Street Parade

The Street Parade is the most attended technoparade in Europe. It takes place in Zurich, Switzerland. Comparable to Berlin's Love Parade, the Street Parade is as of 2004 one of the largest techno parties in the world and the largest annual event in Zurich. Proceeding along the side of Lake Zurich, it normally occurs on the second Saturday in August.

History

The first Street Parade (the English name is used in German) took place on September 5, 1992, initiated by student Marek Krynski and officially called the Demonstration for Love, Peace, Liberty, Generosity and Tolerance (German: "Demonstration für Liebe, Frieden, Freiheit, Grosszügigkeit und Toleranz"). About 1000 took part in dancing behind two Lovemobiles.

*1993 — In only its second year, 10,000 ravers participated.
*1994 — The Street Parade was nearly banned, but strong protests from the techno music scene, the media, and population forced the city to back down. Since that time, the parade has taken place every August with a lengthened route around the corner of Lake Zurich. Also in 1994, the first compilation was published: "Energy 94 Streetparade - The Disc."
*1995 — As many as 150,000 Swiss and foreign ravers come to the Street Parade. The double-disc "Street Parade 95" is the first dedicated release.
*1996 — For the first time, the Street Parade is organized by its own dedicated Association, founded by Marek Krynski, Barbara Suter and Christoph Soltmannowski. The official logo of the Street Parade is conceived: a stylized "P" inside a rounded red star.
*1998 — The Street Parade can be first heard in a live CD, directly recorded on a Lovemobile. As music plays, the crowds are heard cheering and celebrating in the background. In this way the disc uniquely portrays the voice of the Street Parade.
*1999 — Radio Street Parade goes on the air for about two weeks prior to and about a week following the Street Parade. Radio Street Parade broadcasts techno music, electronica and dance, interviews with DJs and musicians as well as reports about the Street Parade.
*2000 — With the motto "Believe in Love", the Street Parade is for the first time broadcast live on Swiss television SF1, 3sat and Tele 24. The German music television VIVA showed two-hour summaries in the following week.
*2001 — The event reaches record heights with one million participating ravers. The Zürich Street Parade came out of the shadow of the Berlin Love Parade.
*2002 — Rain dampens success of the event.
*2003 — Very hot weather (37 °C!) with partly clouded sky. Attendance slightly down to an estimated 900,000. However, this contrasts to far more drastic declines in the Berlin event. The direction of the route was reversed in this year in order to reduce noise levels on certain streets, and to provide better exits for the trucks.
*2004 — The Street Parade again reaches a 1,000,000-person count.
*2005 — A million ravers and visitors are officially cited once again. The Street Parade Radio ran into some financial difficulties, but was rescued by the Zürich local radio station Energy Zürich and the free newspaper 20 Minuten. Beer was for the first time available at official drink stands. It was perceived by many that the Street Parade took on a more aggressive tone than before.
*2006 — The Street Parade, with the motto "Move Your Mind", attracts 800,000 people in spite of cold weather.
*2007 — The Street Parade, with the motto "Respect", attracts 800,000 people despite the bad weather forecast.

Organization

Since 1996, the event is organized by the Verein Street Parade (Street Parade Association). Today, the Street Parade has all the character of a popular festival, however legally it is still a political demonstration. This frees the organisation of security costs, among all else that the city takes under its charge.

The Street Parade continues to be one of the safest mass events in the world. This is not just a consequence of the peaceful nature of dance parades, but is also thanks to a widely thought-out prevention concept. Five to ten times more participants at the Love Parade in Berlin had to be medically treated or transported to hospital in the last few years, relative to attendance.

Clear advice on healthy behavior is part of the [http://www.streetparade.ch/06/en/dos.php "do's & dont's"] informational campaign of the Street Parade. In particular, the message "Please, NO DRUGS" was made prominent on every Lovemobile during the 2006 event.

imilar Events

In other cities around the world, love parades and large techno music gatherings inspired to some degree by the Berlin Love Parade and Zürich Street Parade have taken place, among them:

* Lake Parade in Geneva, Switzerland
* [http://www.loveparadesf.com/ Lovefest] in San Francisco
* Love Parades in Santiago, Chile; Tel Aviv and Mexico City.
* [http://www.g-move.de/ Generation Move] in Hamburg/Kiel
* Union Move until 2001 in Münich
* Karneval der Kulturen in Berlin
* Future Parade until 2003 in Brockhagen bei Bielefeld
* Reincarnation in Hannover
* Vision Parade in Bremen
* Nachttanzdemo in Frankfurt am Main

Political aspects

Streetparade is today not an official political demonstration. Nevertheless sometimes stickers with demonstrative character occur

References

"This article is based on the article Street Parade in the ."

Links

* [http://www.streetparade.com Official Website]
* [http://www.friends-of-streetparade.ch Friends of the Street Parade]
* [http://www.swissparades.ch The photographic book on Lake & Street Parades by Claudio Bonavolta] ; 35 pages of the book are available online.
* [http://www.rave.ch/ Love- and Streetparade pictures]