''The Love Parade Article'' Written by Jeanne Massive

[Crystal Synergy]

In music we always said party 24/7 now 24/7 has a different meaning its our 9/11 our 7/7 the day that saw 21 dead and hundreds injured at one of the most iconic dance events in the world the legend that is or should we now be saying was Love Parade.

Love Parade was an expression of freedom, free techno, the event that bought Berlin to a halt once a year as millions flocked to Dr Mottes vision for the ultimate party. The biggest baby of the rave generation, naïve in origin but one that also became calculated, milking the system registering it as a political event ,resulting in Berlin being responsible for multi-million euro clean ups and Love Parade being run out of town.

And the sour events of 24/7, where do we start to place the blame.? Motte was part of the hippy dance generation, the lets have a rave in a field brigade. As he stepped away from it, it became a corporate event looking for a new home. Now under the command of Rainer Schaller and dancing to the tune of sponsors McFit It did, it found them in the high unemployment economically challenged areas of Southern Germany if the town was skint they would go there because the cash incentives were there and the towns fought each other to hold the trophy event. This year it was freight yards in downtown Duisberg a town with a population of 500,000 in the Ruhr.

Well doesn’t take much to do the maths on this, small town, the chances on one day their population would treble, the German music industry had already raised concerns .
In press conferences prior to Love Parade, Rainer Schaller said, the venue holds only 500, 000 but hopefully we can reach the record of 1,6 Million in Dortmund. Despite their statements that the didn’t see a problem they advised people to be in the main arena early, Which would have given punters the choice follow the floats or just go to the main event or to do both and fight their way into the main arena after the parade. Maybe he could have pulled it off, him and Adolph Sauerland Mayor of Duisberg who right now is probably the 2nd most unpopular Adolph in Germany in 70 years. They could have got lucky but they made a fatal mistake,they ignored concerns over same entrance in same entrance out not to mention that was in a disused tunnel therefore creating a people funnel, a disaster in the making and they made it happen .

This is an eyewitness statement from Jay Frog a leading German Electro house DJ who was playing and got caught in the crush on the way to the main arena

At the time I arrived there were police everywhere and a long way from the entrance. Trying to prevent too many people getting in the tunnel at once. Hard to control the behaviour of thousands of people if they are determined you only have to look at the nationalities of the dead to see what a global event it was. And if you come that far well! You couldn’t see around the corner 2 guys danced on a police car after it came and stopped in the crowd. Before they realised what was happening

I was playing 700 happy ravers for Sunshine Live We had been told to arrive at 12. as they were expecting millions not thousands., showed up at 3 at the entrance of Karl Lehr Street which leads to the disused tunnel with the one in one out entrance. There were barriers everywhere. I spoke to 3 police and asked to get in. I had vip pass because I was one of the Djs Finally I was allowed to get behind the fence...as I am aware the security gates were locked eventually the ring fencing was opened causing a crowd surge. Everybody wanted to be at the main event, which had already been on for more than 2 hours. In the tunnel there was no step forward no backward. It was jammed, we waited it was party in the tunnel people singing. Then someone came ran screaming "Turn round!! People are dying in there" we moved over to the wall of the tunnel. As we stood there the first of many, beside us, the paramedics attempted resuscitation to no effect. Never seen something like this never want to see it again.

Pedro Del Mar of Shah Music has poured contempt on the organisers. Pointing out that small towns such as Essen and Dortmund can’t handle events this size and more shockingly there was a potential 2nd entrance they could have used that could have been an exit out via the closed road behind the venue and he points out that this is not the first time . He also stated in Dortmund it came close to a similar tragedy, not at the event but at the central station when hundreds of thousands of people wanted to leave the due to the pouring rain and a crush formed.

Doug Laurent one of the people behind some of Germanys leading artists for nealy 20 years states echos Pedro del Mar’s comment regarding the use of these small towns and organisational incompetence. He says “a tragic and unnecessary loss of innocent people's lives in what was a black day for dance music That the world's biggest music event might be gone forever because of clear mistakes by authorities, police and organisers, the parade should have never left Berlin, it’s the only place in Germany where you can bring together 1 million people without problems."


