Lou­der, Cra­zier, Love Para­de. The return will not be far off from the ori­gi­nal. But what led to its cancellation?

It’s 1989, a warm sum­mer day on the Ku’damm. Tech­no music is play­ing so loud, the ground is shaking. The beat tra­vels through your body and you beco­me one with the rhythm of dance. All around you, peo­p­le are hap­py and care­less, let­ting the music take them away to a world full of peace, love and joy.

Eine kreischende Menschenmenge hüpft vor der Bühne auf und ab
Eine Men­schen­men­ge springt begeis­tert vor der Büh­ne auf und ab

The very Beginning

On 1st of July, 1989 the first Love­pa­ra­de was held on the Kur­fürs­ten­damm. It was star­ted by the Ber­lin under­ground at the initia­ti­ve of Mat­thi­as Roeingh, also cal­led DJ Mot­te. It was con­cei­ved as poli­ti­cal demons­tra­ti­on for peace and an inter­na­tio­nal under­stan­ding through love and music, so the mot­to was fit­tingly cal­led „Frie­de, Freu­de, Eier­ku­chen”. Till 1996 the para­de was held on the Ku’damm, but by then more than 750,000 peo­p­le were par­ti­ci­pa­ting, so the para­de was moved to the Stra­ße des 17. Juni. In 1997 about a mil­li­on peo­p­le had par­ti­ci­pa­ted and after that the para­de beca­me inter­na­tio­nal. All around the world, in South Ame­ri­ca, North Ame­ri­ca and in num­e­rous places in Euro­pe, peo­p­le were cele­bra­ting love, our dif­fe­ren­ces and tech­no music. The Love­pa­ra­de hit a record high in 2008 with around 1.6 Mil­li­on par­ti­ci­pan­ts in Dort­mund. In the ear­ly 2000s the atten­dance was lower and with it fol­lo­wed with some fun­ding pro­blems, caus­ing the para­de to be can­cel­led from 2004 on. Even though the event was inten­ded as non-com­mer­cia­li­zed, the adver­ti­sing space increased in 2006, making DJ Mot­te dis­so­cia­te hims­elf from the parade.

Incidents Leading to the End

It would be hard not tal­king about the Love­pa­ra­de wit­hout men­tio­ning the dis­as­ter that hap­pen­ed in Duis­burg. On the 24th of July 2010, 21 peo­p­le were kil­led and 651 were inju­red through a crowd crush, which means peo­p­le in huge crowds are pres­sed so clo­se­ly against each other they are unable to move and pos­si­bly can be suf­fo­ca­ted while stan­ding. At that day 1.4 mil­li­on peo­p­le were gathe­red on an indus­tri­al zone and were ente­ring a 200-meter-long tun­nel, hea­ding toward a for­mer freight sta­ti­on whe­re part of the fes­ti­val was taking place.

In the mid-after­noon, hea­vy con­ges­ti­on for­med at the end of the tun­nel – the under­ground pas­sa­ge was too small to allow such an immense crowd to pass. As the minu­tes went by, the human den­si­ty rose dan­ge­rous­ly. The fes­ti­val­goers soon could bare­ly move their arms or even hands. At the core of the crowd, some no lon­ger had enough room to brea­the. Around 5 p.m. the first vic­tims began to suf­fo­ca­te. After that, the Love­pa­ra­de was offi­ci­al­ly can­cel­led in respect to the victims.

Hinter einer Menschenmenge leuchtet die Aufschrift "Loveparade 2006" auf einem Display
Eine Auf­nah­me von der Love­pa­ra­de 2006

The Revival of the Loveparade

Now the­re has been talk of revi­ving the legen­da­ry event. The ori­gi­nal foun­der, DJ Mot­te, and his team want to coll­ect dona­ti­ons for the non-pro­fit orga­niza­ti­on Rave the Pla­net, cal­ling it Fund­ra­ving. Their moti­ves for revi­ving the Love­pa­ra­de is the dying of the Ber­lin club sce­ne at the moment, which is caus­ing a lot of outra­ge by peo­p­le, espe­ci­al­ly sin­ce Ber­lin is home to the tech­no sce­ne. Whe­ther the new Love­pa­ra­de can live up to the glo­ry of the old one or rather lives in the shadow of the dis­as­ter in Duis­burg, is left to be seen, but one thing is for sure, we could all defi­ni­te­ly need more love and music cele­bra­ted in our life.

Cover­bild: Arne Müse­ler / www.arne-mueseler.com / CC-BY-SA 3.0

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