set up Olympia Looping? It must take a decent amount of time considering how big it is.
simon8899 Posted October 20, 2013 Author Posted October 20, 2013 ^Well as it came from Oktoberfest they only had 11 days to dismantle it, run it by train from Munich to Bremen and then construct it again. I guess this is about the fastest it goes.
cfc Posted October 21, 2013 Posted October 21, 2013 Does the "Happy Sailor" ride provide rum and wenches? That would make many sailors happy.
simon8899 Posted November 2, 2013 Author Posted November 2, 2013 ^You can get rum at many places on the carnival and various escort services are not illegal in Germany... Part 2 - More Freimarkt pictures Spending another evening at Freimarkt last weekend. It was the last warm day this year and the carnival was packed. For example we had a 15 minute line afet payment at the logflume - the same was true for Wild Mouse XXL - and at most rides like the Transformer or Octopussy had frantic turnovers that are normally reserved for the Break Dancer. If you were not able to jump onto the stopping plattform without falling you had no chance getting a seat. Olympia Looping running fine this day. They started with two trains and upped later. View over the whole fairground from the ferris wheel Bigger than at some smaller parks... Frisbee soarin high Hairtime on the TopSpin Music Express in full colors Log Flume still busy after dark Schwarzkopf Monster "Octopussy" is one my fav flats around Hit it four times this night No carnival without bumper cars As said: Fairground was packed Colorful Break Dancer TopSpin filled to capacity Finally arrived at the beer tent Huss Flipper "Playball" looking great at night Transformer was packed after dark. More pics from my new HDR camera coming tomorrow
kailisun98 Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 Wow! That looks ABSOLUTELY amazing! Germany is absolutely on my bucket list of places to go! When are all the major fairs held?
Jew Posted November 2, 2013 Posted November 2, 2013 I never cease to be amazed by the German fair circuit. The amount of detail that goes into the rides, the size of the rides, and the more intense programs are incredible!
markysharky17 Posted November 3, 2013 Posted November 3, 2013 I love the name octopus say. I wish more carnival rides in America would have that name. Also how come they don't put railings for these rides. They don't have little children that will just walk up there an get killed? In America this would just not go.
simon8899 Posted November 3, 2013 Author Posted November 3, 2013 ^^^German carnivals go from north to south and back again: Starting with Frühlingsdom (Hamburg) and Osterwiese (Bremen) in march/april, following with Rheinkirmes (Duesseldorf), Annakirmes (Düren) and Pützchen's Markt (Bonn) in summer, going deep south in september with Oktoberfest (Munich) and Cannstatter Wasn (Stuttgart) and the season ends in october/november in the north with Freimarkt (Bremen) and Winterdom (Hamburg). ^New rides need to be fenced in according to a new EU law, like you can see on the Zamperla Kangaroo Jumper. On busy nights ride attendants are posted on the entries facing the major crowd but generally ride operators are not liable for anyone "walking in". Folowwing some photos I made with a HDR camera. The general idea is to automatically make a series of pictures at different exposure settings which are combined into a high contrast picture. Alpen-Hotel is one of that wacky walk-trough fun houses which offer many "Never in the USA" ways to hurt youself in funny ways. OL starting to get a line... Random kiddie ride Small kiddie Waveswinger They put tons of water into this logflume Taking a close look on Octopussy one can find many kinky things like the Octopus molesting a woman plus many kinky mermaids... Octopus holding on to the vitals: The gold and the booze. And the band played on... Not the kind of mermaids you may find in Disney movies... View down the packed midway Always some fun at midway games No German carnival without a Zierer Waveswinger Colorful portal of the 1954 Rotor
simon8899 Posted November 3, 2013 Author Posted November 3, 2013 Some more to come... One of the many watering holes on the carnival Big Break Dancer No.2 Giant swinging ride Konga high over the midway Kiddie pony riding And another watering hole: The Beer Windmill Hustle and bustle at the OL station Final ride of the night with great music and tons of lasers. Next week starts the final major carnival of this season: Winterdom in my hometown Hamburg.
fatdaddy Posted November 7, 2013 Posted November 7, 2013 Amazing! This beats a lot of US parks, and it's all portable. I wish the parks here would learn how awesome a good flat can be.
simon8899 Posted November 7, 2013 Author Posted November 7, 2013 I sometimes see that parks still have Schwarzkopf or Huss flats from the 70s and 80s - but on selling/scrapping them they don't buy new ones... Having been at Orlando I think - how great those parks are - they totally lack flats. They mostly only have Dumbo-clones of all variants and a teacup ride here and there. Clearly nothing in the high thrill sector - so far Busch Gardens with Phoenix honorably excluded... As I say: US parks for theming (Disney and Universal) and coasters (all other) only - German carnivals for the flats!
gisco Posted November 7, 2013 Posted November 7, 2013 German carnival's look so much better then the fairs we have here in the States!
Jew Posted November 8, 2013 Posted November 8, 2013 They are! I think the biggest difference is the business model: here our fairs generally contract out the entire midway to one company (there are a few exceptions, most notably del mar), while European fairs are all independent and have to compete for their business!
simon8899 Posted November 8, 2013 Author Posted November 8, 2013 I think no showmen here could do a whole carnival by itself. Most own only one ride - rides like Happy Traveller or Octopussy are family businesses. Some bigger showmen own 2-3 rides plus one or two sweets or beer joints like Barth, Bruch, Vespermann or Steiger. But a carnival set up only with Vespermann rides would be quite redundant - with 2 Break Dancers. And even those who own more than one ride you seldom see them at the same carnival. While the Steiger ferris wheel was in Bremen the Steiger Double-Loop will be in Hamburg. Germany also has the advantage of being a small country. Even rides considered small here need 4-6 40ton trailers to move around. Bigger rides are moved from city to city by train as some need 20+ 40ton trailers. This does not include the caravans and service trucks for the bigger rides.
jynx242 Posted November 8, 2013 Posted November 8, 2013 Wow! Thanks for the amazing pictures! German Fairs are definitely on my "bucket list." David
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now