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  • Rave the Planet 2022: All you need to know about the Love Parade successor

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Rave the Planet 2022: All you need to know about the Love Parade successor

Techno parade 'Rave The Planet' will take place in Berlin on July 9.

Revellers at the 2002 Love Parade. In 2022, Berlin will celebrate the successor event ‘Rave the Planet’. Photo: Imago/Sven Lambert

It’s time for mohawks, fluoro clothes and goggles again: techno parade ‘Rave The Planet’ will take place on July 9, 2022 in Berlin. As the successor to Germany’s famous Love Parade, it’s the largest event of its kind. From Breitscheidplatz to Brandenburg Gate, crowds will dance, party and drink like the old days – only the name is different. Here’s everything you need to know about this summer’s event.

Rave the Planet has noble goals 

Why can’t we all just get along? The organisers say on their website that ‘Rave the Planet’ will continue in the spirit of Love Parade. They hope that at some point, parades will take place all over the planet and everyone will dance together in peace. It won’t be quite that big this time, but with a tour through Berlin’s city centre it won’t be small either. The route is as follows:

  • Uhlandstraße
  • Breitscheidplatz
  • Wittenbergplatz
  • Nollendorfplatz
  • Potsdamer Straße
  • Schöneberger Ufer
  • Potsdamer Platz
  • Brandenburger Tor
  • Großer Stern

While there’ll be plenty of fun, the event also counts itself as a demonstration, the main issue being the recognition of Berlin’s techno culture with UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage status. The other concerns are a bit ‘smaller’, for example the equality of electronic music culture with all other cultural forms (okay!), a holiday for electronic dance music culture (why not?) and a right to cultural and non-verbal dance and music demonstrations (makes sense to us!).

So it’s about a well-known conflict: the general social recognition of pop culture, in this case techno culture, without the chatter of die-hard culture connoisseurs. Surely even snobs would be happy about an additional holiday? 

Rave the Planet: Fresh name, fresh start?

Love Parade founder Dr. Motte in 2002. 20 years later he returns with ‘Rave the Planet’. Photo: Imago/Eisend

In 1989, multimedia artist Danielle de Picciotto and DJ Dr. Motte (Matthias Roeingh) established the Love Parade in Berlin for the first time. The motto: “Peace, joy, pancakes”. Obviously not as political the first time around. Over the years, the level of awareness increased, and the vibrant event attracted many people from Germany and beyond, developing into a million-dollar spectacle. In 2006 Dr. Motte sold the naming rights to Rainer Schaller and his company Lopavent, a move he would bitterly regret. The parade then moved to the Ruhr region in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The last Love Parade took place in Duisburg in 2010. It became a notorious tragedy when mass panic broke out at the old Duisburg freight station, in the tunnel leading up to the festival site. 21 people died and several hundred were injured. As an expert report showed, the area was not suitable for the crowd size that the  Love Parade attracts, something that should have been noticed during planning. In 2020, the Duisburg Regional Court dropped the criminal proceedings without a verdict. 

The name Love Parade still carries a bitter aftertaste years later. The fact that the event is now called ‘Rave the Planet’ is officially related to the naming rights, but the optics also play a significant role (Schaller maintains the rights to the term). The comeback of Dr. Motte’s big techno event may also succeed under a different name.

  • Rave the Planet U-Bahnhof Uhlandstraße (Start), Charlottenburg, July 9, 2022, 14:00-22:00, more info here