The LoveParade Party

Starting from the other end of Market Street from the antiwar march, San Francisco's Second Annual LoveParade ended up in the Civic Center Plaza.



Here's an excerpt about the history of the event which is on their website (click here).

Loveparade is the brainchild of legendary Berlin DJ Dr. Motte, who founded the event in Berlin in 1989. Motte rallied with other cutting edge techno/house groovers to create a "house music demonstration," which evolved into a demonstration FOR something, namely tolerance, respect and understanding among nations. Speeches and pamphlets gave way to the music’s raw and powerful ability to unite. Thousands upon thousands have heeded the call since, filling the streets of Berlin where attendance topped 1.5 million in 2000. Dr. Motte's underlying principle that "music… speaks in thousands of languages and is understood by all" has never been more evident, a truth he saw first-hand while here in San Francisco to help us kick off the first ever Loveparade in the United States.

Using the universal language of music as both cause and expression, LoveParade is world famous not only for its eccentrically dressed revelers dancing alongside floats, but also for its celebration of diversity, promotion of tolerance, and fostering of community. Since 2000, the Loveparade concept has been exported around the world, to Austria, Chile, England, Israel, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. All Parades share the same motto: to create an international web and platform for electronic dance music, with each city lending its own flavor.

Loveparade has become the annual electronic music mega-event for international followers of the European-bred movement of Techno. As the electronic music movement has diversified and matured, Loveparades have seen the inclusion of many genres under the electronic music umbrella, including house, techno, trance, new school breaks, drum and bass, jungle, and underground hip hop.

A few of the Peace March people leaked over into the Love Parade, and some of them looked quite charmed...



...while others looked horrified by the frivolity and the loud music pumping from 20 different floats ringing the plaza.



We had brought drinks in festive plastic stemware from our apartment a block away...



...and had a couple of Italian sausages from a great barbeque dude.



The event was amazingly well organized and the Civic Center Plaza was set up as comfortably as I've ever seen it for a big event, including this huge, open tent with tables on which to eat, drink, rest and get out of the sun.



There were also whimsical bits of furniture here and there...



...including art VWs...



...whose interiors people seemed to be using for medicinal herbal enrichment.



Every other person seemed to be documenting the event...



...which just added to the air of exhibitionism/voyeurism that was in the air.



Though the crowd was predominantly heterosexual...



...it also had a sizable gay contingent that happily mingled with everyone rather than ghettoizing themselves.



In fact, the crowd was about as mellow as this large a crowd could be...



...exuding youth, energy, a sense of costume and play...



...with many of them on mind-altering substances...



...putting out some seriously powerful sex vibes. What's not to like?