Trip Inform

The Price of Success
- Loveparade 2009 in Bochum is canceled -
Dear friends, fans and supporters of the Loveparade,

As you have probably heard in the media, there will be no Loveparade this year. After many months of intensive discussions and close examination of the situation, we are following the request of Bochum's administration not to hold the Loveparade in Bochum, Germany.

Why no Loveparade?

This year is the 20th birthday of the Loveparade. Last year's Loveparade was a huge success—1.6 million visitors travelled to Dortmund. We were expecting at least as many visitors this year. The infrastructure and facilities in Bochum are not capable of handling this number of visitors. What's more, the local railway track is due for extensive maintenance work to be carried out by Deutsche Bahn, and this work cannot be rescheduled. These works would prevent the majority of visitors from being able to reach the Loveparade. We cannot expect you, and thus the Loveparade, to put up with a situation like this. In our opinion, these conditions make it impossible to stage a Loveparade the way we want it to be, i.e. at least as good as those in recent years.

As we always say: You are the Loveparade, you make this event to what it is—unique: The biggest party in the world. This year we simply cannot stage the Loveparade in a way that any of us would wish for.

As you can likely imagine, we have been working on this project for months, we have developed new ideas, looked at concept variations, all of which were tailored to the situation in Bochum. We have spoken to and negotiated with artists, partners and sponsors—at the end of the day we have invested a great deal of passion in this project. Just like you, we are endlessly disappointed that there will be no Loveparade 2009.

Why don't we move the location to another city for 2009?
The question is easy to answer. We like it here in the Ruhr metropolitan area; the reception has been overwhelming. The Loveparade is at home there, we have enjoyed a warm welcome, and it has proven immensely popular with you.

Why don't we just go to Duisburg or Gelsenkirchen earlier?
We need to make thorough preparations for the parade, and we need to check the local conditions with great care. That takes time. Duisburg is making arrangements for 2010, Gelsenkirchen for 2011. Hastily planning "a quick move to another city" would not help anybody—not us, not the host city, not the fans. This is why we are concentrating on 2010.

Despite all this, and as difficult as it may be: We are looking to the front, staying on the ball and we will make good use of the time ahead: The challenges have increased in magnitude after the success of recent years. We will carefully be checking the coming cities and local conditions, and we want to be ready for the start for the year as European Capital of Cultural in RUHR2010 in the Ruhr metropolitan area.

LET THE LOVE GO ON
Your Loveparade Team


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