After this years ITB, the next fair on my list was the Book Fair in Leipzig, so I took a car and traveled to the Leipzig Exhibition Grounds about 190km away from Berlin and like last year, the whole places was filled with cosplayers and photographers.
The ITB 2011 (International Trade Fair Berlin) the world’s leading trade show took place during the last few days, with 11,163 exhibiting companies and organisations from 188 countries (2010: 11,127 from 187 countries), approx. 170,000 visitors and 7,000 journalists from 94 countries with this years Partner Country, Poland.
And because everyone used the same decoration like last year, I focused on showing you the different people and attractions from the different countries who participated in this year’s fair.
The Festival of Lights has finally ended and during the last two weeks, I took a couple of pictures from Berlin’s most known Landmarks. Sadly, due to restoration works, the Victory Column wasn’t illuminated this year, but I got some nice shots from the Berliner Dom, Schloss Charlottenburg and the Brandenburger Tor.
I’m back in Berlin, back from this years Connichi in Kassel, a city about 360km away from Berlin and all I can say is, it was amazing.
The Connichi is an annual, 3-day Anime convention in Germany and one of the largest of its kind in the German-speaking world with over 15,000 visitors in 2010. Apart from Japanese artists that go on stage, Connichi hosts a variety of amateur performers showing plays and musicals, singing and/or doing standup comedy with anime-related themes.
Like the Leipzig Book Fair, the Connichi is also a place for many thousands of cosplayers and because that’s the only interesting reason for me to visit such a convention, I will show you some of the best cosplays I saw during my time in Kassel.
The topic of this years IFA (International Electronics Fair) was obviously 3D. 3D with glasses, 3D without glasses, 3D on your TV, your gaming console and your cinema screen.
You might say, 3D isn’t even new, it’s at least 1 year old, because Avatar was shown in 3D in 2009. But now, it has moved from the big screen to your TV and in some rare cases, even without wearing glasses.
And because everyone looks funny wearing these specs, let me show you some pictures so you can familiarize with it, because you will see them a lot more in the future, maybe.
Last weekend, I was in Leipzig to visit the Leipzig Book Fair 2010.
The Leipzig Book Fair is the most important spring meeting place for the publishing and media sector and has evolved into an attractive hallmark both in Germany and across Europe.
But after I arrived at the exhibition grounds, it was obvious that the fair isn’t only about Books anymore. Cosplayers, as far as the eye could see.
Since Animes and Mangas are becoming more and more famous in Germany, Cosplay is pretty popular among the fans and instead of taking pictures from books and their authors, I focused on capturing all the amazing costumes I saw during my time at the fair.
After 3 long weeks I finally got my camera back, I had to send it to the Canon support to fix a broken card slot and a broken digital board.
With my brand new (repaired) camera, I visited this years ITB, the International Tourism Fair 2010 in Berlin.
The ITB is the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show with more than 180,000 visitors, among these 108,000 trade visitors, and over 10,000 exhibitors from 180 countries. The whole variety of travelling is present at ITB Berlin: Destinations, tour operators, booking systems, carriers, hotels and all other suppliers who want to embellish their customers most beautiful weeks of the year.
It was an interesting day, besides lots of catalogs and brochures with information about the different countries, people had the chance to see traditional dances, craftsman and goods from around the world.
The Funkturm or Radio Tower is a transmitting tower in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district in Berlin. The 150 m high Tower which was built between 1924 and 1926 is part of the Berlin trade fair ground and a protected monument.
At night, the Tower shines in a wonderful white or sometimes in orange, during the Festival of Lights, he was also covered with red bulbs.
After the Big Giant and the Little Giantess woke up this morning in the Pariser Platz and passed the Brandenburg Gate in front of an enthusiastic crowd of onlookers, they are now strolling along the Straße des 17. Juni, happily reunited.
To send its giants off on their travels, Royal de Luxe needs skill, flair and organization. Otherwise the two giants, 15 meters and 7.5 meters tall respectively, would not move. Both marionettes are supported by vehicles which enable their massive bodies to walk through the streets. The giants move in an unbelievably lifelike way, as if by magic, but it takes 30 “Lilliputians” (actors) just to bring the 2.5-ton Big Giant to life. Though lighter than her uncle, the Little Giantess also weighs in at no less than 800 kg. The bodies of both giants are works of art, made of steel, lime wood and poplar wood.
Just to give an idea of their dimensions: the Big Giant has a European shoe size of 237, and the Little Giantess’s wig was made out of 50 horses’ tails. It takes an enormous effort to make these marionettes look human – a work of art far beyond the grounds of technical feasibility alone.
Now, after 3 Days of hard work, the Giants and their court are finally back in France, they left Berlin by water on their big boat.
