Oberammergau 2010 A play of life and death, promised in a moment of mortal threat', began the history of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1633. In the middle of the Thirty Years War, after months of suffering and death from the plague, the Oberammergauers swore an oath that they would perform the 'Play of the Suffering, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ' every ten years. At Pentecost 1634, they fulfilled their pledge, for the first time on a stage they put up in the cemetery above the fresh graves of the plague victims and again in the year 2010, the Community of Oberammergau will perform the Passion Play they have preserved throughout the centuries with singular continuity for the 41st time.The Play, originally made up of just actors from the villiage itself, has grown to a stage production comprised of almost 2,000 performers, singers, musicians and stage technicians and is performed in the 5,000 seat Passion Play Theatre with its open air stage.     Berlin Love Parade The Loveparade was cancelled in 2007 due to failure by the City of Berlin to grant approval for the event. Now the organisers are looking for a new European city and hopefully the parade will return in 2008 to reclaim its reputation as the world's biggest street party.  The Loveparade was originally the brainchild of a German DJ called Dr Motte, who hit upon the idea of holding a free, mobile acid-house party in the street. The first event was held in 1989 and attracted just 150 revellers, who followed two cars with cassette recorders along the Kurfurstendamm. At the 1999 Loveparade, 1.4 million people followed 51 floats along the Strasse des 17 Juni and past some of Germany's most important monuments and landmarks, all in celebration of Love, Freedom and Techno! Haydn 2009 - 200th anniversary of his death In 2009, the music world around the globe will commemorate the 200th anniversary of the death of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Haydn started his career as a member of the Vienna Boys’ Choir in Vienna, the city to which he also returned after working for the Princes Esterházy in today’s Burgenland and Hungary. But, who is Joseph Haydn? His contemporaries would have found that an easy question to answer: At the time he was the greatest, most famous, and most eminent composer of his era. Today, he has been overshadowed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to whom he was a fatherly friend, and Ludwig van Beethoven, one of his pupils.  His grandiose lifework consisits of  more than 1,200 compositions, definitely making him a “Master of the Vienna Classic”… Also, many know Haydn as the composer of today’s German national anthem.   Oktoberfest Think Germany and most people think of Oktoberfest with its huge steins of beer, boisterous singing, platters of sausages, men dressed in Lederhosen and ladies dressed in Dirndls. Oh, and you can't forget the 100,000 or so other people to party with! When Bavarian crown prince Ludwig married his beloved princess Therese in the fields in front of the town gates of Munich on October 12 1810, he would have had no idea that his love would spawn this beer drinking, clog stomping, polka dancing phenomenon.  Held the last two weeks of September into the first week of October because of Munich's great fall weather, Oktoberfest has been a tradition for almost 200 years.  Last year 5.9 million people attended the 16 day festival, making it the biggest public festival on earth.  There are roughly 28-30 tents at Oktoberfest all offering a wide variety of foods, entertainment and beer. Each tent has a speciality and serves up their own special foods or brand of entertainment.