Almost 2000 metres of attractions from more than 170 funfair rides, galleries and concession stands offer merriment to visitors at the Palmkirmes in Recklinghausen.

Its origins reach back over six hundred years to the consecration of the church on Palm Sunday, which was always celebrated with a feast. Many merchants started arriving to sell their wares, gradually turning the annual events into a funfair. Wanderers, jesters and jugglers were also attracted and so the festival atmosphere developed further.

The Palmkirmes is considered to be the opener of the funfair season in the Ruhr Metropolis every year. For countless years the inhabitants of Recklinghausen held their spectacle for three days in a row every year until, in 1957, the funfair was extended to nine and once again more recently to ten days.

Nearly a million people regularly visit the popular event to say Auf Wiedersehen to the winter every year.