Technoparade

Technoparade

Two DJs (pictured center) mix with turntables at the Paris Techno Parade. Their equipment is inside the truck, which has a large speaker setup for the moving crowd.
General Information
Related genres Trance music, electronic dance music, goa, dub techno, psychedelic trance, happy hardcore, etc.
Location Germany (origin)
Worldwide
Related events Music festival, carnival parade, rave, doof, algorave, trance festivals, electronic dance music festivals, teknivals
Related topics Live electronic music

A technoparade (the word is German) is a parade of vehicles equipped with strong loudspeakers and amplifiers playing techno music. It resembles a carnival parade in some respects, but the vehicles (called lovemobiles) are usually less elaborately decorated. Also, a technoparade doesn't share the carnival parade tradition of bombarding the spectators with sweets. However, the revellers do occasionally throw confetti (usually larger and more sparkly than that in a carnival parade) and spray foam from the vehicles onto the crowd.

Nearly all of the vehicles are converted trucks. In order to power the amplifiers, the trucks are frequently equipped with an additional electrical generator. For safety reasons, horse-drawn floats are never used in technoparades: there would be a danger of horses panicking from the noise and chaos. However, there are occasional human-drawn floats equipped with generators, record players, amplifiers and loudspeakers. Some of the vehicles allow people to ride along, for a fee. For those on the sidelines, or travelling alongside on foot or bicycles, attendance is free.

Official program

The official program of a technoparade is usually not as important as what happens informally. In contrast to a carnival parade, the vehicles are little more than flatbed trucks with sound equipment, rather than elaborately decorated floats. There are usually no fireworks or other traditional elements of large celebrations. Technoparades are rarely linked to anniversaries of historical events: they usually simply take place in the summer to take advantage of the good weather.

Character

DJ's deliver a constant stream of music from the parade trucks.

Technoparades generally have a carnival atmosphere, where social rules (and some laws, or at least their enforcement) are at least loosened, and sometimes broken outright. An atmosphere of chaos and tolerance prevails as bystanders dance to the shifting sounds of successive vehicles rolling by them: the music blasting from one vehicle blends into that from another, which can mean a sudden change of dance style in the area where the spheres of influence overlap. The music coming from two sound trucks overlaps with approximately equal intensity, and people can dance to either of two competing rhythms. In the technoparade subculture they call this the Verwirrungsgebiet ("overlap zone") by analogy to a concept in radio frequency engineering.

The street allows for a type of dancing that would be literally impossible in cramped German discotheques, and the breadth of some people's dancing is further exaggerated as they throw their clothes outwards. Some in the crowd generally climb up to any high point that can possibly be scaled, more and more as the event continues. The spirit is usually continued at after-parties in the local discotheques, sometimes including unofficial after-parties at discotheques having no official connection to the parade.

Problems

Law enforcement is often lax at Technoparades.
Although not intended, it happens sometimes that things get destroyed by visitors of techno parades. The rain tube shown on the picture was torn down by a man in a slap-stick like manner when he tried to climb down from the roof of the building at the left on Street Parade 1997. At Street Parade 1998, it laid still at the place where it was put one year ago

Technoparades are not without problems:

Major events

World's largest

Count of participants for the Love Parade (blue) and Street Parade (red).
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Germany

Switzerland

Other

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ↑ Generation Move

This article is based on the corresponding article in the German-language Wikipedia.

External links

Media related to Technoparade at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, June 24, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.