Love Parade returns — on screen: a documentary charts the Berlin parade

A documentary charting the legacy of Berlin’s Love Parade — and the street event it inspired, Rave The Planet — has arrived. ‘Love Is Stronger: From Love Parade to Rave The Planet’ features previously unreleased footage of the parade.

Mixmag reported the release.

Love Parade ran in Berlin from 1989 until 2003, and then once more in 2006. It remains one of the most attended electronic music events in history: around 1.5 million people came in 1999.

Later editions took place in other German cities, but the parade was abandoned for good after a crowd crush at the Duisburg edition in 2010 killed 21 people.

The story is told through Ellen Dosch-Roeingh and Dr. Motte and their attempt to revive the street party as Rave The Planet, which held its first edition in 2022. That edition also brought controversy: Dr. Motte was filmed holding up the symbol of a German COVID conspiracy movement during the procession. He denied any association with the group, saying he had no idea how the sticker had got onto his parade float and that he did not recognise the symbol.

The film lands almost twenty years after the final Berlin parade — and a month before the fifth Rave The Planet on 15 August, built around the theme IMAGINE LOVE.

As ONE//FM reported earlier, Jean-Michel Jarre is telling the history of electronic music this autumn too — in a book about the machines that produced the sound.