Will love come to town?

Secret talks have been taking place between the BBC, 2FM, and the organisers of the Berlin Love Parade with the aim of hosting a Love Parade in Dublin in 2002. The plan is the brainchild of Sean Brennan, who runs 2FM’s club tours and manages several of the station’s DJs.

Last month, the former MCD employee and ex-Sound Crowd manager met with Matt Priest from the BBC, who, according to Brennan, “thought that the idea of having a Love Parade in Dublin was fabulous”. Priest told Brennan that whether a Love Parade takes place in the UK next year or not, there was no reason why BBC’s Radio 1FM could not help promote and support a Dublin Love Parade.

Brennan believes that if no Love Parade takes place in the UK in 2002, the Dublin event should be a joint

venture between the Beeb and 2FM. Provisionally set for July, though to be approved by local authorities, the plan is for a parade of floats (hosted by clubs who would have to pay a fee to take part) to pass through Dublin city centre before converging on Phoenix Park..

The Berlin Love Parade began as a street protest over a decade ago, and now regularly attracts over one and a half million clubbers on to the streets of Berlin. The BBC 1FM version took place in Leeds in 2000, and over 250,000 clubbers rammed Roundhay Park for the biggest celebration of dance music ever seen in the UK. This year’s UK event was cancelled at the last minute after local councillors failed to meet the safety requirements of police and 1FM.

A Love Parade in Dublin would undoubtedly face similar planning and safety nightmares, but Brennan believes that the smaller scale of the event would make it easier to manage. “It would be great for the local economy and, with tourism looking like having a disastrous year in 2002, I feel that local businesses would be delighted with the financial boost of a Love Parade.”

His only worry is that certain other Irish promoters might try and hijack the event: “the Irish club scene has become a group of monopolies, and I’m afraid if any one of these tries to take this event over, it may not happen.” But with the Berlin group unlikely to approve any such hijacking, his fears seem unfounded. The whole idea of the Love Parade is that it’s a protest against commercialism, and a celebration of club culture to boot.

Here’s hoping Sean’s ambitious plans capture the imagination of the local business community in the same way that they have already captured the indigenous clubbing industry.