Friday, March 25, 2011

River Thames Webcam Live at Varsity Boat Race 2011

The University Boat Race, generally known as "The Boat Race" is a rowing race in England between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club, rowed between competing eights each spring on the Thames in London.

This live feed is on the River Thames for the 2011 Boat Race:

Boat race live webcam

Event Information:

It takes place on the last Saturday of March. The formal title of the event is the Xchanging Boat Race, and it is also known as the University Boat Race and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race.

An estimated quarter of a million people watch the race live from the banks of the river, around seven to nine million people on TV in the UK, and an overseas audience estimated by the Boat Race Company at around 120 million, which would make this the most viewed single day sporting event in the world. However, other sources estimate that the international audience is below 20 million. The course is 4 miles and 374 yards (6,779 m) from Putney to Mortlake, passing Hammersmith and Barnes; it is sometimes referred to as the Championship Course, and follows an S shape, east to west. The start and finish are marked by the University Boat Race Stones on the south bank. The clubs' presidents toss a coin (the 1829 sovereign) before the race for the right to choose which side of the river (station) they will row on: their decision is based on the day's weather conditions and how the various bends in the course might favour their crew's pace. The north station ('Middlesex') has the advantage of the first and last bends, and the south ('Surrey') station the longer middle bend.

Washington DC Webcam Live at 2011 National Marathon

The SunTrust National Marathon is an annual marathon and half marathon held in Washington, D.C. It was established in 2006 as an annual event. It is organized by the Greater Washington Sports Alliance.

This live feed is in Washington DC for the marathon:

National marathon live

Event Information:

The 26.2 mile (42 km) course starts and finishes at the RFK Stadium and the number of participants was limited to 8,000 in 2008. The course for the first running of the race was in Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland, but altered in 2007 for the course to be run entirely within the District of Columbia. The 2008 race passes through 6 of the District's 8 wards.

Among the beneficiaries of the marathon are the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, the Special Olympics District of Columbia, United For D.C., Fort Dupont Ice Arena, the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation and the Black History Invitational Swim Meet. Running Alongside the National Mall and through Washington’s historic corridors, past Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson, and along the Potomac River, make Washington, DC your marathon or half-marathon destination this spring. Whether it is for 13.1 or 26.2 miles, we invite you to celebrate the culture and history of our nation’s capital as you prepare for a monumental destination in the heart of the United States of America. With expectations as high as it has ever been, 2011 marks the 6th year of the event with an estimated 15,000 runners expected to participate. Six years after it started, the National Marathon and Half Marathon has shown significant staying power in the Washington, D.C. region and has established itself as one of the more popular races on the international road racing calendar.

Hamburg Webcam at Frühlingsdom Spring Festival 2011

The Hamburger Dom is a large funfair held in Hamburg, at Heiligengeistfeld area, in the North of Germany. With three fairs (spring, summer and winter) per year it is the biggest in Northern Germany and the longest fair throughout Germany.

For live feed, webcam, dates, festival details:

Hamburger Dom 2011 Live

It attracts approximately nine million visitors annually. Just like the Oktoberfest, this Volksfest (lit. peoples fair) is a mix of both beer festival and funfair.

A market in or in front of Hamburg's cathedral was first recorded in 1329, at the beginning only in special seasons like Christmas. With the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century the fair was also held on other times. After the demolition of the cathedral (1804–1807), the market was held on the Gänsemarkt (geese market) in 1804, but kept the name Dom. Since 1892, the funfair was held at Heiligengeistfeld (lit. field of the Holy Spirit) and the name was used for all fairs in the area.

Winterdom or Dommarkt (winter fair or cathedral market): 30 days in late autum
Sommerdom or Hummelfest (summer fair or Hummel market) since 1947: 31 days during summer
Frühlingsdom (spring fair): since 1948, 30 days in spring

Thursday, March 17, 2011

New York Webcam Live at St Patrick's Day Parade 2011

The St Patrick's Day parade in New York City starts at 11.00am on 17th March, first marches up Fifth Avenue past St. Patrick's Cathedral at 50th Street and then up past the American Irish HIstorical Society at 83rd and the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 83rd Street to 86th Street, where the parade usually finishes mid afternoon.

