Hello Steemit,
exactly 20 years ago, on the 12th July 1997, I went with friends to the Loveparade in Berlin. It was the only time I had this opportunity, because the Loveparade usually took place on the second Saturday of July, which was very unfavorable for me, as the semester at the university ended in the week after the Loveparade and many semester papers had to be completed.
Please excuse the bad image quality. All shots were taken with an Olympus Mju camera on Positive Film and scanned with an Nikon Coolscan IV ED (LS-40 ED).
We drove with a special train to Berlin. Although it was only 200 kilometers to Berlin, the train started at 7 o'clock in the morning and was only shortly before noon in Berlin.
If I remember correctly, we arrived at the train station Lichtenberg and then drove with the S-Bahn the short distance to the Tiergarten. The S-Bahn was very crowded, and a few cool kids tried to surf the S-Bahn (open the door during the journey and go outside the wagon).
It was very warm this Saturday and so we spent a few hours in the shady animal garden until the Loveparade finally started. The music trucks did not even go in step speed, and were late.
In the early afternoon we could hear the first deep basses, and the crowds poured into the street Straße des 17. Juni
Many visitors had dyed their hair and wore extravagant clambs.
The volume of the music systems of the trucks was different. The most impressive thing was when we were standing in front of a truck and danced, but did not hear it because it was drowned by the truck behind it.
The anthem of the 1997 Loveparade was "Let the sunshine in your heart" produced by Dr. Motte (founder of Loveparade) and Westbam.
In retrospect, the Loveparade took place in the golden decade between the end of the cold war and the 11th September 2001. Everything seemed possible at this time. In parallel the rise of the Internet had just started. On the love parade there were also a few police officers, but they were hardly necessary because it was a very peaceful event despite over a million visitors. Nowadays hardly imaginable. And no one had a smartphone to telephone or photograph, because the iPhone was invented 10 years later.
The trucks started at both ends of the street "Straße des 17. Juni" and met at the Siegessäule. There they synchronized their music systems and played the set of the lead DJ on the Siegessäule. Usually every DJ played 20 till 30 minutes.
The Loveparade ended around 11pm. We missed our special train back home, and chose the first train on Sunday morning. We spent the night hours in a pub in Schöneweide.
On the trip to Schöneweide, a friend of mine also tried to surf the S-Bahn. DISCLAIMER: Our S-Bahn stood still here, and the door was open, the other train was driving. Still a very successful snapshot, because I captured the complete Jägermeister advertisement in the picture.
We arrived home at about 9 o'clock, and were already on our feet for about 30 hours. I fell like a stone into my bed and did not wake up until Sunday evening.
If you want to relive the love parade, just have a look at this video.
