The year is 2010 and Manfred has taken the train to the German city of Duisburg to go to the Love Parade. The techno festival is one of the largest in the world. He looks forward to dancing sweaty to heavy bass passages.
But once inside the festival area, worries and ominous rumors of chaos disappear at the entrance. The rumors turn out to be true. It has become crowded and the situation has degenerated.
21 people lose their lives in one of Germany’s worst disasters since World War II. The media is looking for a scapegoat. The police, the festival organizer and the city of Duisburg blame each other. Meeting minutes show that no one put their foot down, despite shortcomings in safety already pointed out during the planning work.
The Love Parade, which was started after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to spread a message of openness and faith in the future, has ended in total darkness. The organizer declares that the festival will be closed to honor the victims.
P3 Documentary tells the story of Love Parade’s rise and fall.
Participants:
Manfred Bauknecht, festival visitor
Julia Henriksson, festival visitor
Danielle de Picciotto, founded Love Parade in 1989 in Berlin
Benjamin Sartory, journalist at the WDR radio station
David Schraven, then a journalist for the newspaper WAZ
Jurgen Gerlach, Professor and Head of the Department of Traffic Research at the University of Wuppertal
Jurgen Widera, pastor and victims’ ombudsman
Regina Scheurer, runs the victims’ memorial fund
Jesper Dahlbäck, DJ and music producer
A documentary by: Robin Jonsson
Producer: Lars Truedson
Executive producer: Ulrika Lindqvist
The documentary is made by the production company Tredje Statsmakten, for Swedish Radio.
Source: ICELAND NEWS