This live feed is in New York for the St Patrick's Day parade:

St Patrick's Day New York Live

Event Information:

In the USA, the Irish Society of Boston organised what was not only the first Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the colonies but the first recorded Saint Patrick's Day Parade in the world on 18 March 1737. (The first parade in Ireland did not occur until 1931 in Dublin.) This parade in Boston involved Irish immigrant workers marching to make a political statement about how they were not happy with their low social status and their inability to obtain jobs in America. New York's first Saint Patrick's Day Parade was held on 17 March 1762 by Irish soldiers in the British Army. The first celebration of Saint Patrick's Day in New York City was held at the Crown and Thistle Tavern in 1766, the parades were held as political and social statements because the Irish immigrants were being treated unfairly. In 1780, General George Washington, who commanded soldiers of Irish descent in the Continental Army, allowed his troops a holiday on 17 March “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence." This event became known as The St. Patrick's Day Encampment of 1780.

Irish patriotism in New York City continued to soar and the parade in New York City continued to grow. Irish aid societies were created like Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society and they marched in the parades too. Finally when many of these aid societies joined forces in 1848 the parade became not only the largest parade in the United States but one of the largest in the world.

Dublin Webcam Live at 2011 St Patrick's Day Parade and Festival

The centre of Dublin in the Republic or Ireland is the focus for the St Patrick's day celebrations on March 17 every year, with a parade, carnival and festival as the city's residents all come out to celebrate the feast day of their patron saint.

This live feed is in Dublin for the St Patrick's Day celebrations:

Dublin St Patrick's Day Parade Live

Event Information:

Saint Patrick's Day is the feast day of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland and a day of celebration for Irish people and all things that are Irish. It is celebrated on March 17 all over Ireland and everywhere in the world where Irish people or their descendants live. New York City has one of the biggest parades. It is a very Irish festival and it involves a lot of feasting and celebrations, which includes traditional Irish music, drinking Guinness and eating bacon and cabbage. Another tradition is one has to wear green clothing or they will be pinched. Green is the color for Saint Patrick's day as it is the national color of Ireland and people will wear green on that day or have some type of shamrock on their clothing.

Saint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times he become more and more widely known as the patron of Ireland.[ Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early 1600s. Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. Saint Patrick's Day is occasionally affected by this requirement, when 17 March falls during Holy Week. This happened in 1940, when Saint Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and again in 2008, where it was officially observed on 14 March (15 March being used for St. Joseph, which had to be moved from March 19), although the secular celebration still took place on 17 March. Saint Patrick's Day will not fall within Holy Week again until 2160. (In other countries, St. Patrick's feast day is also March 17, but liturgical celebration is omitted when impeded by Sunday or by Holy Week.)

Friday, March 11, 2011

Tokyo Webcam as Earthquake and Tsunami Strikes Japan

Early this morning a massive earthquake has hit the northeast of Japan triggering a tsunami that has caused extensive damage, with low lying property and land deluged by the 4 metre wave.

This live webcam feed is in Tokyo:

Tokyo webcam

Japan's TV showed cars, ships and even buildings being swept away the Fukushima prefecture, after the 8.8 magnitude earthquake. The tremor at 1446 local time (0546 GMT) was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks.

Location Information:

Chuo is in the central area of Tokyo, surrounded by the five special wards of Chiyoda, Minato, Taito, Sumida, and Koto

Administratively, Chūō is divided into the three zones of Nihonbashi, Kyobashi and Tsukishima. Nihonbashi and Kyobashi are predominantly commercial areas on the east side of Tokyo Station, and incorporate the famous districts of Ginza and Tsukiji. Tsukishima is a separate island in Tokyo Bay dominated by condominium towers.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Chicago Webcam Feed Live at St Patrick's Day River Dying and Parade

Chicago dyes its river green and has done so since 1962 when sewer workers used green dye to check for sewer discharges and had the idea to turn the river green for Saint Patrick's Day. Originally 100 pounds of vegetable dye was used to turn the river green for a whole week but now only forty pounds of dye is used and the colour only lasts for several hours.

