Rave the Planet gets green light after cancellation threats
Techno music fans will certainly mark this date in their calendars well in advance. The event, successor to the legendary Love Parade, attracts revelers from all over the world. This year features a lineup of over 200 international artists performing on 25 different floats.
The event almost didn’t happen this year, due to difficulties in getting emergency medical services. Until the last minute, it looked like Rave the Planet would have to be canceled before a solution was finally found on Friday, as confirmed by event managing director Timm Zeiss.
Now ravers can dance around Berlin as planned, celebrating their love of techno music at a huge open-air party.
Rave the Planet was held for the first time last year. It was a relaunch of the concept of the annual Love Parade techno party, which was canceled following a tragedy in 2010 when 21 people died in a widespread panic that broke out during the event that took place in Duisburg that year.
With the rebranding, Rave the Planet wants to symbolize a new beginning while also emphasizing the importance of safety and responsibility.
More than just a street party
As in the early days of its progenitor Love Parade, Rave the Planet is officially a political demonstration rather than a commercial venture. The organizers are committed to preserving electronic music culture and world peace. That’s why they even applied for recognition as intangible cultural heritage from UNESCO.
“With techno culture, it’s impressive that there aren’t just young people at parties. On the contrary, it’s a culture where the older ones have something to show the younger ones,” argues musicologist Hans Cousto in a UNESCO application video on the website Rave the Planet. “That’s where knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. And that transmission of knowledge in commemorative culture, that’s something that has to be protected.”
From techno to house to trance, the various genres featured on Rave the Planet’s 25 trucks reflect the diversity and breadth of electronic music culture, according to organizers.
Crowds in the hundreds of thousands expected
Last year, on July 9, around 200,000 people from all over the world took to the streets of Berlin to participate in the parade. A similar number of revelers are expected again this year.
Like the Love Parade in the 1990s and 2000s, the parade traditionally starts on the Kurfürstendamm, one of the most famous avenues in the German capital, and ends in the Tiergarten park in Berlin, between the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column.
The peaceful gathering of enthusiastic ravers sweatily dancing to pulsing techno beats is set to last all day – the parade starts at 2pm local time and ends at 10pm.
Then, of course, there are official and unofficial parties. In addition to parties in well-known Berlin clubs, an officially organized after-party is also Cleanup Day the next day.
This event is planned thanks to lessons learned from the Love Parade. By the 2000s, the event was no longer recognized as a demonstration, as it had been in the 1980s and 1990s, and organizers had to pay for rubbish disposal themselves, plunging them into financial ruin.
To ensure the safety and well-being of participants, the organizers work closely with the Berlin authorities. That too is a lesson from the past, as memories of the deadly events of the Love Parade in 2010 are still fresh. Last year, police called for an early end to the party due to concerns about the “dangerously” large crowd.
This article was originally written in German.
Source: DW
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