News

The Return of Loveparade Berlin

12:00 a.m. · June 23, 2006 · by Dominic Umile

At 12 AM on July 15, hundreds of thousands of beat-hungry enthusiasts will fill the streets of Berlin for the return of the Loveparade. With its focus on electronic dance music, Loveparade Berlin is the largest open-air event of its kind, having attracted somewhere between 800,000 and one million attendees in 2001. After reporting almost as many participants in 2002 and 2003, Loveparade Berlin was forced to take a two-year break, citing constant financial woes resulting from production costs.

This year, the Loveparade returns with more than ten stages and 40 moving truck sound systems (Floats) that will host the impressive roster of internationally based deejays and electronic musicians. The acts were chosen, for the first time, by a combination of votes from interested parties (collected electronically, obviously) and the events floats committee. In another related and bizarre result of democracy, this is a good opportunity for M.I.A.s American fan base to catch up with the Sri Lankan emcee, since our democratically chosen officials have recently prevented her from entering U.S. borders...as if the real threat to Homeland Security isnt accidentally shooting his friends in the face during drunken hunting trips. Last throes, my ass.

Other nuances include ten Underground Talent floors, which will showcase lesser heard acts, a live stage, and a chill out area. The big payoff, though, is the closer (around Siegessäeule): prominent names like Ricardo Villalobos, Paul van Dyk, Tiesto, and more will play from the gathered circle of 40 float sound systems, surrounding a crowd of the expected million sweating bodies. Holy SHIT.