Cancellation of Loveparade Berlin 200

Author: Loveparade Berlin GmbH
Date: May 20, 2004
Views: 2758

Funding unclear despite intensive talks with potential sponsors


The cancellation of the Loveparade Berlin 2004 has now been confirmed. Despite several weeks of intensive negotiations and talks with potential sponsors, there is no funding in sight for this year\'s Loveparade. \"We had to officially cancel this year\'s Loveparade on April 14th: But with the support of the Senate of Berlin, we had then tried to stage the event nevertheless,\" said Fabian Lenz, General Manager of the Loveparade Berlin GmbH in Berlin today. \"Unfortunately, all partners involved had to realize that, at this point, a funding, due to the high costs and the generally poor economic situation, is impossible. We therefore finalize and confirm the cancellation of the Loveparade Berlin 2004.\"
Prior to the talks, the Loveparade had tried for months to finance the event itself. \"We have had intensive, confidential talks with current and new sponsors and have tried to find a financing since September 2003,\" said Fabian Lenz.
The Loveparade Berlin GmbH had cancelled this year\'s event already a month ago as it was impossible to organize the event due to the missing financing. Since 2001, the Loveparade has not enjoyed the official status of a political demonstration. Due to the involved, additional costs, the event could not be staged with a balanced budget. The generally bad economic situation of the past years has also led to further losses of profits.

\"We thank the Senate of Berlin for its negotiations with sponsors, even though these efforts did not lead to the desired results,\" said Fabian Lenz, \"even with the sponsors we could win for supporting parade, it would not have been fundable.\"

\"I regret the final cancellation of the Loveparade, particularly because of the hun-dreds of thousands of young people who were looking forward to the event. We had found a powerful, main sponsor, Samsung. Unfortunately, all other circumstances have prevented a general solution. We are glad that Samsung is prepared to commit itself to the success of next year\'s Loveparade. The Senate will be starting with its efforts for the Loveparade 2005 right away. We should now look ahead and use the time until next year,\" said Harald Wolf, Senator for Economic Affairs of the City of Berlin. He had managed the talks on behalf of the Berlin Senate.

\"Nobody should be surprised that an event which is burdened with basic costs for the Tiergarten park of more than 600,000 _, can only be financed with great difficulty,\" said Fabian Lenz. In the next few weeks, the Loveparade Berlin GmbH will be continuing the constructive talks with the Senate and all partners involved for the next Loveparade in 2005. \"In the months ahead, we will also be working for a successful Loveparade 2005. We do hope that once again we can welcome hundreds of thousands of party guests from around the world at the Victory Column here in Berlin.\"

In the meantime, the Loveparade Berlin GmbH, together with Berlin\'s clubs and event organizers, will be talking about alternative events for the party tourists, who are travelling to Berlin on July 10th 2004. Techno fans around the world are partying on various international Loveparades: In March, Mexico City hosted its third Loveparade with approximately 250,000 visitors. This year, there is going to be the first Loveparade ever in San Fransisco, and on August 27th, Tel Aviv will welcome the party crowd for its sixth Loveparade.

Loveparade Berlin GmbH
Tel: +49. 30. 30 88 120
Fax: +49. 30. 3088 12 55
Media Office Loveparade
Tel. + 49 30 301 22 196
Fax: +49. 30. 301 22 197


No Loveparade Berlin 2004

Berlin, April 14 2004
We are terribly sorry to announce that this year\'s Loveparade will not be celebrated. Due to a lack of financial resources - and only three months remaining to get this straight - there is no other way but to cancel Loveparade Berlin 2004.

Ever since the Loveparade lost its status as a demonstration in 2001, constant financial losses were the case. Until 2002, these losses were paid for with our own savings. The main reason for these losses were the high production costs, which resulted from its new status as a regular event. These additional costs added up to more than 900,000_.

The general business situation remaining over the last years has not only affected Loveparade itself, but also a great many of our partners (in the advertising, TV, and record industries), which added to our bad financial situation.

In 2003 it was the support of Messe Berlin who helped out with the necessary budget. Nevertheless, this year\'s conferences with the Berliner Senat and the Messegesellschaft did NOT end with a financial solution for the Loveparade even though we had tried to cut all possible costs.

Furthermore we thought about financing the event with tickets, but we eventually came up with the decision that this would be the wrong thing to do: It would turn the initial ideas of Loveparade as an \"event open to anyone\" upside down.

We are planning to meet in the near future in order to discuss our next steps and the conditions which could make future Loveparades possible.

After the third Loveparade Mexico City took place in March (with round about 250,000 visitors), the FIRST San Francisico Loveparade is due on September 25. Furthermore, Tel Aviv will celebrate its sixth Loveparade on August 27.

Figures:
Estimated number of visitors over the last years
2001: 1.000.000
2002: 750.000
2003: 750.000

Production cost at the time Loveparade was still an official demonstration (2000): 301.700 Euro

Production cost of Loveparade as regular event (2003): 1.225.000 Euro

Business Figures on Loveparade:
The only reliable study on this topic was done by FfH. They found out that the 500,000 visitors of Loveparade 2000 spent some 50 Mio. _ in Berlin. This amount of money can be considered an additional profit. The study bases these figures on the the assumption that each visitor (only those who don\'t live in Berlin) spent circa 125 _, 23% of which were spent on luxury items, 21% on \"Shopping\", 18% on Clubs, Museums, etc., and 10,2 % for accomodation. At this point the parade was free of charge for visitors.

Get more info at:
Loveparade Berlin GmbH
Friedrichstrasse 119, D 10117 Berlin
Fon +49. 30. 3088 12 0
Fax +49. 30. 3088 12 55

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