Hamburg Cruise Days 2014: 600,000 visitors celebrated the European cruise event of the year

This weekend the Port of Hamburg / Germany celebrated its forth Cruise Days Festival with a spectacular cruise ship parade. The art project “Blue Port” and more than 600.000 visitors turned Europe´s second biggest port into a worldwide unique maritime stage and offered unusual views of the maritime metropolis and its waterfront.

Could there be a better place for luxury liners to set anchor than in Hamburg? The beautiful and bustling Port of Hamburg is the “cruise hotspot” in Northern Europe, this year attracting 190 cruise liners from far and wide. For the forth time the hanseatic city was celebrating the Hamburg Cruise Days from August 1 to 3. Never before has a port of Hamburg’s importance offered cruise ships a comparable platform with a stunning artistic project of this type.

This year four cruise liners were on Saturday evening the floating stars of the Hamburg Cruise Days Parade and turned during 30 minutes the river Elbe into a glittering open-air arena in front of 350,000 excited spectators. The fleet of cruise ships lined up in front of the HafenCity Hamburg and passed, guided by the museum-freighter Cap San Diego and surrounded by hundreds boats and barks, the whole waterfront of Hamburg. Then the maritime flock was sailing downstream the River Elbe in keel line – what a sight!

The whole scenery was staged in a sparkling-blue created by “Light-Magician” Michael Batz who dipped more than 120 objects, buildings and ships in magic blue light. Among these were such striking features of Hamburg’s skyline as the Köhlbrand Bridge, the St. Michaelis church and the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg`s new icon. The river Elbe turned into a gigantic maritime blue catwalk - the color of seafarers.

The whole weekend the harbour front of Hamburg was be transformed into a world of new experiences, creating a cruise holiday ambience on land with maritime markets, cultural, musical and culinary highlights, as well as opportunities for relaxation and sports. With altogether 600,000 guests at three days the Hamburg Cruise Days is one of the most outstanding maritime events in Europe. More information about the event: www.hamburgcruisedays.de.

Beginning in 2015, Hamburg Cruise Days will be teaming up with Seatrade Europe, the continent’s pre-eminent trade show for the cruise industry. This cooperation will form a one-of-a-kind cruise week from September 9 to 13, bringing tourists, service providers and industry representatives to Hamburg every two years. The aim is to develop Hamburg as one of the world’s most important cruise destination.

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Media contact

Hamburg Marketing GmbH
Hamburg Tourismus GmbH
Wexstrasse 7
D-20355 Hamburg / Germany

Guido Naumann
Head of Media Relations

Phone: +49(0)40 – 300 51 580
Mobile: +49(0)160 – 97 29 83 02
E-mail: guido.neumann@marketing.hamburg.de

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