The Love Parade


On Saturday, September 24, 2005 there were actually two major events in San Francisco happening practically at the same time: the anti-war rally, which started in the Mission District and wended its way to a park just a few blocks behind City Hall; and the Love Parade, which started near the Embarcadero, and made its way to the park in front of City Hall. In other words, there were two marches, each with about 20,000 people, heading right toward each other, but avoiding a head-on collision at the last moment. After following the anti-war march for a while, I headed over to check out how the other half celebrates.

The Love Parade is a rave/techno/dance-themed open-air party, modeled after the original (but now-defunct) Love Parade in Berlin. It's all about looking good and having fun. And, refreshingly, it was almost completely apolitical. It was such a relief running into the party people of the Love Parade, after enduring the stern no-nonsense politics of the anti-war rally, that I thought it might be a good idea to compare the two.

And yes, this is completely biased, and pandering to the chauvinist pigs in my audience who scan the internet looking for sexy pictures. But hey, this page is just for fun -- and a good way to indoctrinate unsuspecting Web surfers.

So let's get started. On the left, you will find pictures of people from the Love Parade; and on the right are pictures of folks from the anti-war rally. I've alternated girl-boy-girl-boy, in the interest of gender equality.

Who will win this Battle of the Babes and Hunks? You be the judge.

The Love Parade

The Anti-War Rally



































What's that, you say? I'm not being fair -- I'm choosing good-looking pictures from the Love Parade and matching them against bad-looking pictures from the anti-war rally? Guilty as charged. So to even things out, now I'll do the reverse -- match up the best pictures from the anti-war rally against the worst pictures from the Love Parade. But, to be honest, it's a much more difficult task, since the Love Parade was wall-to-wall Beautiful People. But I did manage to find a few examples on the other side of the aisle.

So now let's turn the tables and let the battle continue!

The Love Parade

The Anti-War Rally











...and the anti-war side has just about run out of photogenic ammunition. So I'll call a truce!

If you'd like to see more Love Parade pictures, all by themselves and without commentary . . .

. . . CLICK HERE to go to the Love Parade photo page.




Return to zombie's main September 24, 2005 anti-war rally page.