200,000 people attend Berlin’s Rave The Planet Parade

200,000 people attended the Rave The Planet Parade last weekend.

On Saturday 9th July, the free parade, which featured over 100 DJs and a variety of floats from different crews and collectives, took place in Berlin from 2PM until the late evening.

Along the 7km route, music was provided for the 200,000-strong crowd by Berlin institutions such as Anomalie Art Club, who joined forces with DJ Valerio Sinatra, who to host Alex Stein, Sophie Kah, MISTRAL, Mha Ari and more. Queer party promoters BEAST & Revolver also joined the parade, with Christian Smith, Strøm, and Marcel DB. 

Disconnekt and Gegen Berlin also hosted a float featuring b2bs from Bloody Mary and Cristian Marras, and Stephanie Sykes with Jean Philippe. DJ, MC, and dance troupe Freak De L’Afrique brought African club sounds to proceedings, from Amapiano to Afro tech, while the Ostfunk crew teamed up psy party Goanautika.

Elsewhere, Belgian non-profit Free People Collective, Cologne’s Freigeist Open Air community and Lichtparade, Vienna’s Planet Austria, the Independent Polish Underground (representing Warsaw and Krakow), and Dutch troupe Ship of Fools all made appearances at the event.

In an interview with Resident Advisor, Ellen Dosch-Roeingh, the spokesperson for Rave The Planet, said that on Saturday night, the music and demonstration ended 40 minutes ahead of schedule at the city’s Tiergarten Park because the police were concerned there “were too many people”. Dosch-Roeingh also confirmed that there were no reports of “bad incidents”, and a team of volunteers returned on Sunday to clear up litter from the event.

The brainchild of legendary acid house and techno DJ and promoter Dr Motte, who, among other things, set up the original Berlin Love Parade, last year DJ Mag visited the HQ of Rave the Planet to learn about the organisation, and its aims of adding Berlin techno to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

(Photo: Sebastian Wischmann)