DUISBURG, Germany – On July 24, the free Love Parade techno festival apparently drew hundreds of thousands more attendees then the site could handle. As officials tried to limit access at the wide tunnel entrance at about 5 p.m., chaos broke out, killing 20 and injuring close to 500 fans.
Investigators are reviewing videos taken and other evidence in an effort to pinpoint what went wrong at the festival, which was staged in Duisburg for the first time after gaining massive popularity at its original location in Berlin from 1989 to 2006. (The festival was cancelled in 2004 and 2005 due to funding difficulties.)
Founded by DJ Matthias Roeingh, a.k.a. Dr. Motte, in 1989, the same year the Berlin Wall fell, the Love Parade festival moved from Berlin to western Germany's industrial Ruhr region in 2007. It was held in Essen in 2007, Dortmund in 2008 and was set for Duisburg in 2009, but that event was canceled.
Early reports indicated that police had said the Duisburg site for 2010, a former freight railway yard, was suitable for 300,000 people. The festival, however, had grown to 1.2 million attendees by 2007, and news reports estimated the crowd in Duisburg to be 1.4 million, but police have called that figure unlikely, and an exact count of the crowd assembled for the free event remains elusive.
City police and hired security tried to restrict access at the single tunnel entrance to the site about 5 p.m., according to reports. Shortly thereafter, panic ensued as some who tried to escape via a steep metal stairway near the tunnel fell back into the crowd. Police said the fatalities occurred outside the tunnel, not within it.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, organizer Rainer Schaller said the Love Parade will not be staged again out of respect for the victims.
