Loving and raving at Love Parade

Electronic dance music festival, Love Parade, held annually starting in 1989, originating in West Berlin, Germany. Matthias Roeingh (“Dr. Motte”) initiated a peace and love parade with over 150 people taking to the streets of Berlin. This peaceful political march became the largest worldwide-recorded festival ethos of all time.

One of the oldest and largest festivals of electronic music, for over 11 years the Love Parade made history with its outstanding electronic dance music, house, techno, which was the theme of each festival. With attempts at a later date to introduce other genre and styles such as “hip hop,” the festival organisers realised their following was purely for the free spirited individual with a passion for trance.

With crowds of over 1 million, top DJ’s Carl Cox, Paul Van Dyke, DJ and many more came together reaching a record number of DJ’s all under one roof, playing to the largest audience of all time in recording history. As the festival grew globally the ethos and vibrational sound set from the original festival in Berlin, created much more festivals in Paris, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Vienna all spin-off festivals from the Love Parade.

Dortmund Love Parade in 2008 was the largest recorded festival worldwide with the Turkish electronic scene overpowering any other festivals recorded of its time, attracting over 1.5 million visitors. San Francisco, Sydney, Leeds, Newcastle Upon Tyne all held their own version of the Love Parade attracting a smaller audience of around 25,000 people and using the foundation of the Love Parade to listen to the new and long-standing DJs of trance music. With a tragic loss of lives in 2009, the Love Parade closed the doors on any further festivals, they had become too large to manage and organise. Many DJs still to this day play their original sets recorded live from the original Love Parade, keeping the memory alive.