Love Parade

Festivals are not always going right. By the Love Parade in Duisburg at July 24 2010 it goes totally wrong. This year 1, 4 million visitors came to this festival, almost three times too much for the capacity of the festival area. During the German dance festival a lot of visitors panic in a tunnel which leads to the main entrance. In the afternoon some visitors wanted to leave the festival and some people wanted to enter the festival. These two groups met each other by the tunnel. This situation leads to massive panic. A lot of people started screaming and wanted to go as fast as possible out of this tunnel. Hundreds of people were injured and 19 people died in this situation. Later in the hospital two more people had died by their injuries.

For security reason the organisation did not end the festival abruptly, because they wanted that the visitors slowly leave the festival area. The emergency exits of the area were opened so that people could leave the area in different ways.

Love Parade had visitors from all over the world. A lot of international top DJ’s are performing on this event. The Love Parade started in 1989 as a peace demonstration, but became a big open-air festival. It was not sure if the Love Parade 2010 would continue. Sponsor McFit offered 3 million euro. Duisburg had to pay 850.000 euro, but Duisburg hadn’t enough money. Just in February they found a solution.

After this ‘Drama in Duisburg’ the organisation had decided that there won’t be new editions of Love Parade any more.