This live feed is in Chicago for the river dying and the following parade:

St Patrick's Day Chicago Live Feed

Scheduled for 10:00 am, Saturday March 12th, the dyeing can be best viewed from the East side of the Michigan Avenue bridge, the West side of the Columbus Drive bridge or upper and lower Wacker Drive between Michigan Avenue and Columbus Drive.

Following this, the St Patrick's Day parade starts at Balbo and Columbus. The parade units will proceed north on Columbus Drive and the viewing stand will be located in front of Buckingham Fountain.

St Patrick's Day:

Little is known of Patrick's early life, though it is known that he was born in Roman Britain in the 4th century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father and grandfather were deacons in the Church. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave. It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest.

Saint Patrick's Day San Franciso 2011 Live Parade Webcam Feed

San Francisco’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade is the largest one west of the Mississippi. There has been a St. Patrick's Day celebration in San Francisco since 1852, and the tradition continues to this day.

This live feed is in San Francisco for the 2011 St Patrick's Day parade:

San Francisco St Patrick's Day Live Webcam

Event Information:

San Francisco has always had a large Irish American population and for many decades Irish Americans were the largest ethnic group in San Francisco. However, as of the early 21st century, the largest ethnic group in San Francisco is Chinese Americans and most of the Irish Americans have moved to the suburban parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Each year, however, Irish from all over the San Francisco Bay Area come into San Francisco to march in or to see the Saint Patrick's Day parade march down Market Street, held the Sunday before St. Patrick's Day. Numerous people from all ethnic groups can be seen wearing green in San Francisco on St. Patrick's Day.San Francisco’s 160th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Festival will draw thousands of people to the streets of San Francisco on March 12, 2011.

The event will provide plenty of Irish history, cultural clichés, and a full day of fun and festivities, including live performances, arts, crafts, food and drinks. Bring the kids so they can ride the ponies, play on inflatables, and enjoy the petting zoo.

Denver Webcam Feed Live at 2011 St Patrick's Day Parade

This year's Denver St. Patrick's Day Parade presented by Bellco Credit Union steps off at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 12, filling the streets of LoDo with lots of green and good Irish cheer.

This live feed is in Denver for the 2011 St Patrick's Day parade:

St Patrick's Day Denver Live Feed

St Patrick's Day:

Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It is named after Saint Patrick (c. AD 387–461), the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland. It originated as a Catholic holiday and became an official feast day in the early 17th century. It has gradually become more of a secular celebration of Irish culture.

It is a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Newfoundland and Labrador and in Montserrat. It is also widely celebrated by the Irish diaspora, especially in places such as Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and Montserrat, among others.

Saint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times he become more and more widely known as the patron of Ireland. Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early 1600s. Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. Saint Patrick's Day is occasionally affected by this requirement, when 17 March falls during Holy Week.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

St Louis Webcam Feed Live at Mardi Gras Parade 2011

The St Louis Fat Tuesday parade starts off from Broadway & Convention Plaza, and rolls south to Broadway & Walnut, and remains the biggest and most spectacular Mardi Gras parade in town.

This live feed is in St Louis for the Mardi Gras parade:

St Louis Mardi Gras Live

Event Information:

Over the years, what started as a private party has grown in size and scale, attracted major corporate sponsorship, and is a huge part of the tourism economy of St Louis. The event usually attracts tens of thousands of revelers. The size of the crowd varies considerably from year to year, with the weather being the biggest factor in determining crowd size. On the second Saturday before Mardi Gras, there is a family-oriented "Krewe of Barkus" pet parade with corporate sponsorship by Beggin' Strips.

