Cannstatter Wasen Volksfest 2011 Live Stream, Webcam Feed

Event Information:

The Cannstatter Volksfest is an annual two-week festival in Stuttgart, Germany. It is sometimes also referred to by foreign visitors as the Stuttgart Beer Festival although it is actually more of an autumnal fair. Locals to Stuttgart variously refer to the festival as the Cannstatter Wasen or just Wasen.

The Volksfest takes place from the end of September to the beginning of October on an area called the Cannstatter Wasen. The extensive Wasen area is located in the Stuttgart city district of Bad Cannstatt, near the river Neckar. A smaller variant of the Stuttgart Festival - the Stuttgart Spring Festival is also held each year on the Wasen.

Although the Volkfest is not strictly speaking a beer festival, it is considered by many to be the second largest beer festival in the world after the Munich Oktoberfest. According to estimates about 4.2 million people visited the festival in 2006. The Volksfest begins one week later than the Oktoberfest.

Symbolic of the Cannstatter Wasen is its "fruit column", a wooden pillar decorated with fruit, 26 metres high and weighing 3.5 tons. After World War I, with the beginning of the Weimar Republic, the fruit column was removed from the Cannstatter Wasen as it was considered a relic of the monarchy. Since 1935, the 100th anniversary, it has been back in its traditional place. Until recently the fruit column, the design of which has changed over the years, was dismantled after each Volksfest.  Every few years it is redesigned. Since 1995 it has been left in place throughout the year and is thus also on display at the Stuttgart spring festival.

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