Love never ends – Street Parade: Zürich spreading high vibes + Trance beats
Written by Pepo on August 21, 2017
I still can’t believe it’s already a week ago I was in the beautiful city of Zürich, Switzerland, taking part in the best party in the world! Street Parade 2017!I’m sure there are plenty of amazing parties around the world but… not like this one. And by this, I mean: a free entrance party happening all around Zürich with love mobiles spreading high vibes and people dancing to electronic beats all day long! What about that? Yes, a parade with mobiles isn’t exclusive of carnival, think back when the Love Parade – by the neighbours in Berlin, Germany – was the most famous street electronic party in the world.
Street Parade, 25 years celebrating freedom, peace & love
It all started in June 1992, when a student called Marek Krynski– inspired by the German Love Parade he was watching on tv– asked the city police authorities to let him organize a similar event in Zürich. The aim was to celebrate with lively demonstration supporting ‘love, peace, freedom, generosity and tolerance’. He went to Berlin to get more into the details on how such event was being organized. Overwhelmed after getting into all facts he went on with his idea, holding the first Street Parade, which it wasn’t the success he was expecting due to lots of important organization and technical issues. Anyway, the idea was set forward and the 7 mobiles and 1000 ravers can seem nowadays not a big deal, but it did set the begin of a daylight rave turning into night. Nowadays it’s been run by the Street Parade Association Zürich, a non-profit organization which goal is merely to maintain the ‘soul’ of the parade. Even for DJ’s all around the world is an honour to participate.
Although it’s basically a House and Techno walking party, this year there were two love mobiles totally dedicated to our beloved Trance, by the hand of Synergy Events together with FSOE and Orbit Events coupling with Extrema Global Music. Also German Daytona Event was present with their Electric Sunrise featuring Talla2XLC, i.e. and Phoenix Open Air Festival mobile banging psytrance along the way.
The actual Street Parade goes a 2, 4 km long route with 25 mobiles parading along the main street of Zürich plus the many different stages spread around and more than 100 parties at local clubs all over the city, starting from Friday until Sunday in the morning. With DJ’s from every corner of the world and the ravers dressed in costumes makes it the most colourful and lively event for all genres in the electronic music world. A must go for all electronic music lovers!
A journey into the higher spheres
I always say that travel + Trance + friends are for me the equivalent of the ultimate formula of doing what I love the most. Combining two of my passions with visiting friends is the best way of life in my opinion. I feel grateful I was able to stay by my Swiss friends Corrado and Jeanette in their apartment + their 2 cats. Having such great hosts was obviously one of the pluses! Corrado Baggieri, better known as baco – a talented Trance DJ – played some of his sets the Friday night of my arrival. We had some really nice dinner and later some good wine, our pre pre-party was the kick-off!
The following day, Saturday was THE DAY, I went full with excitement to meet at Zürich train’s station my good friends from my German Trance Family. With a group of 8 we started our mini pre-party in the first hours prior to the Street Parade in a flat in Zürich. This way I was also able to see a bit more of the city and the surroundings. Although the weather was rainy and less warm than it was expected we had a great time, only some drops of rain and a nice sun with clouds day. Everything was ideal!
Later on we decided to go for it, took a bus and let ourselves be dragged by the amount of people who were already gathering in every corner of this beautiful city. Colourful costumes, crazy afro wigs and all kind of shades and hats, the idea was too have fun; all kind of people from different parts of the world, mostly Germany and Italy, wrapping the city with their high energy vibes and style. Amazing! It was an incredible spectacle of colour, free hugs, and smiles all together dancing to the rhythm of our beloved beats. I was happy surprised to see many little kids wearing headphones and also dressed with costumes and having fun. Such was the sphere of love, peace, tolerance, freedom… absolutely great! I loved every second of it!
My friends and I went following the Synergy Events/FSOE love mobile, where many of other friends were dancing together with 300 people in it, while DJ’s such as Aly & Fila, M.I.K.E. Push, Swiss talented DJ and producer Madwave, Stoneface & Terminal and a warm-up set by Together Strong (duo with Dominique Dalcher a.k.a Cozmo & Michi Höhn a.k.a. Sonoro) were playing. And not to forget, FSOE was celebrating their 500 edition! The mobile was looking awesome (it took almost a week to prepare it for the occasion, everything made possible by volunteers), with all people dressed in a fancy Egyptian style, many had great make-up and their costumes were rich and beautifully decorated! The mobiles were stopping once in a while so we could dance with our friends, and I was even able to step into the mobile and see (and dance) from a different perspective. Of course this was a kind of privilege, and I really enjoyed my time, but to be honest, I had a different vibe coming from within the crowd than inside the mobile. Anyway, all has its pros and cons, of course, and it’s great to have both experiences.
