The
Love Parade (German:
Loveparade) is a popular
Electronic dance music festival and
parade that originated in 1989 in
Berlin,
Germany.
It was held in Germany annually between 1989 and 2003, and then from
2006 to 2008. The 2004 and 2005 editions in Berlin and the
2009 edition in
Bochum [1] were cancelled.
Internationally, spin-off Love Parades have occurred in
Zurich,
San Francisco,
Mexico City,
Acapulco,
Geneva,
Vienna,
Cape Town,
Tel Aviv,
Leeds,
Sydney,
Santiago,
Caracas,
Rio de Janeiro,
Oslo,
Budapest.
On 24 July 2010 at least 18 people were killed when
panic broke out in a tunnel at the Love Parade, with at least 100 others injured.
[2][3][4]
History
The Love Parade has its roots in the spirit of a changing
Europe. In 1989, it was first celebrated four months before the demolition of the
Berlin Wall. It was started by the
Berlin Underground under the initiative of
Matthias Roeingh aka "Dr Motte" and his then girlfriend
Danielle de Picciotto. It was held as a
political demonstration for peace and international understanding through love and Music.
Until 1996, the parade was held on the famous Berlin "
Kurfürstendamm".
Since by then, not only the Kurfürstendamm was overcrowded but the
streets and even railway tracks near the Ku'damm too, the parade moved
to the "
Straße des 17. Juni" which is near the Tiergarten Park in the center of Berlin by the
Brandenburg Gate and provided plenty of space. The center of the parade is the
Siegessäule in the middle of the park, and the golden angel on top of the column has become a symbol of the parade.
Many people from Germany and abroad travel to Berlin to take part in
the Parade—over a million attended in the years 1997 through 2000 and
800,000 in 2001. Attendance at the 2001 festival was significantly
lower because the date of the parade was changed with little advance
notice. 2002 and 2003 also saw lower figures, and in 2004 and 2005 the
parade was canceled due to funding difficulties. 2004 did however host
a scaled-down version which served more as a mini-protest, and was
promoted with the title 'Love Weekend'. Dozens of clubs promoted the
weekend-long event all over the city, with various clubs staying open
for 3 days straight without closing. In 2006, the parade made a
comeback with the help of German exercise studio
McFit.
The Love Parade 2007 was planned for July 7, 2007 in Berlin.
However, the Berlin event was cancelled in February as the Senate of
Berlin had not issued the necessary permissions at that time. After
negotiations with several German cities, on July 21, it was announced
that the Love Parade would move to the
Ruhr Area for the next five years. The first event took place in
Essen on August 25. The Parade in Essen saw 1.2 million visitors in comparison to the 500,000 who attended the 2006 parade in Berlin.
In 2008, the festival took place in
Dortmund on July 19 on the
Bundesstraße 1 under the motto
Highway of Love.
The event was planned as a "Love Weekend", with parties throughout the
region. For the first time the Turkish electronic scene was represented
by an own float "
Turkish Delights (music project)". The official estimate is that 1.6 million visitors attended, which makes it the largest Loveparade to date.
[5]
The next parades are planned to take place in
Bochum,
Gelsenkirchen and
Duisburg.
The music played at the events is predominantly
electronic dance music: in this case mainly
Trance,
House,
Techno, and
Schranz music. Attempts to introduce other music styles, such as
hip hop,
have failed. Hardcore and Gabber music were part of the parade in early
years, but were later removed. They are now celebrated separately on a
counter-demonstration called "
Fuckparade".
The love parade is seen to be louder and more crowded than most
concerts. With its water-cooled sound systems on every truck, the
parade produces an extremely loud sound floor.
[citation needed] The parade consists of the sound trucks that usually feature local, or important, clubs and their
DJs.
It has become a rule that only trucks that have sponsors from a techno
related field, such as clubs, labels or stores, are allowed, but
advertising space was increased after the 2006 event to offset the high
costs of equipping a truck. The trucks are usually open on top and
feature dancers, with box-systems mounted on the side or rear.
Love Parade is a place where some exhibit and enjoy other people's
exhibitionist tendencies.
[citation needed]
Some attendees enjoy carrying around toys such as pacifiers or face
masks. Often the crowd is imaginative in terms of clothing (or lack
thereof) and appearance.