Participants consist of anyone who dresses up their pet in costume, and walks their pet along the parade route. The parade is followed by the informal Wiener dog races. Then, on the Saturday before Fat Tuesday, the more adult-oriented, flesh-for-beads parade occurs, although there have been various attempts to reserve a family section at one end of the route. People from all over storm the streets with beers and bead necklaces after the Saturday parade. The streets of Soulard, Geyer, Allen, Russell, Ann, Shenandoah, and others are crowded with people from 7th to 12th Street. The Fat Tuesday parade occurs in the evening. In recent years it has been moved from just north of Soulard to downtown St. Louis. The majority of the overall Mardi Gras festivities have corporate sponsorship, primarily from Anheuser-Busch and Southern Comfort

Friday, March 4, 2011

Napa Valley Webcam Live Feed 2011 Kaiser Permanente Marathon

The Napa Valley Marathon race begins promptly at 7 a.m. on Sunday, March 6, 2011. This is an excellent course for beginning marathoners. It is downhill, traveling from 380 feet above sea level to 80 feet above sea level at the finish line.

This live feed is in Napa Valley for the marathon:

Napa Valley Marathon Live Feed

Event Information:

The start is preceded by a brief invocation and The Star Spangled Banner. There are 13 aid stations along the course. The vineyards that parallel the race course provide world-class scenery but also have a downside. Most of them feature deep ditches to accommodate irrigation and rain runoff that severely limit parking on crossroads that intersect with the Silverado Trail (race course).

As you finish, a digital clock will display your unofficial time. A disposable chip will record your official time. The time on the digital clock may not match your official time. When you cross the finish line, you will be greeted by a volunteer who will present you with your finishers medal and help you find whatever assistance you may need. Due to provisions in road-use permits, the marathon course is opened to traffic and closed to the marathon at 1:00 p.m. At 1:00 p.m., marathon officials and a representative from law enforcement will collect bib numbers from all participants still on the course.

Lake Taupo Webcam Feed, New Zealand Ironman 2011 Live

The Ironman New Zealand (including Bonita Ironman New Zealand ) is a year since 1985 in February or March held triathlon sports event on the Ironman distance (3.86 km swim, 180.2 km cycling, running 42.195 kilometers) in Taupo in New Zealand.

This live feed is in Taupo for the Ironman triathlon:

Great Lake Taupo Webcam

The New Zealander Cameron Brown was here eleven times at the start and was eight times gold and silver medal three times the reach. His compatriot Joanna Lawn can already look back on six wins. The Ironman New Zealand was 2006 weather-related reasons, only swimming distance on a shortened course will be held without the (90 km cycling and 21 km running).

In 2009, host 1300 athletes at the start of which could reach the 1275 goal. This Ironman was held in March 2010, the 26th already Time and place is to be the oldest qualifying race for a seat at the World Cup - the Hawaii Ironman . The starting signal for the Ironman here in 2010, the Prime Minister gave New Eland John Key , who also important for tourism wanted to emphasize it. After all participants were in the past 25 years, more than 50,000 and their teams to the Ironman to Taupo.

Pensacola Beach Live Webcam Feed at Mardi Gras Parade 2011

Pensacola Beach is the scene of the annual Mardi Gras Parade. Sunny weather is in the forecast for Sunday’s Pensacola Beach Krewe of Wrecks Mardi Gras parade, and organizers are planning to see big crowds on the island.

This live feed is at Pensacola Beach for the parade:

Pensacola Mardi Gras Live Webcam

Over 40 floats are registered for the parade, which will begin at 2 p.m. and travel from Avenida 10, along Via de Luna to the Casino Beach parking lot, ending near the Gulfside Pavilion.

Pensacola, Florida hosts a Mardi Gras Celebration. The Pensacola celebrations also use Moon Pies in combination with beads, coins, candies & Krewe-related trades. The Pensacola festivities and the Krewes that sponsor them often are more light-hearted and family-oriented than some in other venues. The name of a number of the Krewes are puns of the names of historic Krewes in New Orleans and Mobile.

The annual Pensacola celebration, is among the oldest in the United States, dating back to 1874. Festivities typically took place on the eponymous Tuesday itself and the preceding week. The event became unorganized, having "fallen entirely into the hands of individual merry-makers and frolickers who disported themselves as their own wild merriment dictated," but was reorganized by the Clerks Union in 1900. They formed the Pensacola Carnival Association with a 12-person committee led by chairman J. I. Johnson. Priscus remained the title of the festival's ceremonial king, and Alexander Clement Blount II was named the first King Priscus of the new group.

