The iconic electronic dance festival may make a comeback as part of an effort to preserve techno culture in Germany. The event hasn't taken place since 2010 after 21 people were killed at a festival in Duisburg.
Around 600,000 techno fans at a Loveparade festival in Berlin in 1996Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Grimm
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German DJ Dr Motte said Monday that he wants to revive the Loveparade techno festival after a decadelong hiatus.
He told reporters in the German capital on Monday that he and his team want to collect donations — which he dubbed "fundraving" — through his nonprofit limited company "Rave the Planet" to get a read on whether there is a desire to reboot the techno rave.
"For years, many have asked me when the Loveparade will return," Dr Motte said. "The longing seems enormous."
Berlin-born techno DJ Dr. MotteImage: Petrov Ahner
The Berlin-born disk jockey, whose real name is Matthias Roeingh, founded the Loveparade festival in 1989 as a political demonstration for peace through music. Around 150 techno fans took to the streets of Berlin and danced under the motto "Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen" (literally: "Peace, Love, Pancakes"), which roughly translates as "all is well."
Dr Motte dissociated himself with the hugely popular festival in 2006 because of the commercialization of the event. In 1999, around 1,5 million people attended the festival.
The parade has not taken place since 2010, when a crush at an event in Duisburg killed 21 people and left 500 injured. After the event, Dr Motte wrote in an editorial in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit: "The Loveparade is over; it can't exist anymore after Duisburg."
But the now-59-year-old DJ wants to bring back the festival as part of an effort to preserve techno culture.
He and his techno comrades have also campaigned to have electronic dance music protected by UNESCO, the United Nation's cultural organization. The application is to be submitted this year.
Love Parade: From humble beginnings, to major music festival, to tragic ending
What began as a peaceful festival in Berlin with only 150 attendees went on to become one of Europe's largest music festivals. However, the Love Parade was abruptly cancelled after a deadly stampede broke out in 2010.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Four DJs, three cars and just 150 party-goers
Matthias Roeingh, better known by his stage name Dr. Motte, organized the first Love Parade in Berlin in 1989 along with fellow DJs Jonzon, Westbam and Kid Paul. Roeingh said he wanted the festival to be seen as a protest for peace. Some 150 party-goers, followed by three cars blaring techno music, danced down Berlin's Kurfürstendamm boulevard under the banner "Peace, joy and pancakes."
Image: Imago/Travel-Stock-Image
Europe catches the love bug
It wasn't long before the Love Parade grew into one of the largest music festivals in Europe. As the number of party-goers increased, so did the number of artists and event organizers who brought their own floats, or "love mobiles," to the parade.
Image: Imago/Seeliger
Partying in the heart of the German capital
After almost half a million people flooded Berlin's Kurfürstendamm for the Love Parade in 1996, it became clear that a larger venue was needed. The following year, the festival was moved to Berlin's Straße des 17. Juni (17th of June Street), with the Victory Column, Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten Park providing a historic backdrop to the frenzied techno rave.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Grimm
More stress than love
But as the festival attracted ever more revelers, it also attracted more trouble ... and much, much more rubbish. Mountains of garbage in the Tiergarten became a common sight, to the disgust of many locals. However, because the Love Parade was still, in theory, a political festival, Berlin's state government had to bear the costs, both for security and for the mass clean-ups.
Image: Imago/Müller-Stauffenberg
Ravers protest festival commercialization
For all its controversies, the main point of criticism directed at the festival was its increasing commercialization. Love Parade organizers made a pretty profit through licensing, advertising and merchandise sales. However, that also drove many techno heads to distance themselves from the Love Parade, with some even starting an annual counter festival, know as the "F*** Parade" (pictured above).
Image: Imago/Seeliger
Out with the politics
In 2001, Germany's Constitutional Court revoked the Love Parade's classification as a demonstration. The court found that the festival offered no clear political message, a requisite for any protest. Since organizers did not want to bear the security or clean-up costs, the 2004 and 2005 Love Parade festivals were cancelled.
Image: Imago/Enters
'The Love is back!'
Under the banner "The Love is back!" the Love Parade relaunched in 2006, bringing more than a million revelers to Berlin. But it would also be the last edition to take place in the German capital. That year, Rainer Schaller, an entrepreneur who runs a chain of fitness centers, took over the company in charge of organizing the festival. His plan was to bring the Love Parade to Germany's Ruhr area.
Image: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
A record attendance in the Ruhr metropolises
According to the Love Parade organizers, more than a million flocked to the city of Essen for the first edition of the festival in western Germany in 2007, while some 1.6 million people partied in Dortmund the following year. Several people, however, have claimed that the numbers were massively inflated by organizers, likely for marketing purposes.
Image: AP
Bochum refuses Love Parade invitation
High on the festival's successes in Essen and Dortmund, organizers wanted to bring the Love Parade to the city of Bochum in 2009. However, city officials refused, citing security concerns. This ultimately forced the party to be cancelled in 2009, provoking outrage from seasoned ravers and parade-goers.
Image: Imago
The horrific ending
Organizers wanted to make up for the lost year by staging a massive festival in Duisburg in 2010. The festival coincided with the city's selection as a European Capital of Culture and attracted over a million visitors. But the party ended in tragedy. Panic broke out as crowds converged in a tunnel leading to the festival grounds, resulting in the deaths of 21 people, and injuring a further 650.
Image: AP
Never again
The very same day as the deadly stampede, Love Parade organizers announced that there would be no further festivals. Every year on July 24, Germany comes together to commemorate the victims of the festival tragedy.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Love Parade disaster goes to trial
In December 2017, more than seven years after the tragic Love Parade incident, prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against six Duisburg city employees and four festival organizers. The trial is set to be one of Germany's largest ever court cases, with 70 lawyers involved — 32 representing defendants and 38 representing 65 joint plaintiffs, mainly relatives of the young people killed.
