Street Parade
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The Street Parade is a technoparade in Zurich, comparable to Berlin's Love Parade. Its route leads along Lake Zurich. (The English name is used in German.) The Street Parade is as of 2004 one of the largest techno parties in the world and the largest annual event in Zurich.
The first Street Parade took place 1992, initiated by student Marek Krynski and officially called "Demonstration für Liebe, Frieden, Freiheit, Grosszügigkeit und Toleranz" ("Demonstration for love, peace, liberty, generosity and Tolerance"). The 1992 parade had about 1000 participants; the next year, with 10,000 ravers, the parade became a great occasion.
In 1994 the city initially tried to ban the Street Parade, but because of strong protests from the population the city government was forced to withdraw their prohibition. Since that time the parade has taken place annually at the beginning of August. Since 1996 it has been organized by the Verein Street Parade (Street Parade Association).
As with the Loveparade in Berlin, it was originally common for spectators to climb trees, poles, toilet stalls, etc., but this is no longer tolerated after some incidents in which people fell and were injured.
The parade has generally grown steadily in size. In 2001 it set a record for events of this sort, with one million ravers participating. The Zurich Street Parade had emerged from being a pale imitation of the Berlin Loveparade to being the largest event of its type.
In 2003 attendance was down slightly, to an estimated 900,000. However, this was in contrast to far more drastic declines in the Berlin event.
References
This article is based on the article Street Parade in the German-language wikipedia.