Hailed as one of the biggest funfairs and folk festivals in Germany, the Cranger Funfair (Cranger Kirmes Größte Volksfest) attracts more than 4 million visitors each year.

Equal in size to the Cannstatter Folk Festival in Stuttgart and Oktoberfest in Munich, the fair has achieved something of a cult status in Germany, especially among the locals.

Usually kicking off on the first Friday in August, (this week on July 31), the fairground site is located right next to Rhine-Herne canal, offering visitors spectacular views of their surroundings - especially from the 60-metre-high Ferris wheel!

Photo: © Stadtmarketing Herne GmbH

The biggest funfair and folk festival in NRW

As the largest funfair in North Rhine-Westphalia, Cranger Volksfest offers a huge choice of fairground rides, food and drink stalls and game booths across its 111.000 square metre site by the canal. Formerly a small horse fair, to this day the Cranger funfair still opens with a horse-drawn carriage!

Open for eleven days, the funfair offers nearly all the rides you are likely to find at large amusement parks in Germany, such as a haunted house, Ferris wheel and roller coasters, as well as fun novelty souvenir stores.

For those who are looking to try out the local specialities, there are various food tents which offer typical German snacks, like sausages (Bratwurst), potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer) and pretzels (Laugenbretzel).

Photo: © Stadtmarketing Herne GmbH

Plan your visit to Cranger Funfair!

Don’t forget to put on your walking shoes when visiting the Cranger Funfair - if you want to see everything the festival has to offer, you’ll be covering more than five kilometres!

Although admission to the funfair is free, most rides, food and drinks stalls are not. In order to make things a bit easier for visitors when it comes to payment, the funfair created the Crangepässe, contactless cards you can use to pay for services. Each pass comes preloaded with an extra five euros, which means visitors get more bang for their buck! However, there is limited availability, so you may want to order your pass soon. 

For more details on the Cranger Funfair or to order your Crangepässe, visit the Cranger Funfair website.

Video credit: Youtube / Cranger Kirmes

Thumb photo: © Stadtmarketing Herne GmbH