As one of the more renowned dance music festivals in history, Love Parade certainly left it’s mark, but what ever happened to this long-standing event?

The Berlin based, annual gathering began in 1989, running for fourteen years before going on a 3-year hiatus after their 2003 instalment and reopening in 2006.

During it’s formative years, Love Parade saw swift growth in numbers along with international recognition. Conceived by Matthias Roeingh (also known as “Dr Motte”) and his then girlfriend Danielle de Picciotto, the first instalment saw 150 techno enthusiasts marching through the streets of Berlin.

A humble start that was sure to snowball, and it didn’t take long until people from around the globe were going out of their way to attend the annual parade, with crowds of over 100,000 soon becoming the norm. The festival even inspired one of the most recognisable dance tracks ever:

Soon enough, spin-off events began popping up around the world, and reeling in the big numbers as well. Cities such as Vienna, Paris, Rotterdam, Bologna, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago, Tel Aviv and even Sydney were among the plenty who had their own Love Parade; events that brought like-minded music lovers together.

However, the sheer size of this beloved festival was to become it’s downfall.

During Love Parade’s 2010 festivities in Berlin, a stampede broke out among the punters. This large scale rush of bodies matched with a contained space was sure to create the recipe for disaster, and the stampede resulted in the death of 21 attendees.

It was reported that the free festival had upwards of 500,000 in attendance during the event, twice the expected amount.

This tragic occurrence – that resulted in the charging of 10 festival employees – made headlines across the world, with the festival organiser announcing that the event would be permanently cancelled.

A truly devastating way to close the book on a legendary festival; this was indeed the end of Love Parade, with the festival now coming into its sixth year of cancellation.

Did you or anyone you know get to attend Love Parade before it’s tragic end? Let us know in the comments along with a memory from the festival, good or bad.