LOVEFEST 2008

By: Amy Ebersole


In a time of chaos, the warm blanket of LoveFest, the largest single day American electronic music event, melted the bitter frost of war and economic decline. LoveFest is inspired by the Berlin Love Parade to demonstrate for peace and understanding through music.


Beginning at 12pm last Saturday, the musical float parade slid through Market Street and ended as an all out street rave as the floats set up camp at Civic Center Plaza where more than 200 electronic music DJ’s pumped the atmosphere till sunset beneath a b a building that looks something like a European domed opera house paved in gold.


“Dance music has always had a special ability to bring people together in the shared beauty of a universal vibe. Our community by and large remains 'underground' in U.S. pop culture due to very little support from radio and MTV, etc.” the lovefest website stated.


Free and all ages,  the rich/poor, old/young, underground/pop divide was bridged as floats blasted drum and bass, house and trance down the streets while swarming naked bodies, fishnet tights, paint, glitter, plastic glasses, neon-wear, and fur ‘pimped out’ outfits danced on and alongside the sound.


 “We know that in a culture awash in conflict, materialism, superficial concerns, and greed, an event of this kind can lift the spirits and the hopes of those who to surrender to it's power. The power of dance. The power of music. The power of community,” the website stated.


The electronic beats of DJ’such as Benni Bennasi, Mark Farina, and Adam Freeland lasted until sunset when fans trickled out of the streets taking in breaths of  the magical electric lightness of the atmosphere that for one afternoon brought people together in a protest for something worth fighting for – the sweet intoxication of love.


Of course after the party there was the after party at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium where DJ’s Kaskade, ATB, Dave Dresden and the worlds number one DJ Armin Van Buuren spun till dawn.


LoveFest is the bohemian rhapsody of contemporary culture. And SF, it is the short story we can’t stop writing, the poem we have to spray paint on walls to escape its rhythm, it is a sonnet written not by the upper class bourgeoisie, but the people - the people who stand up for changing the atmosphere of society through communal participation of art and music.


The literary and musical landmark that is SF is where inspiration dances openly in the streets.  It is the place of Jazz, hippies and beat poetry. You enter the city through a bridged gateway that seems like Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven and the infectious overwhelming state of joy spikes the pores.


It is the city where the words, “love lights more fires than hate extinguishes” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox are stone paved outside City Lights bookstore in Jack Kerouac Alley located on the cusp of North Beach and Chinatown.

SF will always be a love affair away from our wedded hometown San Diego, USA.


And when the day and night merged into a baptismal rapture of dance, acid light and love I found myself never having seen so many nude people wearing only sneakers in the streets and never feeling more close to that naked essence that unites us all.


The city for one day changed into a post-modern sunset of the bright colors of many drug induced bodies and bright blue portapodies lined in vomit.


At Lovefest 2008, We danced for peace, love, unity and respect (“P.L.U.R” – the raver motto) and to face the problems together through community celebration as a constructive form of direct action in fulfillment of  the basic necessities of P.L.U.R.


“This is our future.  Open your heart…free your mind…face your fears…live your soul…dance!” -- Dr. Motte, Founder: Loveparade Berlin

 
-Amy Ebersole is a comparative literature senior.