Love Parade

Now let's turn our attention to July twenty-fourth, twenty ten.

The German city of Duisburg was the site of the annual Free Love Parade electronic dance music festival.

This was a very popular event, drawing enormous crowds from across Europe.

For the first nine years, it was held in Berlin before moving to Sydney, Australia, back to Berlin, then to Buenos Aires, and then after two thousand, the Love Parade touched down in Mexico City, San Francisco, Santiago, Caracas, Rotterdam, and a few other cities in Germany.

Previous years had seen up to a million participants over the length of the event.

Twenty ten was the first time Duisburg had acted as host.

Others were simply asphyxiated, and in the end, twenty-two people died and another six hundred and fifty-two were injured.

The inquiry that followed uncovered all the dangerous logistic problems.

they are dying.

This is the story of the Love Parade disaster.

Just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, 150 people gathered on the streets to form a peaceful protest.

Organized by DJ Dr. Mott, they didn't hold signs or march, they danced and that's it.

We will now update you with news from Germany.

10 people were killed following a landslide.

In total, 21 people lost their lives in the Love Parade disaster and about 650 reported injuries.

But once the bodies were counted, the next question had to be simple.

Oh, yeah.

Um, Da Hool, Meter at the Love Parade.

Uh, just all of these sick tunes.

Mm.

[Hintergrundmusik] Am vierundzwanzigsten Juli 2010 werden eins Komma fünf Millionen Menschen bei der Love Parade in Duisburg erwartet, einem Festival für elektronische Musik.

Es sollte ein Tag voller Tanzen, Zusammenhalt und Feiern werden.

Stattdessen verlieren einundzwanzig Menschen ihr Leben und über sechshundert werden verletzt in einer der tödlichsten Gedrängekatastrophen der Geschichte.

Welche Warnsignale haben die Veranstalter ignoriert? Ich war am Abend vor der Katastrophe auf dem Gelände und hatte all die Absperrungen schon gesehen und kurz gedacht: „Hm, das sieht nicht so gut aus." Warum wurde den DJs gesagt, sie sollen weiterspielen, obwohl längst Menschen gestorben waren? Und wer wurde am Ende für die Katastrophe zur Verantwortung gezogen? Meine Kollegen vom englischen Original haben Dr.

J. Keith Still gesprochen, dem weltweit führenden Experten für Menschenmengen.

Er hat ihnen erklärt, wie man ein Gedränge überlebt und was das Team der Love Parade hätte anders machen können.

People don't die because they panic.

They panic because they're dying.