Europe News
Love Parade held in German city of Dortmund
Jul 20, 2008, 10:23 GMT
Sound system trucks, so called \'floats\', pave their way through crowds of \'Loveparade\'-goers on a street in Dortmund, Germany, 19 July 2008. 37 floats from 16 countries took part in this year\'s Loveparade \'Highway to Love\'. Some 1,2 million mostly young fans of electronic dance music were expected. EPA/BERND THISSEN
Dortmund, Germany - Powerfully amplified music from 37 sound trucks wound up hundreds of thousands of ravers into a frenzy Saturday on a blocked highway in the city of Dortmund at Germany's annual Love Parade.
Driven by electronic dance music, the spectacle has gained a reputation over the past two decades for loudness, laxness, weird dress, marathon dancing, and, by some accounts, widespread use of the drug ecstasy.
Organizers said 15 of the bands came from abroad, including from Australia, South Korea, Ukraine and Turkey. Each band occupied a float. The amplifiers required cooling to stop them overheating.
'It's a wow,' giggled Austrian raver Doris, 33, in a purple wig, giant sun-glasses and a very small dress as she gyrated past, taking yet another swig from her can of beer in the bright sunshine.
Michel, 21, from the south-east of Germany, was just audible as he described how he and his girlfriend had arrived in Dortmund on the eve of the parade with nowhere to stay and had danced much of the night in a club.
'We made new friends who let us sleep (with 10 others) in a two-bed room at a bed-and-breakfast hotel. Real nice people,' he said.
The parade was being held in the west of Germany for a second year after leaving Berlin, where the annual spectacle began in 1989.
Organizers predicted a turnout of 1.2 million at the event on a section of national highway which was closed to traffic by city authorities and gave this year's parade its motto, 'Highway to Love.'
DJ WestBam, first up of 250 disc jockeys compering and mixing the music, opened the event with his new Highway to Love 'hymn.'
Promoters said the parade could be seen live by satellite broadcast in 53 nations of the world. The event was to continue all night in city clubs and other dance venues in Dortmund, a big industrial city in Germany's Ruhrgebiet metropolitan sprawl.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
The people from the two countries of East Germany and West Germany are the ugliest people on the globe.
I think the East Germans look like hunched back people with faces that resemble trolls.
The West Germans are just butt ooglee and have oral herpes from having sex with barn animals.
Besides cristee-anns and catho-shitts are the worst religions on earth where the priests like to sodomize little boys. A bunch of white homos.
That all germanic people are carzy and responsible for the death of 6 million Jewish people in the 2nd World War?
'That all germanic people are carzy and responsible for the death of 6 million Jewish people in the 2nd World War?'
It is a fact that before, during and after WWII Germany was predominantly a catholic and christian nation and mass killed jews ... and Russians for that matter, during WWII.
Now it is a fact that before, during and after Iraq War I and II the U.S. was predominantly a catholic and christian nation mass killing muslims.
Sometimes people never learn. But, this love parade is something positive. Hopefully Germany will keep its nose clean. I wish the same for the U.S.
On a positive note: Iraq and Iran both have not killed as many people as Germany and the United States. So, good for Iran and Iraq. Hopefully they keep their noses relatively clean as compared to Germany and the U.S.
big ups from Poland. Love parade is sick. hoping to hit it next year when im back in europe for the summer. and straight up whys everyone hatin? who gives a ... bout the world wars. yea germans arnt my fav people..obviously .. but this events about the music and nothin else. if your a tru electronica fan then u wouldn even be thinkin bout all that other stuff.
page: 1
lanceJul 20th, 2008 - 14:53:11
Love is good. Since Germany is mostly a christian and catholic nation I assume that these people are mostly christians occupied with making love instead of killing muslims.
This is a good example of what christians should be doing. Good for you.
... ecstasy, bad; but probably better than killing muslims.
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