1. Tilt down from Hofkirche church to band playing, men holding sign reading (German) "Dresden Stollen Festival"

2. Various of bands playing in festival

3. Wagon carrying giant Christmas "Stollen" cake arriving

4. Wide of wagon

5. Children looking on

6. Band playing, tilt up to church dome

7. Onlookers

8. Tilt down of Christmas tree

9. Wagon carrying "Stollen" cake arriving

10. Onlookers

11. Baker cutting first piece from giant cake

12. Wide of "Stollen" maid and royal master baker in front of giant cake

13. SOUNDBITE (German) Walther Saeurich, Royal master baker:

"The Stollen is 1.65 meter wide, 85 centimetres high and 4.20 metres long. It weighs about 3.5 tons, perhaps up to 200 kilograms more, it is hard to estimate."

14. Wide of Christmas market, people buying cake

15. People buying cake

16. Pan of people eating cake

17. SOUNDBITE (German) Vox Pop, Eva Jirginiva from the Czech Republic:

"It tastes very good, excellent, wonderful."

18. Close up of Christmas cake

19. SOUNDBITE (German) Vox Pop, Thomas Messner from Austria:

"It is delicious, really good. We come from Austria and celebrate the Stollen festival here for the first time and we are very excited."

20. Wide of market

The German city of Dresden celebrated the start of the Christmas season on Saturday by parading a giant stollen through the streets of the baroque old town.

Stollen is a bread-like cake traditionally made in Germany and usually eaten during the Christmas season.

Dresden's giant stollen ceremony is now a famous feature of the Christmas market which takes place in the city every year.

The cake weighed in at around 3,500 kilos (7,716 pounds) and measuring 4.20 metres (13.7 feet) in length and 1.65 metres (5.4 feet) in width.

Each successive year, more and more trade guilds, associations or crafts enterprises participate in the festival, and it has gradually become a platform for Saxon handicraft.

So far more than 700-thousand guests from all over the world have been attracted by the festivities.

On Saturday crowds of people gathered in the old town of Dresden, to get a taste of it.

The cutting of the cake is traditional, and the first cut is always made by the Royal Master Baker and the Stollen Maiden.

They use a 1.20 metre (3.9 feet) long silver-plated Dresden Stollen Knife for the first cut.

Then, the giant cake is cut into pieces and sold to the visitors.

More than 80 bakers and pastry chefs of the Trade Protection Society of Dresden Stollen participated in the process of baking.

Among many other ingredients, about 1,500 kilos (3.306 pounds) of flour, 2.5 million seedless sultanas, 455 kilos (1,003 pounds) of sugar, and 44 litres (9.6 gallons) of Jamaican rum were used to make the giant stollen.

Keyword wacky bizarre