Berlin to pull the plug on Love Parade

BERLIN (Reuters) - Berlin looks set to pull the plug on the Love Parade after organizers said on Wednesday they had failed to secure funding for the summer festival that used to attract over a million gyrating techno fans.
The Parade, which became a symbol for Berlin's hipness during the 1990s, has waned in recent years, narrowly avoiding financial collapse and drawing smaller crowds as techno music has lost its trendsetting appeal and entered mainstream culture.
Its decline has coincided with a steady gentrification of the city. Gleaming modern buildings have been completed in its center and many of the eastern districts once fashionable for their dilapidation have been refurbished for yuppie families.
"It is with great regret that we have to announce there definitely won't be a Love Parade in Berlin this year," organizer Loveparade Berlin GmbH said in a statement.
Many of its usual sponsors had been hit by the economic downturn in recent years, and talks with the cash-strapped city had not produced a financing deal, with just three months to go before the festival was due to take place, it said.
Berlin's city-owned trade fair company backed the Love Parade in 2003 and made a loss of $615,900 as a result.
Some 750,000 ravers came to the Love Parade last July, half the 1.5 million the festival attracted at the height of its popularity in the late 1990s.
The Love Parade started making losses after it lost its status as a demonstration in 2001, which forced it to pay for a host of services which the city had provided free of charge before, such as blocking off roads and relocating bus stops.
A Berlin city spokesman held out hope of a reprieve, saying more talks were scheduled between the city's economy department and the organizers.
The Parade first took place in 1989, four months before the fall of the Berlin Wall when DJ "Dr Motte" staged what he called a "House Music Demonstration" in West Berlin for tolerance, respect and international understanding.
What started with one truck fitted with turntables and loudspeakers spiralled into an annual music event that drew techno fans from around Europe to crowd around up to 50 trucks that blared out deafening rhythms.
The Love Parade lives on elsewhere. It has been staged in Austria, Britain, Israel and South Africa. Mexico City held one in March and San Francisco and Tel Aviv plan Love Parades this year.

By David Crossland

Wow.. thats pretty full on..

ples let us know whats happening, if u find out more

Well that just bites! I was probably going to go to this year's Love Parade as well. Guess there will be other parties to go to though.

We need an Adelaide Love Parade

How many dissapointed people are there going to be.. I bet there are probably ppl that have saved for a year or two to make it over to the 2004 love parade..

I feel sorry for them. I was hoping to go next year so I hope they do resume it...

Sal theres not enough love in Adelaide for their to be their own parade

Coming Soon to a street near you - its the ADELAIDE BITCH PARADE

watch as rival promoters throw bottles at each other from across the street.
listen to specially recorded bitch sessions drwoning out your favourite tunes
watch as the industry suffers and slowly disintegrates before your eyes.

BAH

Chrysoula - there is too much fake PLUR in adelaide and not enoiugh genuine feelings of well being

Adelaide promoters are a pretty friendly, close knit group - you wanna see a lack of PLUR you should have read the Melbourne forum around the time of Two Tribes & Earthcore (Future and Spiro should have been given pistols at dawn)

The DMA's will hopefully be how they were last year... everyone forgot about all the petty shit that goes on during the year and just has a good time.

yeh looks like its on the 7th of August this year

click the link for details/ pics etc

http://www.street-parade.ch

Thanks break_beats but I am going to be at Dance Valley in Holland on that day. If it happens every year I might go and check it next year.

That is truely sad news
I was fortunate to be there 4 years ago with a crowd of 846,000 (almost the total population of Adelaide in one spot going crazy! It was fun.

But what a mess!

Is this true? We have booked and organised accomodation for a crew of 22 people from Melbourne to go this year. If this is the case, we will have to make some desperate changes and quick...

The majority of Adelaide promoters get along really well.

There are only a couple that seem to constantly be in disputes with others.

I blame Bold!!!

Soon as he unleashed Adelaide Techno on all those unsuspecting Germans it was more than they could handle and they had to close the Love Parade to prevent rioting in the streets

The only love left there was the love of corporate multi national sponsorship dollars anyway!

Mind change why now?

who cares why

ITS ON

so all in all this thread is pointless.


21.

My sincere apologies. The love parade has not been saved after all. While it had been announced on the Belgium and Holland news that the love parade was to go ahead this year, they spoke to soon.

For anyone interested, there will be a demonstration instead. The love parade was always a demonstration up to about 2001 when it became an official event.

For anyone heading over there, there is the Love from Above party (www.thelovefromabove.de) on the Friday night, the demonstration on the saturday, out door street parties by the local clubs on the saturday followed by We Love Base (www.lovebase2004.de) on the saturday night.

Have fun

The latest news for those interested...

A little translation :

"How about the Love Parade?"

We've received a lot of questions about the Loveparade, will it take place, what's going on , ...

Now the news has reached a final decision, we want to explain one another.

The 10th of July there is a Parade in Berlin, but due to economical reasons (clean costs and so on) it will be a demonstration this year. That means we will get a parade like in the years 89-99, lets say the golden years of the Love Parade. The expect about 500.000 visitors and there would be 60 trucks (LKW). The demonstration gets the support of the Mayor (Wowereit), clubs, sponsors , ...

The demonstration doesn't have a name (otherwise it would be a planned activity) but a gain "Music is better with you". With this demo they want to show that the influence of the big bosses in the musicbusiness not always the best way is and that they destroy a lot of concepts ... such as the Loveparade. Because there will also be demonstrated against the persons who own the name "Love Parade" they can't use the name of the Love parade. Strange situation...

A lot of DJ's are shouting to come to Berlin and if we may believe the latest news of the touristic centra in Berlin the visitors will come. From the 14th of April there weren't any cancellings of hotelbookings. On the contrary, a lot of hotels allready are sold out for the weekend of the demonstration. The force of the LP-weekend is the force of the party's that'll take place. All afterparty's will take place and if we may believe the experts this edition will be the best edition ever !!!

go the love parade...

or the demonstration parade...

or the love demonstration...

or the demonstration of love?...

or the dirrty techno street parade demonstrating for independence

***remembers classic synagogue tune 'meet her at the love parade'***

i wish i was there in more ways than one

hope you have fun misfit!

like anything in life that is determined and comes from the heart - i'm sure the love parade can't be stopped