Miss Nicole Jensen

BERLIN — Crowds of people streaming into a techno music festival surged through an already jammed entry tunnel on Saturday, setting off a panic that killed 19 people and injured 342 at an event meant to celebrate love and peace.

SBS World News Australia claims the reason behind the Love Parade disaster is police closing the parade grounds due to overcrowding, and instructing punters in the tunnel to turn around.

Authorities also suggested that some of the people killed or injured might have attempted to flee the crowd by jumping over a barrier and falling several metres. Witnesses described a desperate scene, as people piled up on each other or scrambled over others who had fallen in the crush.

So why? How could this happen? That tunnel was the sole entrance to the grounds. The Love Parade is one that hosts 1.4 million people and the venue could only hold 500,000. There’s yer problem!

This was my first thought. If an event is a repeat or regular one, you would believe adequate health and safety measures and procedures to be in place. With 1.4 million people reportedly through the gates and a claim of being the largest techno music festival in the world, the Love Parade should have had access points to the grounds to reflect this.

My second thought went to overcrowding (hence police refusing entry to over 300 people in the tunnel) and control of this. Why didn’t they have this covered? An eye-witness account reports (translated by Google from German to English):

Although many security controls were in place that would monitor compliance with the “Love Rules”, but the way to the controls was extremely narrow, began pushing the first and it lasted for only a few metres close to 90 minutes.

On the right side even more dramatic scenes. There was a small emergency stairs, each of which could escape from one person upwards. Here, too, now appeared more and more police officers… In those seeking help were people who had already lost consciousness. It was a bad experience of having to watch the rescue operation with, for now all we feared that we might be the next crushed.

Next to me I suddenly saw a policeman with a young man forced his way to the stairs. “Can’t you go or should I pay them?” Actually, the man gave me an even better shape right impression, then I saw his hand he held up convulsively. I had not looked closely, but his fingertips were covered with blood. Maybe he was overthrown in the crowd and accidentally had a lot of shoes shredded his hand.

They also mention that last year’s Love Parade closed due to overcrowding. Why, then, hasn’t something been done about it? If it is known that the venue is maxed out at 500,000, why are 1.4 million people permitted to attend, even when they expected 800,000?

The founder of the Love Parade, Matthias Roeingh, known as Dr. Motte, blasted the planning for the event, saying “one single entrance through a tunnel lends itself to disaster. I am very sad.”

Me too, Dr. Motte. And it sounds like current management isn’t too keen to run again after this catastrophe.

(Sources: msnbc.com, SBS World News Australia, @BreakingNews, images here on Flickr,  BBC News)

Next Saturday I will be giving up my day to lead a team of 10 volunteers at the Brisbane music festival Sounds of Spring. Pretty cool, huh?

I’ll be starting early in the morning and going until midnight, but it will be worth it. Acts such as Little Birdy, I Heart Hiroshima, The Living End, Tim Rogers, Hungry Kids of Hungary, The Beautiful Girls, Drawn From Bees, Shihad… and stacks more. Shall be fun seeing what goes down there behind the scenes. Rad!

A few days ago the 2009 dates for the music festival tour Parklife were released by Sydney events company Fuzzy. Hurrah! 

So the dates for this winning festival are:

• Saturday 26th September – Brisbane
• Sunday 27th September – Perth
• Saturday 3rd October – Melbourne
• Sunday 4th October – Sydney
• Monday 5th October – Adelaide

You can find more info on each on and their retrospective Facebook event pages (of course) here. As far as the acts are concerned; there has been some comment around the place that Canadian electro duo MSTRKRFT and the UK’s Lady Sovereign will be touring. I’ll report back with an official list when it arises.

Also, if you’re a Sydney student looking to get some hours up on your degree, why not apply for a Parklife Internship? There are roles available in event management, PR, marketing, touring, HR and production. I would apply immediately, but I’m neither in Sydney or a student. Shame! You’d best hurry along though; applications are due this coming Monday, 25th of May.

Well, well.. it’s that time of year again and I’m hearing through the Intertubes that many people aren’t so happy about the final line up just announced:

Bloc Party – The Flaming Lips – Jane’s Addiction – MGMT – Hilltop Hoods – Grinspoon – Mignight Juggernauts – The Specials – Augie March – Sarah Blasko – Friendly Fires – White Lies – Little Birdy – Josh Pyke – The Gutter Twins – Birds of Tokyo – Manchester Orchestra – Decoder Ring – Lost Valentinos – Bob Evans – Yuksek – Kram – Yves Klein Blue – Leader Cheetah – Jack Ladder – The Middle East – Polaroid Fame – Glass Towers

I’m not going mainly because I’m poor, but I’m not too disappointed; a few goodies there. What do you reckon?

I’m reaching out.

Along with Nicole Jensen, I’m organising Brisbane Twestival. Twestival is a global festival event taking place on 12 February that seeks to raise money for the 1 in 6 people worldwide who do not have access to clean, safe drinking water. 1 in 6! That’s 1.1 billion people without clean drinking water, something we take for granted.

To help them out, the Twitter community (http://twitter.com) are holding this event to raise both awareness and money to donate to Charity:Water (http://charitywater.org). This charity works very hard to get sustainable solutions to those communities without water but they can’t do it entirely on their own. Brisbane is just one of over 100 cities worldwide holding a Twestival!

But we can’t do this without your help, so here’s where you come in.

What we’re looking for right now are sponsors. We have a couple on board already who are providing a venue (to be announced shortly!) and contributing towards some of the costs of holding such a big event.

The event itself will not be a sombre event – it’s a festival! There’ll be local bands, work on display from local artists, stalls to buy stuff, a bar, and games and competitions. We’re conservatively anticipating a bare minimum of 100 attendees, though some estimates suggest the night will bear witness to as many as 300.

What we need are sponsors. Sponsors to provide prizes for the competitions and games, to donate to charity or to contribute in some other way they think would help us to make this a successful festival event.

In return, you’ll get exposure and generate an incredibly large amount of goodwill. We’ll be promoting you everywhere online from Facebook to Twitter to the official Brisbane Twestival site. You’ll be mentioned on all of our promotional material. You’ll be displayed on projectors and posters and mentioned repeatedly on the night. And, of course, you’ll be recognised for some time for giving back to the global community.

If you think you or your business can contribute, please contact myself or Nicole Jensen and we’ll help you to help us and the 1 in 6 people worldwide who need it.

Also, if you’d like to know a bit more, check out the links below.

Global Twestival website: http://twestival.com

Charity:water website: http://charitywater.org

Brisbane Twestival website: http://brisbane.twestival.com

Brisbane Twestival Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=44952598701

Brisbane Twestival twitter account: http://twitter.com/bnetwestival

via Facebook | Greg Williams’s Notes.