The “Rave The Planet Parade” demonstration on July 8th, 2023 was once again a great success. Under the motto “Music Is The Answer”, as expected, 300,000 participants marched in Berlin along the Street Of June 17th. They demonstrated dancing for peace and for the preservation of electronic music and club culture, as well as the recognition of the cultural and social achievements.

The demonstration started punctually at 14:00 at the Großer Stern, with an opening speech by Senator for Culture Joe Chialo, which was transmitted live to all 25 floats. He emphasized the importance of the Rave The Planet Parade, whose organizers have made it their mission to continue this Berlin-specific form of dance and music demonstration in the spirit of the Berlin Love Parade.

“Today is a special day for Berlin. Here, a tradition is continued that has shaped our city, namely the Loveparade. After painful wrong decisions in the past, which led to the expulsion of the old Loveparade in Berlin, it is a great pleasure to see that this Berlin’s original event, is back here,.. in Berlin, at home.”

15 more speakers, from across Germany and five European capitals, lent emphasis to the political demands and contents of the parade. More than 200 artists from all over the world expressed their opinions in the form of musical contributions, including well-known names such as Klaudia Gawlas, Takkyu Ishino, Timo Maas, Nakadia, Westbam, Blazej Malinowski, Simina Grigoriu, Anja Schneider and many others.

Throughout the whole day, a total of 300,000 people participated in the Rave The Planet Parade. About 200,000 people were on the streets at the same time, while another 20,000-30,000 gathered in the park. Additionally, there was a continuous in and out-flow of participants during the entire eight hours of the demonstration. At no point was the area occupancy of 230,000 people exceeded.

In the preparation process before the demonstration, unexpected difficulties arose when, on the evening of 21.06.2023, the Malteser Hilfsdienst e.V. paramedics cancelled their cooperation with the organizers, the non-profit rave the planet gGmbH. After all attempts to organize an adequate replacement in the required haste failed, which is also due to a boycott call of the Berlin aid organizations, a private service provider was found at short notice after the public announcement of the incidents, which ensured the paramedical security of the large demonstration. The cost burden for this was imposed on rave the planet gGmbH by order of the court, which is currently still to be legally evaluated.

The organizers were accused of having made partly contradictory statements or not providing the necessary transparency with regard to the development of the fundraising. The press has released different statements which were often mixed up, and the information provided by rave the planet gGmbH might have been insufficiently precise. Therefore, here is the current status of all donations received along the actual costs of the paramedical service.

+++ UPDATE FROM Aug 17th, 2023 +++

RECEIVED DONATIONS:

GoFundMe ➔ €25,255.72
PayPal ➔ €46,044.94
Konto ➔ €23,267.25

(All amounts mentioned above are net, without platform fees.)

OWN SAVINGS:

Budget reserved for paramedic service ➔ €40.000,00

TOTAL ➔ €134,567.91

COSTS:

Initial cost of the paramedic service: €215,366.57

Still missing: 80,798.66 €

DONATE FOR THE PARADE

To cover this full cost, the non-profit organization continues to call for support through donations. You can join the ongoing GoFundMe campaign:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/rettet-die-rave-the-planet-parade

Alternatively also via PayPal:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=7T5X4PVEVREFY

or via bank transfer to the bank account of rave the planet gGmbH:

Bank:	Berliner Sparkasse
IBAN:	DE34 1005 0000 0190 8305 49
BIC:	BELADEBE
Reference:	Spende

IN DETAIL:

The rave the planet gGmbH has accepted a cost offer for the service in the amount of €150,700.00 and has placed the order on this basis. With additional paramedical staff accommodation cost in the amount of €7,984.00, it resulted in a total amount of €158,684.00.

Now, the costs of the paramedical service have been estimated at € 212,382.57, because the duration of the paramedical service exceeded far beyond midnight. To these costs must be added the accommodation costs of € 7,984.00, so that the total amount becomes € 220,366.57.

Recently, the costs of the medical service were provisionally estimated at €212,382.57, as the duration of the medical service unexpactedly extended far beyond midnight. These costs need to be supplemented by overnight stay expenses amounting to €7,984.00, resulting in a total burden of €220,366.57 in this case.

However, this total had been reduced by approximately €5,000.00 to €215,366.57 on July 27, 2023.

This means that as of August 17, 2023, a liquidity gap of €80,798.66 could still be expected if the costs remain at this level and the obligation to bear the costs, especially with regard to the overtime work, remains with the organizers of the demonstration. They are in close contact with the paramedic service provider. The situation was known to all parties involved when the order was placed.

The deployment of the paramedic service was highly praised by the Berlin authorities. The 5 emergency aid stations were used to an average of 15-30% capacity until the early evening. It was not until the evening hours that the interventions increased and led to a short-term utilization of 100%, which is why the operation continued even after the end of the assembly, at 22:00. In the final report, a patients number of 475 people was recorded, of which 428 could be discharged after receiving treatment and 47 had to be transported to a hospital. Overall, the second Rave The Planet Parade, despite the high temperatures, was very peaceful.

The rave the planet gGmbH would like to thank all the personnel, especially the medical service MOL-Medical, who organized and carried out the entire operation in a reliable and highly professional manner despite the short notice.

+++ END OF UPDATE +++

THE DAY AFTER: CLEAN-UP DAY

Rave The Planet is committed to the motto “Save the planet”. A total of 63 volunteers came together for the Clean-Up Day on July 9th, 2023 to clean a large part of the 2.1 square kilometers Tiergarten park, supported by the BSR “Kehrenbürger” project. The main focus was placed on the Grosser Hain, the recently renewed Floraplatz and the entire Bremer Weg. The clean-up was made difficult by the high temperatures, which meant that not everything could be completely cleaned up in one go.

Rave The Planet would like to thank the Berlin city cleaning department – BSR and the District Office of Berlin Mitte for their professional and goal-oriented support in the removal of waste.

According to the information provided by the BSR, about 164 cubic meters of garbage were collected from the streets after the Rave The Planet Parade, mainly beverage packaging, cardboard boxes and, despite previous request by the organizers, many glass bottles. This corresponds to 164,000 liters. Per person, this equals an average of 0.55 liters of garbage. In the previous year, the figure was 0.45 liters per person.

SUMMING UP

In conclusion, the overwhelmingly positive reactions to the successful demonstration make the organizers of the Rave The Planet Parade very happy and motivated. However, the follow-up work will still take some weeks.

Only then, based on the progress of the fundraising campaign, will it be decided whether there will be another Rave The Planet Parade in 2024.