We followed this mobile until the end of the parade (it was number 4) and went running to catch the last part of Orbit Events/Extrema Global Music, which was number 15. Here were playing Driftmoon, DJ Fly (Michael Diethelm), Italian legend Manuel Le Saux, Sean Tyas and local Zurich’s DJ Bynomic. The theme was ‘Ocean of Trance’ with people dressed in white and blue and sea fashion style. It was great to party with all our friends, being part of something bigger and one of a kind, although difficult to follow both mobiles; we did our best to enjoy it as much as we could. At the end of the parade, the party was still on, all stages were full with people dancing and having fun. The great thing of a free street party is that you are allowed to bring your own drinks and food, and knowing how pricey Zürich can be this is definitely a great advantage.
A different thing is with the toilets. I must say that for the amount of people present this day (1.5 million people!) there were not so many toilettes available, at the short sight. And if they were, the queues were long enough for people to decide to go and against a wall or hiding behind the food tents, no matter what. I had this moment I really needed to go and we were at a certain point where all toilettes were really far from reach. This meant I had to go to find one as soon as possible! Lucky girl me, one of my group friends kindly offered to go with me ‘in search of a toilette’, otherwise I was a bit scared of walking alone among the huge amount of people criss-crossing all the glass bottles on the floor. The adventure took us far away from where our friends were, which meant it was better to head directly to where the after-party was being hold at the Alte Kaserne, and along the way look for a decent wc. We finally found one, and after that I felt like a new me! Along the way we had great talks and enjoyed walking the city at night, which was looking incredible beautiful with all lights, even some parties at boats on the water! It was the first moment I had time to take a pic! After a long walk we arrived at the after-party organized by Synergy Events.
The after-party with the best Trance in town
It’s nothing new that Synergy Events is THE Trance event’s organizer in Switzerland. Stéphane Imbach, better known as Madwave, a talented Swiss DJ who profiles himself as an international figure, is the brain behind it. And can’t forget all the people behind Trance United Switzerland always supporting all Trance events.
I arrived a bit later than scheduled, while at that moment Driftmoon was at his best, so immediately went to find my friends. The Alte Kaserne is a really nice place but looked kind of small with the amount of people present this night. Also a bit too warm inside, I sometimes had the idea I was in a kind of sticky sauna 😛
Swiss people are really nice and polite. They are friendly and like to enjoy a good party. It was a great experience for me to have this opportunity to enjoy with them in their own territory while normally they are travelling all parts of the world for the love of Trance. Sometimes I think I’m a bit spoiled, in the Netherlands we have so many parties! I can even decide not to go for a while and nothing will change, there will always be a new festival or party in a club not far or just around the corner!
The rest of the night I had the pleasure to enjoy Madwave and The Thrillseekers as top acts, and later on came Sean Tyas with his banging tech/psy sound which I enjoyed, although I sometimes went outside to catch some fresh air. That was also the moment to network a bit with people and enjoy the nice night. The moon was looking great as well 🙂
I was waiting for Manuel Le Saux’s moment but unfortunately I had to miss it. My friend Corrado was game over, he had been dancing all day and his old knee injury started bothering him so we left earlier. All in all it was a great party, and although I did miss some of it, apart from the local DJ’s, I was extremely happy and satisfied with the results. The whole event at the streets and later on in a more intimate atmosphere with our trance family friends was priceless! And even later listening to all the amazing sets, there is nothing like being there at that moment, surrounded by love and pure energy, in a multicultural environment, where the only magic is being united by music!
*But wait… what about the pink flamingo used as icon for the whole event? Well, we know that pink flamingos apart from birds without wings and a curious sex position are the self-conscious symbol of rebellion, outrageousness and all things kitsch, I found an interesting articlea bout it, you can read it here. I was lucky somebody handed me one and took it home for my daughter 🙂
Another great thing about Swiss people is that they are really efficient and tidy. You just needed to see the streets the following morning after the Street Parade, everything looking perfectly clean, as it nothing had happened the night before. Like a dream, only happening once in a year.
Indeed a unique experience! And I can’t wait until next year to come back!
Because… love never ends!
PLUR