The Organisers have now attempted to shift the blame to the crowd for being drunk and on drugs causing the crush .I asked a London promoter who worked in Germany whet she thought, Her reply In Germany most people have a drink at events, same as anywhere its normal. l personally doesn’t condone the use of drugs but they are the way of the clubbing world, would be naïve if said otherwise and drug use in Germany is lower than in the UK. As a promoter in the UK I have to take responsibility that people aren’t going to be straight and sober paramedics at gigs etc. It was Love Parade not a convent school outing. What did they expect? Don’t blame the crowd, the organisers should blame themselves for safely failures and the inability to realise you weren’t going to get abunch of Catholic schoolgirls attending it was dance event No excuse… they should be in the dock ,and making statements like that is an insult to the families at this point in time

Asked what she thought the about crowd control, that people attempted to jump the barrier to gain access.. “well if they did that just to gain access to get into the arena, then security should have handled it.. if it was because they were being crushed against locked gates, then that’ s self preservation, There are plenty of incidents of security responding badly to crushes at gigs and using heavy handed treatment towards the crowd, others behave responsibly. Same with festival goers. Right now everyone is apportioning blame, Hopefully all these issues will be answered at the enquiries”

Jens Thele director of Kontor, one of Germany’’s largest labels backs the above statement, condemning the security and access adding that justice should be done swiftly and through the judicial system not smoothed over in a press conference that can just gloss over the issues He stated “what event organiser should not account for the fact that people will be under the influence of something, but that cannot be used as an excuse for what happened by the organisers or authorities, If it has been a private event they would already have been arrested”

Lee Haslam director and promoter of Global Club franchise Slinky, made these comments regarding how he dealt with safety issues and what he thought the impact on the dance industry would be. Did he see changes coming in the form of a clampdown via legislation or promoters becoming increasingly self-policing on safety and crowd control
“We have to have health and safety checks on every single thing we do and provide certificates and method statements for example to the O2 Academy before every show. Staff are briefed as are the security and every step is taken to ensure everything goes smoothly but obviously, controlling 2000 clubbers into a venue is a lot different to 1.5 million “
“I think for people that do run events of 20K + this tragedy will certainly make them pay more attention. The UK is very stringent but then so is Germany, normally. Events in a confined and well policed arena, well organised can work but if you have that amount of people in an enclosed area that’s far from ideal, Better to have held something that size as an outside event

It isn’t just safety concerns that are being expressed. Some djs stated they weren’t kept up to speed on what was happening outside the arena.

To quote ATB’ “I didn’t see what happened directly. Was told by SMS while I was playing on the Raveline float. saying a mass panic had happened but that was all. When my set finished I went to the main stage. It was there that I got the information from the stage manager that people had died 15 minutes ago during a stampede. I was totally shocked and couldn’t believe it”

But like another epic disaster, The Titanic, the band played on, or in this case the DJs played on to prevent a 2nd panic at the request of the organisers, even though many of them felt uncomfortable when finally knowing what had unfolded in the tunnel, carrying on the party with so many dead and injured, but no blame can be laid on them, their actions prevented further incident. And no member of the crowd should shoulder any guilt for enjoying themselves, as most of them were totally unaware of events until the event was fially wrapped up.

Clubber Karl Lowenstein described his expereience on the day “it as hell the, tunnel was dark, it was full. Something happened - whether someone tripped or someone fell I don’t know. But there was a stampede to get to the other end and those who fell… well, many of them never got up again.” Witnesses describe seeing people ‘piled 25 deep

Outside the tunnel people climbed up the banks to escape. That wasn’t all happening as people got awy. Rescue services were unable to get through to the scene due to people stood and wandering on the Autobahn and had to resort to sending in Choppers to airlift rescuers and police in and the injured out .The main station was closed to prevent another tragedy as the shell shocked or just plain under the influence walked over the tracks.In the space of a few hours one town most people had never heard of was host to a party that became carnage.


One week later an emotional service was held at Salvator Church the Chancellor and President of Germany stood side by side with the families of the families of the dead and injured. 21 people aged 18 to 38 from from as far apart as Spain, Australia, Italy, Bosnia, Chile China and Holland lost in just a few hours. The service was relayed on big screens in football stadiums flags flew at half mast bells tolled out across Rheinland towns as people came to pay their respects to those that came to party and never came home..

