The Havelberg Bootskorso is our town festival

The Havelberg Bootskorso does not begin only in the evening with lit boats. From the morning a whole festival day runs around the Havel.

Fishermen’s joust, duck race, children’s programme, festival mile, music and food lead step by step to the peak at night: a cannon shot starts the parade, the lit boats reach Havelberg, and then the big fireworks light the sky.

The basic run has stayed similar for years. Artists, hosts, bands and single items change. The main stations and rough times stay. This page explains the typical day, even if you have never been. The exact year plan can differ.

Typical run of the day

The times are typical. The exact programme can change from year to year.

So you find the places easily, they are marked on the map. Click a pin to read more.

Map: OpenStreetMap.

Fishermen’s joust: a contest on the water

The Havelberg fishermen’s joust is usually the sporting start. The place is the Spülinsel at the rowing club jetty, more or less opposite the Steintor bridge. On this day you reach the Spülinsel via Bahnhofstraße and the rear bridge. The Havel footbridge is closed from about 9 am because of the build for the fireworks.

Food and drink through the whole joust come from the clubs. How long it lasts depends on how many teams enter and can run until 3 pm.

Teams go out with two rowers and one “stecher” on the water. The stecher tries, with a pole and a rubber tip, to put the stecher of the other dinghy into the water without falling in himself.

Duck race: good prizes from the tickets, for a good cause

The joust is paused around 1 pm so the duck race can run and all eyes are on it. The ducks jump from the Steintor bridge into the Havel and drift with the current to the exit from the harbour.

They are yellow plastic ducks and each carries a number. The numbers are written down in the order they arrive. Depending on how many sponsors took part, several dozen people can go home with a prize.

Each duck stands for a ticket. Tickets can be bought until Friday 5 pm before the Bootskorso at the tourist information and at the post office in the upper town. The takings go to the Havelberg club „Blaue Herzen für Kinderfreundlichkeit e.V.“

The ducks being made ready for their race.

Children’s programme at the adventure playground from 2 pm

Opposite the festival mile, on the other side of the island town, lies the adventure playground. From about 2 pm a family and children’s programme usually starts here. Depending on the year there are games, painting, music and things to join in.

Adventure playground on the spit of the island town

Uferstraße becomes the festival mile

Shortly after 3.45 pm the mayor officially opens the festival from the main stage. It stands on Uferstraße north of the entrance to Rossmann.

The first item is the prizes for the joust. Then comes music and, depending on what else has happened in town, further public thanks.

Unlike the south of Germany, where the square after church at 11 is already full until evening, here in the north Uferstraße fills slowly from 2 pm. The fullest stretch sits between supper and the fireworks. There is no big-city crush. Always enough room for a pleasant day.

Bootskorso party on the festival mile

Bands, DJs and hosts change every year. In the early evening the stage programme turns into a large Bootskorso party. Along Uferstraße there is food, drink, music, a festival tent and further fairground stands.

In recent years a Ferris wheel belonged to the picture of the mile. Will it go up again?

View from a boat onto the festival mile in 2025.

The boats gather at the Ziegeninsel

Many guests first see the finished parade. The line forms earlier. In the late afternoon and early evening the boats go to the Ziegeninsel. The small island sits in the Havel upstream of Havelberg, at the end of the long reach that runs more or less parallel to Weinbergstraße.

There the boats gather and form up for the joint parade. In past years private motor and sports boats were there, smaller boats dressed in different ways, larger craft, passenger boats and the water police.

The Bundeswehr pontoon ferry leads the line. Then come the many private boats. At the end sit the passenger boat of Reederei Kaiser and the water police.

In the gardens between Weinbergstraße and the bank many Havelberg families settle in for private coffee and a grill.

Grill by the Havel below Weinbergstraße in 2024. The boat is „Kati“, which you can hire at the yacht harbour.

When it suddenly thunders over the Havel

Around 8.45 pm one of the oldest moments of the evening follows. A cannon shot you can hear a long way off starts the Bootskorso. The historic salute gun of Havelberger Schützengilde 1849 e. V. is used. The guild looks after the gun and brings it out at other Havelberg events as well.

The parade starts to move

Straight after the shot the gathered boats leave the Ziegeninsel. From single waiting craft comes a long lit line. By day many boats look handsome and dressed. As it grows dark, lights, decorations and reflections work even more strongly on the Havel.

Playing the film sends data to YouTube (Google).

The boats come in

The boats then travel together into Havelberg and into the winter harbour. Spectators stand along the banks, the town is mirrored in the water, and the lit craft draw in slowly. For many that is the heart of the evening.

Well attended, pleasantly not packed. The raffle draw is about to start.

Water raffle

After the boats arrive comes the traditional water raffle. Participating skippers can buy tickets beforehand at the tourist information. The tickets are traditionally thrown into a dinghy as the boats leave the harbour toward the Ziegeninsel.

Tickets are thrown into the dinghy. Here the approach is with the pedal boat „Schneewittchen“, which belongs to the Havelberg Kaufmannshäuser. The position of the dinghy is marked on the map above.

The prizes are worth seeing. The host of the evening presents them and names each sponsor.

Fireworks: the picture in the night sky

The big fireworks are the picture of the evening. They are set off on and at the Havel footbridge. You see the musically accompanied show best from the boats in the harbour and from anywhere on the winter-harbour promenade.

Guests in the Havelberg Kaufmannshäuser can watch from their roof terrace. The film below shows the last 52 seconds of the 2026 fireworks above the roof.

Playing the film sends data to YouTube (Google).

The programme often starts it around 9.30 pm, though the boat arrival and the raffle can push it later. The wait is worth staying. If you are neither too young nor too old, the last stretch of the festival follows.

Party until 4 in the morning

At 10 pm the festival is not over. After the fireworks the mile keeps going: music and dancing in the tent. Food and drink and talk at the beer tables on the mile.

Getting there and traffic on the day

Uferstraße is closed for the festival mile between the Steintor bridge and Rossmann. The closure starts at 9 am and ends on Sunday around 9 am, or as soon as Uferstraße is cleared. The take-down already begins in the night. Thanks to the helpers.

The diversion runs through the old town: Steinstraße and Lange Straße, or the one-way loop via Mühlenstraße, Schulstraße and Fischerstraße.

Access to the Rossmann car park from the south stays open. Who only wants Rossmann still reaches the car park until closing time. After that Uferstraße is closed from the Sandau bridge.

Parking in town on Saturday is free and without a time limit. You can also park on the small and large car parks in Bahnhofstraße and at the Haus der Flüsse. Arrival by train, with a change at Glöwen or Stendal onto bus 900, works. Cyclists and people arriving by water are welcome too.

The next event in the year is the Havelberg horse market. Horse market and Bootskorso form the festival week. Coming from outside? Please book your stay early. Havelberg and the nearby countryside are usually almost fully booked in this stretch.