Published Thursday August 19th, 2004

*As i write this entry, i have been awake for 26 hours straight.*

Every year in Zurich, Switzerland on the first Saturday in August there is a Techno parade titled Street Parade where 20-30 some odd "love mobiles" or floats of a sort consisting of people dancing, a motto and huge speakers drive around the edge of the lake which Zurich finds itself on. This parade is similar to Berlin's Love Parade. For the past 3 or so year's i've been wanting to go, but because my parent's were against it, i was unable to. This year, i finally went.

Saturday morning i and the rest (Tyson, Raymond, Mike, Kate, Adam, and Wes) slept until around noon, at which time we got up, got dressed and made ourselves ready to depart in the direction of Zurich. My grandma also joined us with my cousin Ursula. We massed at the bus stop and were soon on our way. Another one of my cousins, Sabrina caught up with us a few bus stops farther down the line. We reached the city of Burgdorf where Sabrina met up with a friend of hers who was also coming. After the Street Parade there are numerous after-hour parties, and one of the larger one's is called Energy. Sabrina, her friend, Raymond, Mike, Tyson, Kate and I planned to go to this party/rave/massive club as well. Sabrina's friend had purchased tickets for us, so on the train from Burgdorf to Zurich i paid her CHF 285 for 5 tickets to Energy, CHF 57 each.

We arrived at Zurich main train station and as soon as we got off the train we could already hear Trance music blaring throughout the train station. The train station was loaded with people; packed. One million plus people attended Street Parade 2004 were the estimates on Sunday. Most of these people came through this train station. Think of the load and capacity required by the train network to handle this volume of people.. Incredible. We already noticed that there were many more trains passing through Burgdorf when we were waiting for our connection. Ever minute or so a train sped by completely loaded with people. Insane. Anyway, we walked through the train station, and headed to the parade. On our way we all sort of got separated. Mike and i were together the whole time, though. We were on our own a bit until we found Sabrina and her friend again. We were with them the whole time we were at the parade, and only towards the very end did we find my grandma and my other cousin, Ursula.

Heh, Street Parade was kind of dumb, actually. People were really stupid, and the things they wore were kind of dumb as well. People were throwing glass bottles around through the air, climbing on trees, light signals and all sorts of other things. I was able to observe people snorting cocaine on the street corners, and in the alley's they were shooting up heroine or something. Many people were walking around like zombies, not entirely there anymore. The "love mobiles" were kind of trashy and everyone on or in them was mostly naked, and some were even proceeding with sexual acts as they danced on this moving, trashy platform dancing to Techno and trance music. If people were not stoned, high or drugged up some other way, they were completely trashed by alcohol. There were very few people who were not a bit out of wack, and i sort of felt out of place. There were just many people, and it was a mad chaotic mess. People were harassing other people, feeling up random females and acting very inappropriate. Just kidding.

Street Parade was awesome. A million people and orderly. Everyone was having fun. I saw maybe 2 or 3 people who looked a bit doped up. There was no climbing on street lights, or trees, and glass bottles were not thrown through the air. People were happy, energetic and everyone just had a good time. I felt i fit in perfectly. Anyone would have. There is no age range. I saw young kids dancing, and i saw old men and women dancing, fooling behind the "love mobiles" as the mobiles blared music from their huge speakers.

*As i continue to write this entry, i have been awake for 27 hours straight and things are going down hill as my body begins to tremble. My mind is fine, though but my body hates me.*

As far as drugs go at Street Parade and Energy, all i saw was marijuana and i think it should be legal anyway because it is a waste of funds to enforce its illegality. So, any drugs along the lines of cocaine or heroine i really didn't see at all.

*gave up typing this entry on Sunday at 1600.*

*Continues writing on Tuesday.*

Wes, Adam, my grandma and my cousin Ursula had set a meeting point at 1950 to meet to go back home on a train. Adam and Wes had gone home earlier then 1950, though.

Heh, Since we had been separated from each other (Sabrina, her friend, Mike and I were all together, and the rest were who knows where) we had set a meeting point in the train station. At 2000 we went to the meeting point where we found Tyson, Raymond, and Kate. I bought some food to eat, ate it and then we left the train station again. Sabrina had a friend who was DJing and she wanted to go see him, so we followed her to some ally-way club. In a random alley between two buildings huge speakers blaring and people dancing. The acoustics between the buildings was awesome. Hard Trance echoing and booming through the ally, thumping, thudding and shaking the floor. It was awesome.

