ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: In Germany today, Berlin's "Love Parade," billed as the world's biggest dance party, marked its 12th year.</s>BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: More than a million people joined in the party, as CNN's Berlin bureau chief Chris Burns now tells us.</s>CHRIS BURNS, CNN BERLIN BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): In the middle of it, the sound is so powerful it rattles your insides. More than 50 trucks and floats packed with sound equipment, 250 deejays and lots of dancers, pied pipers of techno music from around the world leading the largest dance party on Earth through Tiergarten Park in the heart of Berlin. The centerpiece is the victory column, built in the 19th century to glorify Prussian army exploits, its meaning now hijacked by the techno crowd. A striking contrast from the first Love Parade in 1989, the summer before the Berlin Wall fell, a street party of 150 people in the waning days of the Cold War. Now the Love Parade has become a symbol of the new Berlin, capital of the new Germany, feeling better about itself. The Lover Parade's founder, deejay Dr. Motte, keeps it simple. The motto this year is, one world, one Love Parade. "We are not showing up with words, we are showing up with record players," he said. Meanwhile, the parade is a bonanza for music clubs in Berlin, as well as for merchants selling all kinds of techno wear. About 3,000 police were deployed for the parade, a small number compared to the crowd. Fire broke out in a packed subway train near the Love Parade area, causing a number of injuries, and one visitor was killed when he leaned too far out of a subway train the night before and was struck by an oncoming strain. And authorities were on the lookout for drugs, including ecstasy, popular among the techno fans. But the techno crowd isn't the only one here. It's a love parade, after all, drawing a cross section of society all ages and styles, for at least one day a year finding common ground to dance on. Chris Burns, CNN, Berlin.
'Love Parade' Attracts 1 Million to Berlin