The scent of roasted almonds, crêpes and grilled food is moving through Berger Straße again after a two-year pandemic break.

There are 120 stands on the festival mile between Höhenstraße and Bethmannpark.

Clothing and home furnishings stores have moved a selection of their stocks outdoors and are also selling outdoors.

Numerous people seem to have longed for exactly that: Berger Straße is as crowded this Saturday as it was before the pandemic.

Many thousands of visitors came to celebrate the 35th Berger street festival.

Families with children, groups of friends, young couples, but also seniors crowd the Untere Berger.

The mood is exuberant.

Three stages have been set up, where live music is played from noon to evening.

Many people stop in front of the stages and clap and see-saw to the rhythm of the music.

Others prefer to sit comfortably with cider on the beer benches set up in the sun and watch the street artists.

"I'm so happy, it's the first time that I'm performing here at the Berger street festival," says street musician Shahin Shahidi Kuzera.

He wants to entertain visitors with songs from the eighties and nineties.

Bratwurst and Portuguese

Anyone who appreciates culinary diversity will also get something on offer: from Vietnamese specialties and bratwurst to Portuguese or Argentinian street food, there is something for every taste at the second largest festival in the city.

The showmen are relieved that they can finally be represented again with their stands at the Berger Strassenfest.

"It's nice, after the virtual professional ban, to finally be able to live out your own work again," says Max Eiserloh, who writes in the "M.

Eiserloh Sweet Almond Bar” of his family.

Meanwhile, clubs are using the opportunity to advertise themselves with information stands, such as the Bornheim gymnastics community.

Harald Wolf is also courting customers.

He describes himself as a specialist in reading hands.

For twenty years now he has been reading the future of people in their hands at the Berger street festival.

Other exhibitors have also been there for a similarly long time.

Many loyal exhibitors on Berger Straße

"We have a relatively large number of exhibitors who come every year and some have had the festival in their calendar for 15 to 20 years," says Michael Greulich.

He has been organizing the street festival for 28 years together with Kaweh Nemati, the chairman of the Untere Berger Straße interest group.

About half of the shops located there took part in the festival - compared to the Museumsuferfest, there were significantly more retailers and family businesses.

The organizers expected around 80,000 visitors.

Many guests have come to meet friends and have a good time, including Helena Berndt.

The student teacher has been attending the festival for about ten years.

"The atmosphere is quite relaxed and there is a wide range for children, but also for adults," she says.

And the celebrations continue on Sunday.