One famous picture from the Love Parade is people sitting and
dancing on streetlamps, trees, commercial signs, telephone booths,
which gave the event's nickname "the greatest amateur circus on earth".
The Love Parade has been quite peaceful for event of its size,
seeing few arrests. In 2008, for example, charges were pressed for 6
robberies, 3 sexually-related offences, 40 thefts. 23 participants were
caught with drugs and 49 were charged with bodily harm. 177 Love Parade
visitors were provisionally arrested by the police.
[6] Arrests are usually related to
drug crimes and most other incidents feature mostly people passing out due to dehydration or
hyperthermia. In 2000, after the parade, a girl under the influence of
ecstasy was run over by an
S-Bahn after she had been leaning on the door too hard.
The finale of the demonstration is by the so-called
"Abschlusskundgebung" which are half-hour sets of the world's leading
top DJs such as
DJ Tiesto,
Paul Van Dyk,
Carl Cox,
Armin Van Buuren,
DJ Rush,
DJ Hell,
Westbam,
Drum Connection,
Miss Djax,
Marusha or
Chris Liebing. During this time all trucks (usually about 40) are connected to each other and set online to the statue of victory where the
turntables are. This is one of the few chances a DJ can ever have to play for a crowd of about one million people.
At the weekend of the Love Parade many clubs hold special events and
parties and book well-known DJs for this occasion. Parties range from
clubs with a hundred mostly exclusive guests, to almost
raves
with several floors and ten thousand dancers. Many people used to come
to Berlin only for the parties and miss the parade in order to sleep.
[citation needed] Or they enjoy it with other "
ravers" in the park right next to the parade route.
Together with
Mayday,
Nature One the Love Parade is one of the oldest and largest Festivals of Electronic music
In 2010, at the Love Parade in Duisburg, Germany, 18 people were
killed in an overcrowded tunnel leading into the festival. The number
of people attending reached 1.4 million, when the original expectation
was around 800,000.
Love Parade International
There are similar festivals in other cities like
Zürich's
Street Parade,
Geneva's
Lake Parade,
Rotterdam's FFFW Dance Parade and Love Parades in
Vienna. In 1997 a Love Parade was held in Sydney, Australia. Unlike its overseas counterparts, however, it was a smaller "
rave party" version of the festival, held at the infamous
Graffiti Hall of Fame in Redfern. On Saturday 8th July, 2000 a Love Parade was held in
Roundhay Park,
Leeds,
United Kingdom sponsored by
BBC Radio 1. In 2001, the official UK parade had moved to
Newcastle upon Tyne but was cancelled after the police refused a license:
BBC Radio 1 still hosted a more contained event, however. Since then no Love Parade had occurred in the United Kingdom.
After being held in the North-American Continent for the first time
in Mexico (2002), in the fall of 2004, the Love Parade was held in
San Francisco.
They had held their inaugural Parade in September 2004 with 37,000
attending. The parade was held again in San Francisco in September 2005
as a rousing success drawing over 50-60,000 people. In 2006, the parade
was held on September 23 and was renamed Love Fest because the
Loveparade Berlin organization did not renew any of their worldwide
licenses not already under contract so they could focus on their own
event. 2009 was the biggest success of LOVEVOLUTION (formerly
Lovefest/Love Parade) with over 100,000 people. The first Love Parade
in Santiago was held in 2005 and gathered over 100,000 people; the 2006
version gathered over 200,000 people. The first Love Parade in Caracas
was held in June 2007 and gathered over 25,000 people.
Legal issues
Under
German law
the state has to pay for security during political demonstrations as
well as cleaning up the streets after the demonstration. In the case of
a commercial event however, the organizer must cover these expenses.
For a large event like the Love Parade the costs are quite high: an
estimated €300,000 to €400,000.
The Love Parade was initially held as a "political demonstration" to
save costs; however it is organized by two companies set up just for
the Love Parade. The name of the demonstration, Love Parade, is a
registered trademark
and the organizing companies have been busy getting license fees for
the use of their name. This not only included merchandise and
CDs
but also fees for participating clubs, vendors of soft drinks and the
like along the streets and even broadcasting fees for the TV stations
MTV and Germany's counterpart,
VIVA, along with, for the first time, Germany's
RTL 2. Love Parade 2006 was the first time in that Berlin's
RBB did not broadcast direct from the
Siegessäule.
