Sunday, July 25, 2010

Tragedy at LoveParade

Sad news from yesterdays LoveParade in Duisburg. The moment I heard about it, I was talking to JC and Feli, but it seems Americans never heard of the LoveParade ever though it's the biggest dancefestival in the world.

It started 1989 as a parade with techno-music and about 150 visitors in Berlin 10 years later there were already 1.5 million participants. 2007 the event changed from Berlin to the "Ruhrgebiet", an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, a cluster of several large, formerly industrial cities, known for it's cole-mining.

So this year it was held in Duisburg. About 1.4 million people been there. But there was only one tight, long tunnel as entrance to the big party of love, peace and happiness. Shame on the organizers and the police! As they finally recognized that it's going to burst at the seams, the police tried to close the area/tunnel and told the incoming visitors to turn back. Now imagine how to turn back in a tight long tunnel with zillions of other visitors flowing into the tunnel from the other side!

Here's a report from CNN, which explains it better than me:




Meanwhile it's 19 dead people. My thoughts and empathy are with the families of the victims.

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