A Time to Celebrate
Loveparade 2007, Essen / Photo: Lopavent GmbH
The dance under the village limes is a beautiful picture, deeply anchored in the collective consciousness of any population with roots in the rural. Surprisingly, perhaps, the Ruhr region has plenty of such village-like structures within its bounds.
So much so that certain customs and festivals from as far back as the Middle Ages have been retained. There is the Bochum May Evening Festival, and the "Cranger Kirmes" (the famous fun fair in Herne-Crange), the origins of which go back to the 15th century. The people of the Ruhr know how to party, with play and celebration being a perfect therapy for hard work. There are also a number of folk festivals, including as two representative examples "Bochum Total" which, over its four days, attracts a good million visitors to the pop music stages erected in downtown Bochum; and the "Loveparade", which has taken place in Essen and Dortmund, with up to 1.6 million party people participating on one day.
When the entire Ruhr Metropolis celebrates its roots, something special happens. Since 2001, festivals such as the popular "ExtraSchicht", for 2010 to be the "Summer Festival of the Cultural Capital", have brought some 150,000 souls out on the street in a single night in the summer - each year bringing the concept of a metropolitan Ruhr to vibrant life. At spectacularly staged "hubs" of industrial culture, the 53 "tribes" of the region - so often parochial - underpin their collective past and grab their merging urban future with both hands.
This collective experience, the village festivals of the Middle Ages and the traditions of market places and fun fairs have given rise to the idea of a 60-kilometre long string of 20,000 tables that will cause the main arterial of the Ruhr region to cease beating for a day: on July 18, 2010, the motorway A40/B1 between Duisburg Inner Harbour and Dortmund-Hörde is to be transformed on both carriageways into an avenue of neighbourly gatherings - face-to-face meetings will be held at a place at which, for once, the malign spirit of the fast lane will be neutralised, perhaps giving rise to the emotional moment on which the Ruhr Metropolis becomes truly established.