Disclaimer: This review has a lot of rambling since its meant for the forum & not the main page - pics at bottom for the impatient.

The original Loveparade began in 1989 in Berlin and over the years grew to feature an array of floats decorated to different themes and pumping out all styles of electronic music. Many things have changed since then… however, at San Francisco's 2nd installment of their own Love Parade it was evident that the 50,000+ strong crowd's desire to gather and dance was long overdue.

Our Tranceaddict crew left Toronto, Canada early Friday morning and arrived in beautiful San Francisco a few hours later - we jumped into a cab and prayed for our lives as this guy flew on the freeway at speeds his aging Chevy couldn't have handled safely even when it was brand new (…probably 15 years ago). After catching our breath we managed to check into our hotel located conveniently by Union Square downtown and continued on our adventure. First on the agenda was to to get hooked up on wireless Internet access in our room, a quick check of email and PMs showed nothing of real importance ("I need to find this song", "Please change my Forum name to …."). The clock was ticking - Friday afternoon was the only time we had to shop and we came with our suitcases half empty with this task in mind. A quick glance around showed us we had to use our time wisely, Macy's, Armani, Versace, Niketown, Lacoste, Paul Frank, G-Star Raw, Banana Republic, Diesel, the list goes on. The selection of menswear at many of these stores is off the scale - which was good for me, it meant I'd actually find something in my size (lol). We walk into Macy's and I mention something about the Love Parade and a guy that was there shopping heard me and asked if I needed a Map of the Parade route - that was the first 'perfect timing' moment. As we're paying for some clothes the cashier sees my TranceAddict shirt and asks me, "Do you like being in a traaaaaaaance? Do you like being in the zooooooooone?" - this was completely weird - when I told him it was a genre of electronic music he looked at me as if I was making it up.

Now for the second 'perfect timing' moment - as we're talking about the first one I mention how it reminded me of WMC in Miami this year -here's the background - After Ultra Music Festival was over (and thousands of people were looking for a cab) we decided to start walking back to our hotel - after 40 minutes we decide we've had enough and flag down a cab - during the trip the driver mentions how it was such a crazy weekend and we mention we're there for the conference and he replied that the morning prior he had picked up a DJ outside space - a guy named "Testo" - we're like "Tiesto?" and he goes "Yes I think so". Unreal. Ok, back to San Fran - as I'm on the sidewalk I mention Tiesto's name while this girl and her boyfriend walk into the store -- they immediately come back out and ask me if I just said that (lol) - and then she proceeds to tell me they're from Los Angeles and saw Tiesto in Concert in July and how it was nuts, etc., and how they just got back from Turkey where they saw Markus Schulz and can't wait to see him the next day at the Love Parade/Spundae & Skills Afterparty. ...seems like everyone was here to party.

The next 'perfect timing' moment happened as we walked into this one clothing store (G-Star Raw) and saw the racks full of clothes. I was immediately drawn to this one winter jacket (wtf? Shopping for a Winter jacket in California? Yup.) - I tried it on and it fit perfectly - but there was no price tag on it - I ask one of the sales associates and she had to go look it up. Why no price tag? It was the grand opening of the store - it had just opened up an hour before we got there! Crazy!

Shopping was done. Back to the Hotel to drop off the goods and get ready to party - but we had to eat first - so we checked out this place called Mecca. Wow, the ambience in here is great - and the music matched nicely with the beats being pumped out by the DJ just inside the entrance. The food was great and after finishing some drinks we had a nice buzz to go onto the next stop - to check out Lee Burridge @ Mezzanine. (Sean Miller is playing there with Lawler in October too..)

