The Loveparade? In Dortmund?? I couldn’t believe it when I learnt about two years ago that the legendary yearly rave event which had shaken up Berlin since 1989 would be moving to my home town which is usually more known for its football than for its club culture.
Having been banned from Berlin due to its chaotic consequences and costly damage, the organisers of the (privately financed!) Loveparade managed to secure a tour through Germany, with this year’s stop being in Dortmund. As a fan of electronic music and a regular visitor to Dortmund, I already enjoyed the run-up during the past year, seeing the city’s club culture blossom and nationally as well as internationally established DJs stopping by. Thus, my excitement and happy anticipation of the BIG DAY were high – and indeed: this year broke all records, it was the biggest ever Loveparade with 1.6 million visitors!
The usually slightly grey city was reigned by a colourful revolution of ravers: the central highway had been shut off (and officially transformed into the “Highway to Love”, the theme of this year’s parade) in order to accommodate the parade of 36 floats – that are massive trucks being hosted by “organisations that nurture club culture throughout the year” (e.g. clubs, radio stations etc. ), each with their own DJs playing pumping loud techno, packed with mostly extraordinarily dressed people and trying to make their way through the omnipresent mass of ravers at an average speed of c. 0.01 miles per hour.
The frequent storm-like rain showers and the inevitable mud did not dampen the mood – the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed, young and old were happily dancing/moving/drinking /kissing/laughing/peeing next to each other. As every year, the Loveparade – initally born as peaceful demonstration 4 months before the fall of the Mauer in Berlin – did again live up to its message: promoting international understanding and mutual respect through music. People had come from all over the world: on the night before in one of Dortmund’s clubs I heard more English being spoken than German with people having come from as far as Singapore for this special occasion. And for the first time in my life, I received an admiring “Woooow!” when mentioning that I was from Dortmund!
All around the big parade, local businesses and residents had come up with a range of creative ideas: some sold whistles and old Germany merchandise from 2006’s world cup through their windows and a dry petrol station that was affected by the street barriers had been transformed into a beach party.
Whilst the parade was still going, the impressively built main stage started its 10-hour programme provided by a line-up deluxe: Moby, Paul van Dyk, Underworld, Armin van Buuren, Carl Craig, Westbam, Moguai just to name a few – most of which, by the way, had renounced remuneration simply for the honour to play to the hundreds of thousands of ravers. After the official programme had finished, the partying went on all night all over the city with clubs milking the international crowd through high ticket prices, as if to make up for the costless enjoyment during the day.
The retrospective statistics were surprisingly favourable. Apart from problems with the train traffic, the well-managed organisation had paid off: the newly introduced ban of glass bottles had reduced cut injuries by 90% from last year and only 177 (of 1.6 million!) people had been arrested. Drug use was not noticeable at all, despite the Loveparade’s bad reputation from its Berlin days and most certainly in contrast to similar dance festivals in other countries. As a local newspaper speculated: “locals fail to understand why they should pay EUR20 for an XTC-pill where it would pay for 2 cranes of beer instead!”
It certainly was an extraordinary day for Dortmund. Not only the music gave me a buzz but even more so seeing thousands of people being united by the same beats, breaking down barriers and transforming my home town into something special. I was impressed by the seamless organisation and also a little proud of Dortmund – and happy that it has now deservingly established itself on Europe’s map of techno culture.
Loveparade 2009? I’ll be there. It’ll only be a stone’s throw away – in our neighbour city Bochum.
