Loveparade 'Is Happening'

It's like a puzzle, wrapped in an enigma, hidden in the world's biggest Sudoku challenge.

First it was announced that San Fran's Loveparade was cancelled because the Berlin-based parent organisation decided not to renew their global licensing agreements to concentrate on the rebirth of their event in Germany's capital.

Then DJmag.com reported on the news that the previous organisers of SF's Loveparade would be launching a corporate Summer Music Conference as a substitute to the street parade on September 27th, much to the dismay of liberalists and clubbers throughout America who saw Loveparade as a
major socio-political event.

Now we've just had word from another SF Loveparade organiser that the event IS in fact happening on Saturday September 23rd this year, but has been renamed as the San Fran LoveFest.

"The event is happening this year," said Dr. Syd Gris, Board Member and Director of Promotions and Marketing for Loveparade San Francisco.

"When left with the decision of what to do, the team that organised the previous two years' events couldn't let the work, momentum, and success of those events just stop.

"So we have simply renamed the event and are moving forward as the San Francisco LoveFest."

Peace, Tolerance, & Understanding

The idea, like all Loveparades, is to promote peace, tolerance, and understanding.

Dr. Syd Gris said: "America is in a dark time and needs all the love generated it can get.

"We have great respect for the Berlin Loveparade event, and their decision to focus on their own event is their prerogative.

"However, we have all the tools, resources, and support we need to pull off an event of the same vision and scale as our last two events, and go bigger."

What's more, Dr. Gris and the Lovefest team still see their event as politically relevant.

Social Action Embedded

He said: "Platforms of social action embedded in entertainment are a great way to reach young people.

"There is so little support for dance music and its culture in the pop media outlets in the US (radio and MTV), so we need to literally take to the streets."

The San Fran LoveFest remains an all volunteer non-profit organisation, a triumph considering the commercialisation of dance music is so intrinsic around the world.

It should be respected and supported by anybody who believes dance music is more than just a party, and indeed it is – here's what Loveparade's own founder Dr. Motte had to say about the San Fran Lovefest.

Social Transformation

"The new San Francisco LoveFest experience is at the very heart of the dance culture phenomenon that is spreading rapidly and unstoppable around the world.

"It is about love and it is about freedom.

"It is about remembering who we really are and why we are here.

"The San Francisco LoveFest itself is part of a much wider personal, social and spiritual transformation, a revolution that will utterly change our world over the coming decades.

"Our very ideas about who we are and what we are capable of are about to be turned upside down.

"With this next evolution of the event, we are about to take a step into a different future in which all that is best and most beautiful in the human soul will find the right conditions to flower."

It's a poignant call to arms for any clubbers in the US.

The San Francisco LoveFest (formerly Loveparade) takes place on Satuday 23rd September 2006.

The Summer Music Conference (unconnected to the Loveparade) takes place in San Francisco from September 27th.