Love Parade

For the 1929 film, see The Love Parade.

File:Loveparade-jpatokal.jpg

Siegessäule, Love Parade 2001

File:Loveparade-girl-jpatokal.jpg

Dancer, Love Parade 2001

The Love Parade is a popular festival and parade that originated in 1989 in Berlin, Germany, and has now spread throughout the world. Past Love Parades have occurred in Tel Aviv, Mexico City, Acapulco, Vienna, Cape Town, San Francisco, Leeds, Sydney, Santiago and Caracas.

This event inspired the 1998 Dance classic "Meet Her At The Love Parade" by Da Hool and is the subject of the Madonna song "Dear Jessie".

History

The Love Parade has its roots in the spirit of a changing Europe. In 1989, it was first celebrated 4 months before the demolition of the Berlin Wall. It was started by the fresh Berlin Underground under the initiative of Matthias Roeingh aka "Dr. Motte". It was held as a political demonstration for peace and international understanding through 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 atop the column has become a symbol of the parade.

Many people from Germany, Poland, and other countries 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 parade saw its highest attendance in over 9 years.

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".

Anyone who wants to experience Love Parade in the middle weekend of July should be aware of the fact that it is louder and more crowded than most concerts. With its water-cooled sound systems on every truck, the parade produces an extremely loud sound floor. The parade basically lives through those trucks. The trucks 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. It costs a lot of money to equip a truck. They are usually open on top and feature dancers. Their box-systems are mounted on the side or the rear. There are two tactics to choose from: Follow a truck that features a style that you like, or have them all pass you so you can see and hear more.

Love Parade is a place where some exhibit and enjoy other people's exhibitionist tendencies. Some attendees enjoy carrying around toys such as pacifiers or facing 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". Although it is not allowed, there is probably no better way to see and be seen. However some people used this for special jokes, like hanging up things such as bicycle locks, on trees and poles, but such actions are very rare. The police of Berlin are usually quite tolerant when it comes to people enjoying themselves. There haven't been any major incidents in over twelve years of parade history: except for the high drug use and people passing out due to dehydration or hyperthermia, the number of injuries as well as the number of crimes is extraordinarily low. 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 Paul Van Dyk, DJ Rush, DJ Hell, Westbam, Drum Connection, Miss Djax 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.

With the end of the parade the fun is far from over. Love Parade weekend in Berlin is probably the only time and place worldwide where a whole city is practically turned into a club. Many DJs are booked for one of the huge number of parties that are held before and after the parade. Parties range from clubs with a hundred mostly exclusive guests, to almost raves with several floors and ten thousand dancers. Many people today come to Berlin only for the parties and miss the parade in order to sleep. Or they enjoy it with other "ravers" in the park right next to the parade route.

The Love Parade may be a dinosaur and together with Mayday, Nature One and few others the remainder of a rave culture that marked the beginning of the era of modern Electronic music.

There are similar festivals in other cities like Zürich's Street 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. In 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 touching base in the American Continent for the first time in Mexico (2002), in the fall of 2004, the Love Parade was held in San Francisco, marking its second expansion into North America. With the success of both 2002's and 2004's events, it was held again in 2005 and 2006 with great success, although the "Loveparade San Francisco," has been changed to "Love Fest San Francisco," because Dr. Motte is no longer participating with the Love Parade organization, and forever indefinitely as a permanent event in these two places.

Loveparade 2007 in Essen.

Legal issues

The Love Parade is a very special case. By German law the state has to pay for security during political demonstrations as well as cleaning up the streets after the demonstration. In case of a commercial event however, the organizer has to pay for all this. For a large event like the Love Parade the costs are quite high: an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 Euro.

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 have been arguments 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 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	One World One Love Parade
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	The Love Is Back
2007	WestBam & the Love Committee	Love Is Everywhere
2008	WestBam & the Love Committee	Highway To Love

List of Love Parades

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Cyborg, Love Parade 2001

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	300,000
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		100,000
2006	Berlin	The Love is Back	1,200,000
2006	San Francisco (as Love Fest)
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	60,000
2008	Dortmund	Highway to love
2009	Bochum
2010	Duisburg
2011	Gelsenkirchen

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.

Future of Love Parade

The Love Parade returned to Berlin on July 15 in 2006 after being canceled in 2004 and 2005 due to a lack of funds. However, the Love Parade's founder, Dr. Motte, did not participate due to issues with the parade's organizers McFit. The Love Parade was planned again on July 7 2007 with the sponsorship of McFit and Beate Uhse. After being confirmed in November of 2006 by the organizers, a press conference on February 21st by the team announced the cancellation. The main reason cited was the failure of the City of Berlin in granting a written approval. The event was eventually held on August 25, 2007 in the German city of Essen.

The Love Parade 2008 will take place in the City of Dortmund on July 19. The route is approximately two kilometers long and stretches on the federal highway 1, which will be blocked off for the event. Other cities of the Ruhr Area will host the Love Parade until 2011.

An alternative parade in Berlin is the Techno Demonstration Fuckparade, held annually since 1997, in July or August.

Different versions of the Love Parade have been popping up around the world in places like Santiago, Chile; Caracas; Tel Aviv and Mexico City. The Love Parade officially continues on in the city of San Francisco as 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. 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.

External links

English

• Berlin Life: 'The Death of Dance?' A history of the Berlin Love Parade
• San Francisco Love Fest (formerly Love Parade San Francisco)
• Love Parade 2008 in Dortmund - Official Site

Spanish

• Love Parade Mexico City
• Love Parade Caracas
• Love Parade Santiago

Photo galleries

• Berlin 2006
• Caracas 2007
• Essen 2007
• San Francisco 2007
• San Francisco 2007
• San Francisco 2007
• San Francisco 2005
• Unofficial Loveparade pictures site
• Love- and Streetparade pictures

Videos

• San Francisco LoveFest 2007