Love Parade in Danger

Love Parade, Europe's biggest but consistently plagued techno festival, is o­nce again in danger of being cancelled this year due to financial difficulties.

Only this time the situation is so serious the government has stepped in to save the free festival.

Organisers of the event, planned for it's traditional mid July weekend, haven't been able to find enough backers to finance the parade and say they're still looking for "really big sponsors" to save their venture.

"We will make a decision in the next four weeks," says Fabian Lenz, managing director of Love Parade GmbH, the company set-up in 2001 to run Berlin's free party. "If we haven't secured enough money by then we will have to cancel the Love Parade."
In the past the party has been organised as a political demonstration, a ploy that granted it constitutional protection and, more importantly, meant the state paid for costs such as refuse collection and security for the event.

Political status is no longer an option since the parade became a private company and now organisers say the costs for this year's party will be around 1.5 Million Euro (1Million pounds).

Despite Germany's economic down-turn, the Parade has already gone some way to raising the money, having attracted the same level of sponsorship as last year. But Lenz says they've hit a serious deficit in interest from the recession ridden music and media industries.

This has left a fatal hole in revenue from record and TV licensing spin-offs.

This is not the first time the Parade has been in deficit, it endured substantial losses in 2001 and 2002 by ploughing profits generated in the years before 2001 back into the parade. "Our resources have now been used up", says Lenz.

In a curious twist, Berlin's Senate has now stepped in with a pledge to save the Love Parade.

This is not being followed-up with offers of direct financial aid, but senate spokesman Michael Donnermeyer says they "are keen for the Love Parade to stay in Berlin" and the German capital's senate will now use its contacts to help find more sponsors.

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