Berlin Love Parade Cancelled

It's now official -- there'll be no Love Parade in Berlin this year. The organizers of the techno extravaganza and Berlin city officials tried in vain over the last few weeks to come up with a financing plan. In the end, they were unable to find the extra €500,000 needed for the music and love-fest to go ahead as planned on July 10. Berlin politicians are now promising to focus on finding a way to bring back the Love Parade in 2005. As for this year, Berlin's techno clubs are trying to think of an alternative event to offer the thousands of party tourists that descend on Berlin each summer for what used to be the world's biggest rave. The Love Parade was robbed of that title last year, when attendance at Zürich's Street Parade far outstripped that of the Berlin event.