Loveparade 2006

Berlin's Loveparade is back. After two years' break because of lack of funding, the massive street parade returns to the city's Strabe des 17 Juni boulevard. Millions of revellers, DJs and clubs from all over the world make sure the event lives up to its reputation as the world's biggest street party. Thanks to new sponsors, who share the 2.5-million Euro costs of the parade, the event remains free to visit. For the first time this year, it's also free to register a truck for the parade. So smaller clubs are expected to feature much more prominently in the decidedly international line-up. The Loveparade was originally the brainchild of a German DJ called Dr Motte, who hit upon the idea of holding a free, mobile acid-house party in the street.

The first Loveparade was held in 1989 and attracted just 150 revellers, who followed two cars with cassette recorders along the Kurfurstendamm.
In the 1999 Loveparade, 1.4 million people followed 51 floats along the Strasse des 17 Juni and past some of Germany's most important monuments and landmarks, all in celebration of Love, Freedom and Techno!

The Loveparade is hugely popular, attracting some of the biggest DJs and crowds from around the world and spanning all facets of electronic music. It has even spawned a series of sister events in such far-flung places as the UK, Israel and South Africa. The event completely takes over the city, prowling through the streets like a giant monster. Each float is fashioned by club and party organisers, who bring their own DJs and their own brand of techno. Fifty-one different floats create a cacophony of beats for the people who dance alongside, blowing whistles and often wearing very little bar body paint. The traditional route of the parade snakes past the Angel of Peace monument in the middle of the Tiergarden and down to the Brandenburg Gate, a potent symbol of German reunification. Here the focus shifts to one massive arena. Two DJ booths surrounded by hundreds of cameras are raised on scaffolding high above the cheering crowd, giving the headlining DJs their moment of glory. Giant video screens light up the sky as the likes of Westbam, Sven Vath and Paul Van Dyk play to the crowd, cameras broadcast live around the world and two million people go absolutely wild.

The Parade Welcome to the world's biggest party - a moving monster of excitable fun-lovers dressed in anything from, well, practically nothing to alien outfits and furry underwear. Anything goes, and boy does it go - well into the night, as love, freedom and techno are celebrated in a high energy frenzy