Street parade revellers warned to behave

Popping and bopping at the Street Parade Keystone

Zurich police will be closely watching this year's Street Parade amid a warning that future events could be cancelled if there is a repeat of drunken misbehaviour.

Several bars lining the route have been banned from selling alcohol during Saturday’s festival as the authorities get tough. But Street Parade organisers said that they are being unfairly targeted.

Seventeen years after its launch, the annual music festival runs under the banner of “Friendship”. This year’s event attracted 820,000 international revellers who enjoyed sunshine and warm temperatures.

Street Parade spokesman Stefan Epli told swissinfo that the motto stands for tolerance and respect. “We want people to show responsibility towards themselves, to others and to the environment,” he said. “This also includes being responsible about alcohol and drugs.”

But the assurances have failed to impress Zurich’s city councillor in charge of police, Esther Maurer, who cited 250 drink and drug related arrests last year.

Maurer believes that self-policing measures – such as the sale of alcohol-free beverages, the deployment of 80 security staff and the assistance of drug prevention groups – are sufficient to curb the problem.

“The city council will not accept an image of drunken Zurich going out around the world this year,” she told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper. “These comatose drinkers and rioting drunks, who attack medics and urinate on emergency vehicles, damage the image of the city.”

She also warned that the future of the event could be in danger if organisers fail to clean up their act.

“Should the situation not improve then the city council will have to seriously ask if it wants to allow the Street Parade to continue,” she said.

Scapegoat

In addition to these warnings and restrictions on alcohol sales, the city authorities have also told a separately organised music event held in the main train station to turn the volume down in the early hours.

The measures have led some people to complain that the Street Parade is being unfairly singled out as part of a police crackdown on excessive alcohol consumption by youths.

“The Parade itself has always been great fun and very peaceful. The problems begin when people start going to clubs in the evening, drink too much alcohol and take drugs,” said Epli.

“We have hundreds of thousands of people partying in a positive way and only a few people do bad things. And yet people say that the Street Parade has an alcohol and drug problem. It is no worse than at a football match.

“We are doing whatever we can do. Maybe it would be better for the politicians to work more closely with us rather than threaten to cancel the event.”

Tourist attraction

Zurich’s tourist board rates the Street Parade as one of the most important events in the city’s calendar. Director Frank Bumann believes the threats to cancel it will not come to fruition.

“I think this is just a bit of power play to get the message across to the organisers,” he told swissinfo.

“The Street Parade has a huge impact because it shows the world that Zurich is a lively, tolerant, international and colourful city. It would very negative if we lost it and a missed opportunity to market our brand.”

swissinfo, Matthew Allen in Zurich

Free Form: Street Parade

The Zurich Street Parade took its inspiration from the Berlin Love Parade. In 1992, student Marek Krynski organised a demonstration in support of “love, peace, freedom, generosity and tolerance” through the streets of Zurich. It attracted 2,000 people and ended in a rave music party.

Two years later, Zurich’s then police chief Robert Neukomm banned the Parade on the grounds of being too noisy and generating too much litter. However, he was forced to back down after public pressure and the event went ahead.

By 1995, the Parade had turned into an international event, attracting a lot of media coverage from around the world. Some 500,000 revellers descended on Zurich in 1997 and the number swelled to a record million in 2001.

Last year saw 800,000 party-goers with the same number expected this year, staged on Saturday, August 9. The event features electronic music, DJs and a procession of Love Mobile carnival floats that travel through the streets.