We stayed in the alley-club until 2300 at which time Sabrina said goodbye to her friends she knew here and then Sabrina, a friend of hers who'd been with us the whole day, Mike, Tyson, Raymond, Kate and I headed back towards the train station where we got on a regional train to Oerlikon Zurich. This is where one of the largest After-parties to Street Parade was located this year. Energy. The Energy after-party was usually in a different location, but because that location was under construction it was in a building named Event 550. Just a giant event building which, on the inside, looked more like an empty warehouse building. We arrived in Oerlikon and walked a few hundred metres to get to the after-party. Upon entering we got searched; our water bottles were taken away from us and then we had to present our tickets to finally enter. Outside there were food stands and suchlike.. We went inside where there were 7 floors of various types of Techno music. We stayed on the main/Trance floor the whole time. When i say 7 floors, i don't mean 7 stories, but 7 dance-floors separated by walls and such. We walked around a bit, sliding and dodging through hundreds of people and looking around. We finally ended up on the main/Trance floor where we stayed the rest of the night. From about 0000 when we arrived, until 0600 when Sabrina, her friend, and I left, we danced. We all got split up every once in a while, but we had set a meeting point at 0300 when we all caught up with each other again. At this time, we went outside where i bought some food. Sliced onions, tomatoes, piece of bread, and some sort of meat on a stick..? Kate, Raymond and Tyson were not very enthusiastic at this point anymore. My cousin was a bit similar because she was tired, but we went back anyway and set another meeting point at 0500. We met again and Kate kept asking, "We gona go!?" To which i gave her no acknowledgement every time she asked. Mike, Kate, Raymond and Tyson ended up going home, and Sabrina her friend and I returned to the main/Trance floor.

At 0600 Sunday morning, Sabrina was so tired she wanted to leave, and so we headed back to the train station, got a regional train back to Zurich main train station, took a train to Olten, took another train to Langenthal, and then finally got a train to Burgdorf from where we were able to get back home. Sabrina's friend departed at Ramsei, and then Sabrina and I continued on to Sumiswald where Sabrina soon departed as well. I finally reached the middle of no-where: Wasen I.E., walked to my grandparents flat and ate breakfast with them. At this time it was around 0945. I hung around with my grandparents, chatted, and then had lunch with them as well. Raymond, Mike, Kate and Tyson were already in our apartment and were sleeping. I never went to bed. In the after noon, Wes came over to my grandparents flat and we played some GTA: Vice City on my laptop. Soon, my body began to tremble, and i felt really sick and very, very tired. I had a coffee with my grandparents, and then soon after headed back over to our flat where Tyson, Mike, Raymond and Kate were now waking up. At 1700 i went to bed and slept until around 2200. I woke up feeling really bad, as though i had to puke. I was never able to puke, but i wished i could have just so that the horrible needing to puke feeling would go away. I hung about a bit, ate an apple or two, and then at around 2330 i went back to bed and slept until 0530 in the morning at which time i woke up Raymond and Tyson

After getting dressed and such, i got my grandparent's Toyota Yaris and parked it right in front of our flat. Raymond and Tyson loaded in their luggage, said goodbye to Mike, Wes, Adam and Kate, and then we left, driving towards Zurich international airport. By around 0745 we had reached the airport and barked. Soon, Tyson and Raymond had checked in their baggage and had gotten their tickets and seats on their connections.

We had plenty of time to kill and so we went to a cafe in the airport. Tyson bought me a sandwich and a coke. I was still feeling really poorly; feeling like i needed to puke any moment, but not ever being able to do so.. The coke and sandwich did nothing. Heh, we chatted a bit, and enjoyed our last company. We talked about who we and others would be in a few years. Who would be successful in what their majoring in college, and who wouldn't-at least what we thought. At around 0915 we said goodbye, and then Raymond and Tyson headed to their gate (their flight was at 1100, boarding at 1030), and i was alone. Airport's are just like train stations: many different people going to many different places.. heh.

I walked through the airport a bit, then paid the parking fee, and left Zurich. As i drove i blasted music and was relatively content, with the exception of feeling that i needed to puke. I drove for a while until i got to an exit called Aarau-West where i got off and searched around a bit for my great-grandma's house (Lüthy-Vogel, that is, my Dad's Mom's Mom.) When i found it, i went to visit her. We talked for a bit, chatted, and it was nice. She is very interesting to listen to. heh, after mount an hour or so, possibly a bit more-90 minutes, i drove a bit further, to a different town. All i had to go off of was a "Saab garage" So, i looked for this exact thing. This would probably have been a bit more difficult in America because frequently there is not just one main road through a town. I found the garage, where i was going to stop by and say hello to a relative named Bruno, my Dad's Mom's (my grandma's) brother. He and his wife had been over by us in America many times before. He was very enthusiastic about me coming for a visit, and invited me to dinner. I drove us both back to his house, where Laura, his wife was with their daughter, Claudia. Backtrack: Bruno started a garage business, fixing cars and selling them; a garage. Then, he passed this on to his two sons. One is the sales man, and another the mechanic (they have other employees, too). The Saab garage i looked for was their families business. Anyway.. The four of us ate lunch, which was very good, and chatted until Claudia (i believe she is around 34 years old) left for work. Bruno and i then headed back to the garage-shop where he showed me around a bit. Was interesting. Soon, after this, i left again. It was now already 1430ish. After driving for an hour or so, i got back into Wasen.

