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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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