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Flying Grass Carpet in Essen and Blumenregen (Flower Rain)





A ‘Kulturhauptstadt’ is a special title given by the European Union each year to two different cities in Europe. Anyway, this year the Ruhr Area was chosen, and in particular, the city of Essen (which is about an hour east of Duesseldorf. And, to go along with the honor of being a cultural capital in 2010, Essen and the Ruhr Area have organized many different festivals and special cultural attractions to take place during this year in Essen and the wider Ruhr Area (encompassing the cities of Dortmund, Duisburg, Gelsenkirchen, and Bochum).
I had the luck of attending one of these special events that took place just last weekend on Friday (July 3rd) in Essen. It was called 'The Flying Grass Carpet' and it was a celebration of art (in that all the events that took place happened on this AstroTurf oriental rug with a variety of different colors and textures and which was the size of an entire 'platz' (or market square) in Essen. The opening ceremony was the highlight of the events on the carpet (the others being many different musical concerts, and a soccer game) because of its' size and its' unique character. The 'arrival' of the 'flying grass carpet' in Essen (as we were supposed to believe it had flown there from Pecs, Hungary- its last travel stop) was heralded with a 'Blumenregen' of thousands of freshly bloomed daisy-buds being rained down on the hundreds of spectators who were sitting on the grass carpet and awaiting this unique experience. TV crews and newspapers were of course there as well to capture the special rain, and I have also been fortunate enough to take a few pictures of the 'aftermath' of my experience with this happening. Hope that you all find them as funny as I do!



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