Tel Aviv prepares to welcome an expected 200,000 partygoers to this year's 8th annual Love Parade International.
By TOVA MESSER
Tel Aviv is preparing to welcome the expected 200,000 or more partygoers to this year's 8th annual Love Parade International on October 21 this Sukkot. Photos of past years' parades reveal a multitude of blissful, scantily-clad sweaty young people gyrating blissfully in body paint and outrageous costumes.
Many claim the parade is really just an excuse for a huge street party, but both its history and current context are subtlety intertwined with politics and an ideological vision.
Born in West Berlin after the fall of the Berlin wall, the Love Parade was the brain-child of legendary DJ "Dr. Motte" and other techno/house aficionados of the era. Out of his idea to promote an electronic dance party came an annual demonstration decidedly in favor of something in this case, peace, patience, and joy, and the appreciation of techno-trance. Unlike other organized gatherings, the Love Parade does away with rallies, speeches and pamphlets; its sole mode of official expression is music.
Participants in the colorful procession will include 10 clubs, each represented by a massive float with its own DJ and music. The floats will begin their amorous journey at the tayellet and conclude their travels at Gan Charles; after-parties are expected to ensue as the "love-weekend" begins. Love Parades are expected to get their groove on in cities around the world, such as Vienna, Mexico City, San Diego, and San Francisco.