The event known as Love Parade until 2010 is back. On July 9th, 2022, tens of thousands of “ravers” will be gathering in Berlin, to dance to loud beats that were created electronically. “Together again” is this edition’s slogan.
Berlin, July 3rd, 2022 (The Berlin Spectator) — The title Love Parade is taken, meaning someone owns it. Also it is connected to the deadly stampede that happened at the last Love Parade in Duisburg in 2010. Back then, 21 people died and more than 500 were injured. Twelve years later, the event is being revived as Rave the Planet.
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Cultural Heritage
In Woodstock, people danced to handmade music played live. Jimi Hendrix delivered never-ending guitar solos, Carlos Santana played Latino Rock, Blood, Sweat & Tears offered fascinating Jazz-Rock and Sly and the Family Stone spread the Funk. Five decades later, electronic beats move the masses. Between 1989 and 2010, those “ooomph ta ta ooomph ta ta ooomph ta ta” sounds and the idea of dancing together in peace have brought hundreds of thousands of people together on a regular basis.
A year ago, in the summer of 2021, Rave the Planet was supposed to end the long break and make people dance in Berlin. It did not happen because Mr. Corona objected. Back then, the infection situation was better than today, but the rules were stricter. So, Rave the Planet had to be postponed to 2022. This is where we are right now. Apart from being “Together again” the organizers want their event to become part of UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage.
‘Sustainable Contribution’
Rave the Planet is set to begin on July 9th, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. at the Uhlandstrasse ‘U-Bahn’ train station in Berlin’s Charlottenburg borough. That way, ravers who looked hip enough to be admitted to the Berghain club by muscular doormen the night before can still go, after sleeping until noon. From Uhlandstrasse, the dancing crowd will be moving along Kurfürstendamm, former West Berlin’s most famous boulevard, to Breitscheidplatz square, and via Potsdamer Platz to Brandenburg Gate. The dance party is scheduled to end at the Victory Column in the evening.
Rave the Planet is more than just a Techno Beats Party. The event’s initiators are “ravers, artists and entrepreneurs”, according to the official Rave the Planet website, and they include Dr. Motte who invented the Love Parade. They want to “make a sustainable, positive contribution to Techno culture”. More acceptance in the society is one of their goals. Another is to have Techno recognized as culture in the first place.
Alternative Events
In 1989, four months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Love Parade took place in West Berlin. In the mid-1990s, this event suddenly was not hip enough anymore for parts of the Techno scene, which is why alternative events such as the “F*ckparade” were created. At some point, the promoters changed. So did the location. It all ended in the Duisburg stampede. Now, the gathering, the dancing, the flower power of the 21st century and the “ooomph ta ta ooomph ta ta ooomph ta ta” sounds are back.
The English version of the Rave the Planet website can be found here.
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