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The world’s largest techno party: Zurich Street Parade

Dancing in Zürich
This year's edition on August 10 will feature 30 "love mobiles", hundreds of DJs and seven stages around Lake Zurich. Gaetan Bally/Keystone

Hundreds of thousands flocked to Zurich on Saturday for the Zurich Street Parade.

Maybe it’s because it claims to be about love. Every year the house and techno parade draws large numbers of people who follow brightly decorated Love Mobiles and mobile sound-systems around Lake Zurich as they dance.

On the other hand, there are many who loathe the annual invasion of their city, one of Switzerland’s largest events on the calendar.

The Zurich Street Parade was started in 1992 as an event promoting love, peace, freedom and tolerance. At that time there were 2,000 people dancing around two Love Mobiles. Today, it has become the biggest techno party worldwide.

Some 850,000 turned out on Saturday for the 2019 edition. Last year’s Street Parade drew more than 1 million participants.

More than 100 night trains and extra trains were put on for the event, while some trams and buses continued running up to 4am.

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