Upon arrival we have a short wait in the guestlist line before checking it out inside - the club has an interesting setup, the upper level was a nice touch and the sofas were good when you needed a break but still wanted to see the action on the main floor. Lee started playing soon after we got there and the dance floor just went off after that - a night to start the weekend. Sorry I don't have pics of that night - I was partying too much - someone PM me some of theirs

Woke up late Saturday morning with a hangover from hell - then I ran off to the Civic Center Arena to drop off the TranceAddict banner for the party that night. By the time we got out of there the parade was just beginning - getting into a cab was pointless because of the traffic gridlock - so we opted to just walk down to where all the action was. As we approached Market & 3rd we could already hear the bass pounding and turning the corner was quite the sight. Thousands of people lined the streets as the floats approached, and it wasn't only the dancers on the floats that were all dressed up - lots of people in the crowd were dolled up in funky outfits - while others took a slightly more comfortable approach and settled for no clothes as their outfit (ugh, some ppl should wear clothes). After about an hour many of the floats had already gone by - way too fast I might add - if you stopped to dance you'd lose your float and had to run to catch up. Ok, so we started getting hungry - it was time to grab a bite - my friend Jeff suggested we eat at Taco Del - cuz, u know - the ad on the sidewalk with a picture of a 'Bacon Double Del' looked good. Sooo…after we ate that we both realized what a mistake it was and likened it to a week-old Big Mac dipped in salt and left outside for a week only to be thrown back into a Microwave. Yum. Now that our toxic meat adventure was over it was time to catch up with the Parade which had passed us down towards the Civic Centre Square where all the floats had now parked in the square area with each blasting their own beats.

It was literally a zoo in there at the beginning - trying to find anyone was best left to text messaging on our phones (which had horrid reception in this area of the city for some reason). Once inside the square it didn't really matter where you were, there was good music and 'interesting sights' happening on every corner. We opted to hang out near the main Spundae/Skills float as Markus Schulz was tearing it up… after taking some photos/videos of the madness we proceeded to check out the other floats - ThumpRadio was playing some good stuff but really it was just an experience being there and meeting like-minded party people - some of which had traveled across the US and Canada just to see what the fuss was all about.

I noticed a few Tranceaddicts in the crowd but somehow I missed this happening right on the main float - LATA neinerlove representing:



(Credit: Orbital32)

Once the sun had set we went back to our hotel rooms to get ready for the Official Love Parade Afterparty being put on by Spundae & Skills with stages also hosted by Tranceaddict & Bassrush.

The venue was perfect for this party - very high ceilings and an upper level overseeing the main room made for a very comfortable party night. We were going between the main room and the Tranceaddict room most of the night so we managed to hear great stuff from Blank & Jones, Markus Schulz, Kyau vs Albert & Ferry Corsten. Ok, I'll let the pictures and the video do the talking, its easier.

Thanks/Greets to Guiv @ Spundae, Jason @ Skills, John & Pam, Puffkins, DaveT, Kristina Sky, Kyau vs Albert, Tania Mann, Illya, Neinerlove,sweetcandy girl, and the all other TAs we managed to find in the crowd - looking forward to next year!

VIDEO



Ferry Corsten at peak time at the Afterparty - crowd was going nuts! You need to have Divx installed to view this video. The sound quality is *really poor* - the digital cam couldn't handle the bass.

Full:
Ferry_Corsten-San_Francisco_Loveparade_2005_Afterparty-crowd-full.avi (17MB)

Clip:
Ferry_Corsten-San_Francisco_Loveparade_2005_Afterparty-crowd.avi (5MB)

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Token Ass shot:

(Credit: Jeff aka Joe Magnum Addict)

Token TA Defacement of a vehicle:

(Credit: Orbital32)

Token Sunset shot:

(Credit: Swampah)

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Source: curlyguillen (Click for More)

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Source: TattooMike(click for more)

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Source: Dave T (Click for More)

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REVIEWS

Tranceaddict Love Parade Review Thread (California Forum)

Sweetcandy Girl's Review

More Photo Galleries:

Christopher Soltis
Boomer187
in2muzikk
Sweetcandy girl
UrTranceZone

Articles:

CNET: Love Parade Rocks San Francisco

San Francisco Sentinel: Love Parade Dazzles (GREAT Pics!)

Inside Bay Area: Love Parade throbs in S.F.

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...and I'd just like to add that while this was a crazy party and a ton of fun that many people who attended came from places where they cannot hear electronic music on a regular basis. We have it good in Toronto - many are envious - don't knock what we got here locally, its a lot better than you think.

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"In a world of illusion you only see what you feel"

Last edited by Swamper on Oct-08-2005 at 01:31