The Pop Festival by McKay George

Author:McKay, George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

FIGURE 31 Da Hool, ‘Meet her at the Love Parade’ (1997) video: The Love Parade’s ‘pop play’, dancing in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

Relocating around the Ruhr Valley seemed to offer many benefits for Lopavent’s plans for securing the Love Parade’s future. These involve three key aspects. First, this polycentric metropolitan region was markedly different from Berlin; it even necessitated that the Love Parade take place in various cities within the Ruhr Valley. This Berlin event thus transformed into a travelling carnival. In this way, Lopavent could avoid suspicion that, in leaving Berlin, it had to settle for a ‘second best’ German city (such as Hamburg or Munich). Indeed, the move to the Ruhr Valley seemed to be a conscious decision to fundamentally reimagine the Love Parade. Second, the negotiations confirmed that the managers from business, the media, politics and culture were interested in, indeed enthusiastic about, bringing the Love Parade to the Ruhr Valley. Third, the Ruhr region had already gained considerable prestige, because the city of Essen was to be the European Capital of Culture for 2010. The nomination of Essen was, in effect, the occasion for promoting the entire region as a cultural Ruhr Metropolis. By pooling their resources and embracing a marketing strategy of symbolic monocentrism, these cities could challenge the regional dominance of the Rhine cities (Cologne and Düsseldorf). Finally, it seemed as though the Ruhrzeit (so-called Ruhr time) had arrived.

The idea that had been manifested, the Ruhr Metropolis, appeared to be the ideal surroundings for the Love Parade. The following cities were chosen as its future sites: Essen (2007), Dortmund (2008), Bochum (2009), Duisburg (2010) and Gelsenkirchen (2011). This meant that a five-year plan now existed that would secure both the cultural promotion of the Ruhr Valley and, finally, the future of the Love Parade. After all, the Love Parade had been in various stages of crisis throughout its long history in Berlin, despite the economic and cultural benefits it had given the capital following unification. These crises included cancellations of the parade in 2004 and 2005, which almost ended the event permanently. In contrast, the Ruhr parades could securely garner anticipation, with the apparent support of welcoming cities, for a grand finale of the European Capital of Culture celebrations during RUHR.2010.

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