Due to this there was a dispute between the organizers and the city
of Berlin every year about the status of the Love Parade and who should
bear what costs. Finally in 2001, the courts ruled that the Love Parade
had to be held as commercial event. In 2004, the organizers claimed
they do not have the necessary funds anymore to host it again. Since
there are numerous other Love Parade-like but commercial events in
Germany, there are speculations that the funding is not, or at least is
not the only reason, for the cancellation, the other being the fast
dropping number of participants.
Anthems
Every German parade has had its own
anthem.
| Year |
Artist |
Title |
| 1997 |
Dr. Motte and WestBam |
Sunshine |
| 1998 |
Dr. Motte and WestBam |
One World One Future |
| 1999 |
Dr. Motte and WestBam |
Music Is the Key |
| 2000 |
Dr. Motte and WestBam |
Love Parade 2000 |
| 2001 |
The Love Committee |
You Can't Stop Us |
| 2002 |
The Love Committee |
Access Peace |
| 2003 |
The Love Committee |
Love Rules |
| 2006 |
WestBam & the Love Committee |
United States of Love |
| 2007 |
WestBam & the Love Committee |
Love Is Everywhere (New Location) |
| 2008 |
WestBam & the Love Committee |
Highway to Love |
| 2010 |
Anthony Rother |
The Art of Love |
List of Love Parades
| Year |
Location |
Motto |
Participants |
| 1989 |
Berlin |
Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen |
150 |
| 1990 |
Berlin |
The Future Is Ours |
2,000 |
| 1991 |
Berlin |
My House Is Your House And Your House Is Mine |
6,000 |
| 1992 |
Berlin |
The Spirit Makes You Move |
15,000 |
| 1993 |
Berlin |
The Worldwide Party People Weekend |
31,000 |
| 1994 |
Berlin |
Love 2 Love |
110,000 |
| 1995 |
Berlin |
Peace on Earth |
280,000 |
| 1996 |
Berlin |
We Are One Family |
750,000 |
| 1997 |
Berlin |
Let the Sunshine In Your Heart |
1,000,000 |
| 1997 |
Sydney |
|
|
| 1998 |
Berlin |
One World One Future |
800,000 |
| 1999 |
Berlin |
Music Is The Key |
1,500,000 |
| 2000 |
Berlin |
One World One Loveparade |
1,300,000 |
| 2000 |
Leeds |
Radio One - One Love |
1,100,000 |
| 2001 |
Berlin |
Join The Love Republic |
800,000 |
| 2002 |
Berlin |
Access Peace |
750,000 |
| 2002 |
Mexico City |
|
|
| 2003 |
Berlin |
Love Rules |
750,000 |
| 2004 |
San Francisco |
|
|
| 2005 |
San Francisco |
|
|
| 2005 |
Santiago |
Sal a la calle y baila |
100,000 |
| 2006 |
Berlin |
The Love is Back |
1,200,000 |
| 2006 |
San Francisco (as LoveFest) |
|
|
| 2006 |
Santiago |
El Baile es de Todos |
200,000 |
| 2007 |
Essen |
Love is everywhere |
1,200,000 |
| 2007 |
Caracas |
Live the Love! |
80,000 |
| 2007 |
San Francisco |
as LoveFest |
89,000 |
| 2008 |
Dortmund |
Highway to love |
1,600,000 |
| 2008 |
Rotterdam |
Olympic Edition |
500,000 |
| 2008 |
San Francisco |
as LoveFest[7] |
120,000 |
| 2008 |
Caracas |
Keep the Love Alive! |
|
| 2009 |
Bochum (cancelled) |
|
|
| 2009 |
San Francisco |
as LovEvolution[8] |
150,000 |
| 2010 |
Duisburg |
The Art of Love |
1,400,000 |
| 2010 |
San Francisco |
as LovEvolution[9] |
|
| 2011 |
Zagreb | | | | |
|
|
Note :
The "Participants" figure is the estimate given by the
organizers. Police estimates have been as much as 30% lower. Accurate
counts are not available since entry is free and uncontrolled. The
mayor of Dortmund and the police confirmed the number of participants
in Dortmund
ref : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Parade