Back in Wasen, i more or less picked up Mike, Kate, Adam and Wes and we then went shopping for food. Spent just about CHF 125. We had a late dinner consisting of potatoes and beef. We had conversation to and after our dinner until around midnight when we all went to bed.

Tuesday morning i got up at around noon. We just barely caught the 1306 bus and headed to Bern where we walked around the city until 1735. Went into various stores, and had a good, relaxed time. We went into a store called "Vom Fass" or, "From the Barrel" where we all bought some various items. They had really good alcoholic fruit drinks there, various vodka's, rum's, wine's, beer's, and whiskeys. The vodka fruity drinks were really good and i bought a bottle of a drink called "Mango Sunrise" for CHF 14. Rather cheap. Everyone else bought other various drinks.

On the way home, it started to rain. My bottle of the mango stuff in a paper bag, and us running turned out to be a poor combination. I thought to myself, "Uh oh, the bottle is going to rip through the wet paper bag-" and whoosh! The bottle flew out before i could do anything to stop it. Hmph. The road smelled really good as the bottle of mango vodka fruit mix drink spilt on the ground. *pout*

When we got back home, changed out of our wet clothes, we all went over to my grandparent's flat where Mike, Kate, Wes and Adam used the Internet and made phone calls with their calling cards. I chatted with my grandma a bit, and then headed back over to our apartment and started cooking dinner: Chicken legs and rice. Took about 85 minutes, but after that time we had a rather good dinner. I took a bottle, filled it with some hot water, threw in chicken bullion, some Aromat, pepper, cooking oil and then some mustard and i had a very tasty broth type thing for the chicken. Woot. Throwing random things together is fun. Heh..

We ate dinner, and then after dinner we drank some of the vodka mixed drinks we had bought in Bern. Wes and Kate became a bit tipsy and drunk.. But the rest of us didn't really feel any effects, and instead just laughed at Wes and Kate's stupidities. That was funny.

We got to bed at around 0030, at least, Wes and I did.. I didn't sleep very well. Kept tossing and turning and waking up. I had a whole lot of saliva in my mouth, constantly, and i felt like throwing up again. I got up and out of bed repeatedly, walked around, but nothing. I got up again at 1030ish and after some walking around i finally threw up nothingness, or bile. Mm-mm. Heh. I ate some cornflakes after and the day progressed and here i am, finally caught up in summarising all the things which have been going on.



Videos: Street Parade and Energy

Here are some videos Wes took on his camera from the night of August 1st. Thing's that go bam are fun.
Video 1 1.1 MB MJpeg video	Video 1 2.4 MB MJpeg video Video 2 2.2 MB MJpeg video	Video 1 16.2 MB MJpeg video Video 2 5.6 MB MJpeg video Video 3 18.3 MB MJpeg video Video 4 2.4 MB MJpeg video Video 5 4.6 MB MJpeg video Video 6 2.3 MB MJpeg video Video 7 4.8 MB MJpeg video Video 8 23.1 MB MJpeg video
* Videos require the MJpeg codec. This is a standard codec found on most sysems. If not, search on google for the "K Lite Codec" package which includes the MJpeg codec binary.

Photo time! The photo's i took here were taken with my grandmas small digital camera. It's a ghetto camera. No specific order to these. The order that a script spit out the HTML is the order they're in here on this page.

Street Parade and Energy Photos



One of the mobile float things with people dancing on it.














The only thing really dopped up on LSD was my grandma's digital camera.


The whole street along the lake side was closed down completely.


Like i said.. In the middle that would be my cousin Sabrina if the camera wasn't ghetto and stoned.


The front of one of the love mobiles.


Laser show while trance music was blarring. Oh so much fun!


In this alley-way we later returned before heading off to Energy.











If you could see something, this would be DJ Tatana spinning live before me. Woot!














Have i mentioned that the laser shows where really awesome!?

Street Parade and Energy Photos from Mike



There was no age limit high or low.


Some person dancing on the side of a love mobile.











People dancing on some platform specifically for dancing on stage.


This police helicopter was hovering around the area the entire time we were there.


Another love mobile.


"Jungle the gay party" love mobile..


People partying along the lake.


People wore some insane things, or in some case, didn't wear much.


Interesting.


Walking through the street's of Zurich in the direction away or towards the Zurich main train station.


Police and camera men on top of buildings.


Giant foam machine. Glad i wasn't under that..


Greenpeace had a love mobile, too.


These guy's were all over the place, walking around petitioning to legalize marijuana while smoking it.


DJ Tatana at Energy.


Again, this is the side alley in which we later returned to to dance before going to Energy.








