If you've ever watched the Olympics and found yourself weirdly invested in a sport you'd never heard of an hour before, this is the event for you. Celebrate the amazing skills of Europe's best tram drivers while enjoying a whole load of very silly stunts!
TRAM-EM: European Tram Driver Championship
Hosted in a different city every year, the TRAM-EM European Tram Driver Championship is a prestigious event that is also a lot of fun. Rather than drily measuring stopping distances and ride smoothness in a depot somewhere, the championships make it a fun day out for the whole family.
The events include TRAM.Billiards and the ever-popular TRAM-Bowling, with a 1,5-metre ball and 2-metre high pins! The skill required to manoeuvre these 40-tonne vehicles is not to be sniffed at!
To diversify the day, there are regular breaks for live music events. This year includes shows by the Frankfurt Opera and the children's choir of the Frankfurt Opera, a circus-dance act and excerpts from Simply the Best, the Tina Turner musical.
Participants in TRAM-EM
The 11th edition of TRAM-EM is hosting representatives from 27 different cities this year - maybe your home town is one of them? The following European teams are registered: Barcelona, Berlin, Birmingham, Bratislava, Brussels, Budapest, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Gothenburg, Kiev, Krakow, Leipzig, Luxembourg, Lyon, Milan, Oradea, Oslo, Prague, Rotterdam, Stockholm, Tampere, Vienna, Zagreb and Zurich, and Sydney are also competing as special guests!
The event is especially popular in Germany, with spots for German cities having to be raffled to make sure there's space for others to compete! Previous hosts have included Berlin, Stuttgart and Dresden.
Attending TRAM-EM
The event takes place in the centre of Frankfurt, on Willy-Brandt-Platz. This is just a few minutes walk from Frankfurt central train station, and of course, the event is easy to reach by public transport! This makes it a great event to drop in on as you're passing, especially as it's completely free and no tickets are required.
Frankfurt is jam-packed with museums, bars and historical sites, so why not make this part of a great day out? You can check the whole agenda of the day on the TRAM-EM website.