LoveParade 2000 - Roundhay Park

Given my interest in electronic music, more specifically techno and music festivals themselves this was a perfect opportunity to explore in more depth into the field of music. The parade itself is predominantly trance, techno and house and in Berlin was a huge well known event until it was stopped in 2010 for accidental deaths from overcrowding. Some of the world's biggest DJ's would come to play to hundreds of thousands and in some years, over 1 million people would turn up. It makes you wonder what it is that we all have in common to come together to such an event, aside from the love for the music itself, people of all classes, races and genders come to enjoy what's being played.

Techno originated in Detroit in America, but soon became more known throughout Europe, more specifically Berlin where it was supposedly the bonding glue between east and west Berlin after the wall came down in 1989. Soon after, LoveParade was born out of Berlin and is considered to be a political demonstration for peace and international understanding of love and music. According to Beatrice Aaronson, 

'techno transcends racial & class boundaries and takes us back to our tribal roots.'

This is an interesting thought, something that's never crossed my mind before but I think it's something that definitely makes logical sense. Christina Goulding makes another closely related point of how

'we rave to escape and dance among other like minded individuals who form an exclusive community.'

"The dancefloor generates a sentiment of community that virtually satisfies the sensation of isolation and constraint engendered by society due to its percussive and repetitive nature that recalls the frenetic drums of African tribal dances. Due to the out-of-body experience dance can generate, it is suggested that someone who dances to techno, moving to percussive and repetitive music ‘is freed from society’s rules.’”

This has inspired me to look deeper into techno and our tribal roots because I think this could create an interesting concept and visual for my poster design. Using traditional print methods could do a good job of replicating the tribal-y theme and style I'd be aiming for, techniques such as monoprint and linoprint would create a roughed up, abstract look.