Happy kitty? Ey?


People partying on and around a boat.


Nice.






Observations made during and after Street parade and Energy


Energy.. indescribable.. Best way to describe it would be to bring you here. Videos i have here do not do it justice at all. My shirt is completely drenched. I'm filled with water on my skin. It feels like i am walking through a deep pool, its so, so very hot and humid in here, but for some reason i couldn't care less, nor does it at all uncomfortable. The music is blaring all over. Different floors/sections are around. When one is outside of these sections, all that is audible is the roaring bass from various zones of music as it echoes through this building which looks more like a warehouse than a club/rave/event area. People are smoking, but it doesn't matter, you can't smell it at all amidst the humid air. It's amazing that the cigarettes can even be lit in this very wet, gigantic room filled with countless hundreds of people. I could have a heart attack, that is to say, my heart could stop beating in here and the bass would continue beating and vibrating, keeping my heart pumping blood through my body. This description does the feeling of vibration in my chest no justice. Imagine standing behind a 747 Jet as it takes off, without the wind, just the rumble and booming.. This sort of compares to that.. i think?

When i drink from my water bottle, I can feel the bass through the bottle, echoing and vibrating on my lips. When setting my water on solid concrete floor, I can watch as the water on the surface ripples. I use the literal definition of awesome to describe my feelings. This is definitely an experience for everyone, but definitely one for me. If one released all this warm air, this atmosphere of 30 Celsius and more, with 100% humidity into the cool, night air outside, one would have a miniature thunderstorm as the warm air clashed with the cool. Sitting here, taking a break, i can occasionally feel watter dripping from the ceiling from the atmosphere which has condensed there and fallen on me.

When going outside, my ears scream. It's so quiet outside. It feels like i have shoved cotton into my ears, every sound is faded and slightly muted. The echo and pounding of the bass is still echoing through my ears. This booklet, or small marble memo composition booklet is very flimsy from the heat and moisture and sweat from my legs. I prefer staying inside the hot and humid building than going outside because outside its cold, and inside it is nice and warm like my body temperature and completely drenched clothing. Even my underwear is soaking.

Having left the party, standing here at the train station, i can still hear the pounding of the bass and blaring of the music from Energy. Now sitting in the train, i can smell myself. I smell like smoke and who knows what.

Midnight to 0600, 6 hours of dancing on the floor with brief stops to meet at meeting points to regroup and to get drinks for outrageous prices. Energy cost just about CHF 57 for us. A small .33L bottle of mineral water at energy cost CHF 5, in Zurich main train station a 1.5L bottle cost a bit less than CHF 2, i bought 2 .33L bottles for a total of CHF 10 at Energy, and a 1.5L bottle for CHF 2.. heh.. See what i mean by outrageous?

I smelled myself. I smell really bad, like various smokes and sweat. It's very funny. From Saturday, August 7th at about 1530 until Sunday, August 8th at about 0615 i sat for less than 15-20 minutes total. Ha ha. The funny thing is, i didn't ever realise this until i sat down.

The SBB, or the train company had extra trains from all over Switzerland heading into Zurich on Saturday to get around 1 million people into the city for Street Parade.. To be able to do this, to have the capacity to bring 1 million people into and out of a city via train in a day is simply awesome. Still right now, in the morning there are many, many people walking around the train station, returning home from various after-parties. Most are sleeping on the train. I have lovely sweat stains all over my shirt.

While riding on the train, every noise or thud sounded like trance music. Music was just blaring in my head, at times so convincing i was wondering who was playing trance on the train. My cousin Sabrina didn't like Energy as much as she has in the past. She said that she liked the usual Event stadium better than the one it was at this year. The normal one is under construction. Riding in the train, you could tell that many people were returning home from parties because most were asleep. My cousin was burned out, too. Sleeping most of the way back home. Her friend and I weren't really tired. Everything that clanks or pings or rings turns into trance music in my head.

While at Energy, DJ Noise had a really cool laser show while he DJ'd and mixed excellent hard trance tracks. Was very awesome. DJ Tatana, Ferry Corsten, DJ Energy, Cosmic Gate, Max B. Grant, DJ Noise, Dave 202, DJ Toxic, Killer Faber, DJ Spoke, Shog, Unique and Gianni Parrini all mixed live before me. I can still hear music in my head like the party never ended. This, and a persistent ringing/phaser type sound when I'm somewhere where there is nothing to hear, silence. Ha ha. I feel i could break out dancing at any moment without realising it, because as i said, the party is still going on in my head. I'm listening to some non-trance music (Lunik) at the moment to try to get this party in my head stopped.

Music is still playing in my head, and its been nearly 12 hours since we left Energy. The world around me is sluggish, drifting at times.. I'm somewhat dizzy. I haven't slept in over a day. Laying down is blissful.

* Photos have not been altered and could probably use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments.