Hamburg 15.07.2023 #SpringsteenTour2023

We arrived to Hamburg at around ten o’clock, with an early train from Cologne. Plenty of time to check-in to the hotel, have a quick look around, have some lunch and then head to the arena. We discovered rather quickly that there wasn’t just the Springsteen concert going on in the city. There were lots of people and barricades around the Binnenalster and we almost couldn’t get through to have a look at the Bruce hotel. We later learned that it was a triathlon competition going on.

The Volksparkhalle in Hamburg is in the middle of nowhere. We took the S3 train for about 30 minutes and then we had to walk for another 15-20 minutes.

Just like in Düsseldorf there were two different front of stage areas (FOS1 and FOS2). We were in FOS1 and it was relatively small, which meant that even though we hadn’t done any roll calls, we had a good spot, with a fairly good view, not too far away from the stage.

There were many familiar faces in the pit. Throughout this tour I’ve become acquainted with a lot of new people, both through Oliver and through this blog- many of them Germans, but also from other parts of the world. It’s a colourful and warm community, which has let me in with open arms.

Familiar faces around me
Laughter fills the air
Your loving grace surrounds me
Everybody’s here

Although the Hamburg concert was one of the shortest we’ve seen on this tour (only 26 songs) and with no surprises in the setlist, it still was an extraordinary evening. The audience (even the people in the stands) were on the go from the first note and that contributed to the great atmosphere. Bruce appeared to feel the love too as he interacted quite a lot with the audience. A kid up upfront wearing a green t-shirt got a lot of attention – from Bruce, the camera men and (at the end) from Max. There was also a young girl, who received a harmonica. In addition to that, Bruce held a woman’s hand for what felt like quite a long time while singing and he also let her kiss him on the cheek. She was overjoyed.

The atmosphere back in the pit was joyful. We were standing among friends. It was crowded, but not too crowded and there were a lot of smiling, singing, dancing, waving and clapping of hands and fist pumping. I had a great time.

Thank you, Hamburg for being so alive and friendly!