One sunny afternoon I was minding my own business cleaning my house when all of a sudden the sound of my vacuum cleaner was overpowered by a thumping techno beat that got louder and louder. What. The. Fuck. When I looked out the window there it was: The Train of Love (a.k.a. Zug der Liebe) stomping down Prenzlauer Allee right under my window. I knew it was happening that day, but I didn’t really pay much attention to the details of it so I had no clue it would come past my house.
The street parade (that is not supposed to considered be a second coming of the Love Parade) was not what I expected it to be at all. It was loud, yes, and trashy, oh yes. But it was also one thing: A getting together of all kinds of people! Like a the laziest paparazzi on Earth I sat down on my balcony snapping away pictures of the people who came by. I saw cute hipster kids, costumed crazy people, 90s-style ravers, hot gay guys, moms and dads, happy bottle collectors, flower girls, people in wheelchairs, bodybuilders, Asian trans women, all skin colors, all ages, all styles, all nationalities. This was probably the most diverse and inclusive event that I’ve seen in Berlin and I watched, deeply fascinated, sipping on my Rhabarberschorle on my little balcony…
UPDATE: If you want the Zug der Liebe parade to happen again this year in 2019 you can get involved and support their crowdfunding campaign right here.
A little shout out to the guys in orange who had their own parade following the techno train and cleaning up the mess the people left in such an efficient way that it looked like nothing happened once everything had passed by.
