A million ravers hit Berlin on Saturday to dance in the sun with their shirts off and revive the techno spirit of the 1990s as Germany's Love Parade returned with a vengeance after a two-year break.
In the mid-afternoon, tanned men wearing nothing but white fur knickers danced at the Brandenburg Gate, the starting point for the party that stretches for kilometers through the Tiergarten park.
Behind it, 40 floats manned with international deejays and dancers in micro-skirts snaked through the throng on the June 17th Avenue.
A week ago the street was still officially called the Fan Mile and on some days crowded out with almost a million football fans who came to follow the football World Cup on outdoor screens.
The paraders also came from far and drank beer, but the similarity ended there.
"No, we weren't here for the football. We came for this. We are a bit bedazzled," said Dale Harwick, a horticulturist from Melbourne, Australia, seeking shade under a tree.
There is nothing this big back home," he said.
"Mate, at eight o'clock all the floats go up to the front and they all make music together. The top comes off," he added.
The Love Parade dates back to 1989, the year that the Berlin Wall fell.
The first time the parade drew 150 people but in the following years the numbers exploded as post-communist Berlin became a cool destination for young travelers from all over and the techno music trend for marathon dance parties swept the world.
In 1999, 1.5 million paraders packed out central Berlin for 24 hours of dancing and kindness among strangers, but in recent years the shine has worn off, with revelers complaining that it had become an increasingly commercial event.
For the past two years, the parade was canceled for lack of funding.
It returned this year under the title "The Love is Back" after the owner of a chain of fitness clubs put up 2 million euros (US$2.5 million) in sponsorship.
Die-hard fans said they had sorely missed the event and were happy to drive across Europe to come back.
"It's my fourth time. It is beautiful to see so many people all do the same thing," said Martin Haas, one of a group of Dutch students who all dressed up in Roman togas for the party.
They stood out for being so classical, surrounded by a sea of girls wearing leopard print underwear and pigtails or plastic flowers in their hair and tattoos everywhere.
A few German girls coolly ignored the thumping beat in identical T-shirts proclaiming "No pictures please."
"It is pure provocation. Everybody talks to us and takes lots of pictures," laughed Anite Breuer, a bank clerk from the western city of Cologne.
Love Parade veteran Henrik Schrage, a bar owner from Osnabrueck also in western Germany, said it was the eighth year he had come to the party but remarked that it was off to a worryingly slow start.
By early Saturday evening however, organizers said that they had hit the million mark, as a human tide stretched all the way from the Brandenburg Gate to the 19th century Victory Column monument.
The love fest was due to carry on through the night until 2pm yesterday.
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