Summer Evening in the Olympic Park

On a warm summer evening, I drove to Munich’s Olympic Park, which I hadn’t visited for far too long. The Olympic Park is one of Munich’s largest green spaces, created from the concept of the ‘Green Olympic Games’ and the vision that citizens should appropriate and use the green spaces as a place of social freedom. The concept has worked, and so picnickers, strollers, families, joggers, cyclists, tourists, and couples in love – in other words, a cross-section of the entire population – populate the paths, banks, and lawns.

A popular viewpoint is the Olympic Hill, which rises about 50 metres above the grounds and offers a fantastic panoramic view over the Olympic Stadium and the adjacent sports facilities, the Olympic Lake, Olympic Tower, as well as the BMW Welt, the ‘Four-Cylinder’ building, all the way to the Allianz Arena and the entire city. Many visitors sat and lay on the grassy slopes that evening, enjoying the sunset or listening to the music of a rock concert from the lakeside stage with the Theatron, as the IMPARK Summer Festival was taking place simultaneously at the Olympic Stadium, featuring brightly lit rides and many events.

At the end of my visit, I also paid a visit to the adjacent BMW Welt with the BMW headquarters and high-rise, the so-called ‘Four-Cylinder’, to practice some photographic exercises with night shots and long exposures on this popular photo motif.