What was said in the service by the officiating clergy Catholic and Lutheran aptly sums up what the music industry and the clubbers think and indeed what the families must have been thinking

"The Love Parade was dance to death," In the middle of a celebration of lust for life, death showed its ugly face to all of us."
“Life can be so oppositional: One moment there is a party, the next moment we are lying helplessly on the ground."
However words don’t bring people back .Now the mourning stage is moving on the anger and the desire for justice is kicking in Already a preliminary public hearing has happened . Germany is a country that prides itself on efficiency,rules and regulations right now they want answers to a tragic f**k up. .
Anger is building, people want the heads of Rainer and Adolf Saurrland the Mayor on a plate. Even more so now with the mayor of Dusiberg failing to attend the memorial ceremony on the grounds of controversy which many have interpreted as having no spine and protecting his own butt, no wonder as he is allegedly under police protection. Maybe though his no-show preserved the dignity of the event. Let the anger be shown in the right place.
Then add to that the paltry settlement of 1 Million being offered by Love parade via Axa, and a helpline that people say they can’t get through to .Many families of the victims don’t want to talk for fear of blowing their claims and now of course because prejudicing further legal proceedings and at this point we have to respect that. This is not an issue that for Germany and the families that is going to be laid to rest quickly or privately.

The major questions, why one in one out.policy was allowed? Why was the event grossly undermanned with too few stewards.? Why was there no tannoy system to make crowd alert ? .Why were the organisers allowed to grossly underestimate the numbers prior to the event to gain a licence ? Was that licence just rubber stamped due to the clink of cash registers in the eyes of the local authorites that got them the permission to hold the event?
Germany has strict rules regarding safety and policing, the ratio of emergency services to the crowd is proportional. It is obvious that it was based on the smaller “ official” estimates not what Love Parade gloated about In press conferences and how could they have held such pathetic insurance cover for even what was the lowest amount of people estimated to attend if you ingnore their bragging . What happened certainly broke the Ordnung and Justice will be done, A charge of corporate manslaughter would not be inappropriate.
As clubbers not have we only lost 21 soulmates seen 500 injured 25 of those still in hospital we have to look at the implications. Already we are seeing a clamp down on gigs, Nature One, another major event held a week later issued a huge drink and drugs statement on their web page prior to the festival. It will be unlikely that the like of Tunnel Trance’s event, held in an underpass in Hamburg will be seen in the again in the future .We deserve safety at out gigs, but should every responsible organiser be penalised for this? Will we be looking at Draconian laws that prevent the fun of party in the light of the awful events in Duisberg. There is bound to be a kneejerk reaction and deeper reaching legislation following the enquiry and could that enquiry spell the end of the rave?
The current statement from the organisers is there will never be another Love Parade in respect to the dead, but already people are questioning that. After all it is a global brand not limited to Germany there are Love Parades in Zurich, San Francisco etc one I asked one DJ can Love Parade reinvent itself? The reply was “I think it should .Why cancel it totally. Just organize it better and don´t be so naive to about the numbers and the venue. Right now that is a slightly controversial reply bearing in mind that Love Parade has all the Public esteem of BP in the Gulf of Mexico
Love Parades Brand’s future rests in the question, how long is the dance industry’s memory and how much does it really care? In writing this piece I found people prepared to stick their necks on the line to make statements in the name of justice.

Producers like ATB who was playing there and expressed his shock in musical expression with track not commercial single for sale trying to deal with his shock sharing his grief via free download ,in the belief music can be a powerful healer. I also came across those that wanted to cash in and those that were not to prepared to stand up to plate and be bothered to comment, those that just sent the ” public statement” but didn’t want to go further, I have not included most of them they are on any dance site
It is unlikely we will see Rainer Schaller at the helm if it does revive itself. I am not sure if they have internet to organise an event where he should be heading for at the end of the enquiry and what will hopefully be a corporate manslaugher conviction. .Should an event that represented the spirit of dance but has had its name tainted in one days tragic events carry on? Would to bring it back actually be a tribute to those lost not an insult?..Question is when the tears dry is it time to start looking for Dr Mottes and Berlin councils phone numbers?
I would like to give my thanks for those who were prepared to be quoted.
Special thanks to Jay Frog There is a full interview over his experiences on the day in the tunnel available. Please contact J@massivemusicgroup.com
ATB
Thorsten at Dancefield
Pedrol del Mar
Jens Thele
Kontor Records, especially Gareth and Ann
Doug Laurent
Armada/Vandit PR
The Mayor and Pr of Portsmouth Council ( twinned with Duisberg)
Lee Haslam Slinky