Bergerstraßenfest (Berger Straße Street Festival)

The Nordend is Frankfurt's most quietly livable district, sometimes called the city's answer to Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg. It came about as a link between old Frankfurt and the neighboring town of Bornheim, which is why it has broad Wilhelminian boulevards and rows of red sandstone Gründerzeit buildings, with the Bethmannpark and its Chinese garden, the Günthersburgpark and the 1727 Holzhausenschlösschen in between. Its center of gravity is the Berger Straße, a long spine of bars, cafés, wine rooms and restaurants.

The street festival has been running since 1986 and started as a neighborhood party. It now stretches nearly a kilometer as a walking promenade, with four stages of live bands, and the bars and restaurants along the route pushing tables, chairs and benches out into the street. Menus cover specialties from about 15 countries. Afternoons are for coffee, cake and elaborate tortes, evenings for cocktails and the stages.

It is a good festival to visit precisely because it is not a tourist event. This is a residential district showing off its own street, in a part of Frankfurt most visitors never reach. The Berger Straße runs roughly north from the edge of the Nordend, and the U4 subway drops you within a short walk of the festival mile.