The Tugboat Ballet

The tugboat ballet at the Hamburg Port Anniversary is a unique and impressive show.

When the tugboats on the Elbe start to dance, it's time again for the worldwide unique Schlepperballet at the HAMBURG PORT ANNIVERSARY. The famous tugboat ballet, which traditionally takes place on Saturday afternoon, is one of the highlights of every Hamburg Port Anniversary. Year after year, enthusiastic fans watch the spectacle live on location at the Landungsbrücken and at home on TV. It seems almost magical how the heavy tugs turn pirouettes to classical music and sway in the Elbe in harmony to the melody.

A choreography worked out down to the smallest detail awaited the audience. In recent years, the tugboats have danced to classical works by Verdi and Tchaikovsky as well as to titles from well-known films such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Beyond Africa". But the term "tugboat ballet" has taken on a whole new meaning since 2023.

In three acts, the tugboats danced across the Elbe in lively formations. To start with, the tugboats with several thousand horsepower swayed to the sound of waltzes in three-four time, familiar melodies from classical, pop and film music and thus formed the Hamburg anthem "Harmonia". 

In the second act, it was curtains for the ballet on the ballet. For the first time, the Federal Youth Ballet, founded in 2011 by ballet legend John Neumeier, danced on one of the five participating tugboats, which lay as a "floating stage" behind four tugboats. A unique choreography developed especially for the Hamburg Port Anniversary for the performance on the Elbe - inspired by John Neumeier's famous ballet "The Little Mermaid".

In the third act, the Cologne rock band "Cat Ballou" rounded off the tugboat ballet with a potpourri of their best-known songs on the floating tugboat stage, accompanied by an atmospheric light show.

The end of the tugboat ballet is traditionally the song "In Hamburg sagt man Tschüss" by Heidi Kabel, to which the tugboats form a circle and say goodbye to the audience.

We look forward to the new programme of the tugboat ballet for 2025.