New Orleans Webcam Feed Live at 2011 Mardi Gras Parade

New Orelans Mardi Gras Louisiana, is a Carnival celebration well-known throughout the world. The New Orleans Carnival season, with roots in preparing for the start of the Christian season of Lent, starts after Twelfth Night, on Epiphany.

This live feed is in New Orleans for the Mardi Gras:

New Orleans Mardi Gras Live Feed

Celebrations are concentrated for about two weeks before and through Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French), the day before Ash Wednesday. Usually there is one major parade each day (weather permitting); many days have several large parades. The largest and most elaborate parades take place the last five days of the season. In the final week of Carnival, many events large and small occur throughout New Orleans and surrounding communities. The parades in New Orleans are organized by Carnival krewes.

The celebration of Mardi Gras was brought to Louisiana by early French settlers. The first record of the holiday being celebrated in Louisiana was at the mouth of the Mississippi River in what is now lower Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, on March 3, 1699. Iberville, Bienville, and their men celebrated it as part of an observance of Catholic practice. Each year the Mardi Gras (or Carnival) season starts on January 6, also known as Twelfth Night. The Twelfth Night Revelers, one of Carnival's oldest Krewes, holds a masked ball each year to mark the occasion. Many of Carnival's oldest groups such as the Elves of Oberon and the High Priests of Mithras hold masked balls, but do not parade in public.

Sydney Mardi Gras Parade 2011 Live Webcam

Sydney Mardi Gras is an annual parade and festival in Sydney, Australia, and is the largest such event in the world. The parade features individual entrants in colourful costumes, gatherings of local and inter-state community group members, and elaborate floats representating a topical theme or political message.

This live feed is in Sydney for the Mardi Gras:

Sydney Mardi Gras Live Feed

Event Information:

The parade, whilst featuring many in the community with a penchant for exotic costumes and dance music, has always retained a political edge, with often witty visual commentary on their political opponents featuring in the floats. As it became more and more accepted in the wider community, more gay representatives of community groups and organisations have taken part in the parade, including the police force. Each parade starts with about 200 on bikes riding up Oxford Street. It is often accompanied by fireworks displays, which are launched from the rooftops of buildings along the parade route.

The post parade party is one the largest ongoing party events in the country. Mardi Gras Party attendances at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion / Royal Hall of Industries peaked in 1998 with 27,000 tickets sold. In the years since 17,000 to 20,000 tickets are consistently sold, an extraordinary explosion since the first Parade Ball held in 1980 at the Paddington Town Hall, a BYO event which attracted 700 guests.

Rio de Janiero Webcam Feed Live at the Rio Carnival 2011

The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is a world famous festival held before Lent every year. The carnival parade is filled with people and floats from various samba schools.

This live feed is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2011 Carnival:

Rio Carnival Webcam Feed

Event Information:

The purpose of carnival is for samba schools to compete with fellow rival schools; this competition is the climax of the whole carnival festival. Each school chooses a theme to try and portray in their entry. The samba schools work to build the best floats and costumes to represent their themes, and to include the best music they can from their band called the bateria. There are many parts to each school's entry including the six to eight floats and thousands of participants.

As the parade is taking place in the Sambadrome and the balls are being held in the Copacabana Palace and beach, many of the carnival participants are at other locations. Street festivals are very common during carnival and are highly populated by the locals. Elegance and extravagance are usually left behind, but music and dancing are still extremely common. Anyone is allowed to participate in the street festivals. Bandas and bondos are very familiar with the street carnival especially because it takes nothing to join in on the fun except to jump in. One of the most well known bandas of Rio is Banda de Ipanema. Banda de Ipanema was first created in 1965 and is known as Rio’s most irreverent street band. The samba is the main dance of Rio Carnival but it is not performed in silence. Music is another major aspect of all parts of carnival. As stated by Samba City, “Samba Carnival Instruments are an important part of Brazil and the Rio de Janeiro Carnevale, sending out the irresistible beats and rhythms making the crowd explode in a colourful dance revolution.