- Love Parade San Francisco festivities this year undoubtedly lived up to expectations of San Francisco as a city of free love and free thinking. This city-sponsored event drew thousands of people to the Civic Center, in the heart of San Francisco, where over 200 djs from around the world evoked a pulsing sense of universal love from dancers in the street.
The Love Parade began at the intersections of 2nd and Market in the early afternoon and was comprised of nearly two dozen floats cruising down a long stretch of SF city blocks before arriving at the Civic Center. Dancers gathered on and around the floats that were pumping beats covering all genres of electronic and dance music.
The event took place on the streets of the Civic Center and its related public buildings. The simple classic Greek and Roman architecture of the buildings combined with the electricity of electronic music pumped through massive speakers inevitably formed a beautiful and symbiotic partnership of the old and the new; making way for a the next generation of dance music.
My love for house music kept me well-glued to the Om Records float where house connoisseurs Mark Farina, Justin Martin, Andy Caldwell, and Fred Everything rocked the house heads till dusk. Not to mention Om favorites Lance Desardi and and JT Donaldson who played a super hot remix of "Don't Cha." This got me all lovey-dovey inside.
I left the parade at around 7 pm and there was little time to recover from a exhausting day (exhausting in a good way) and prepare for the slew of night-time festivities. We arrived at to the Om After-Party at the Mighty with Mark Farina and Miguel Migs only to find that there was barely room to breathe or dance, and defaulted to subdued head-nodding and foot-tapping to the beats of the venue. Miguel Migs never fails to impress me with a cornucopia of melodic beats and chunkier house remixes. Not to mention his popsicle-blue eyes.
When the crowd began to grow even more, I knew it was time to cab it over to the DNA Lounge for the “Know Love” party featuring Lance, JT and my personal fave, Fred Everything. This party was much less “Hollywood” than the Om Party, a label which has recently drawn a much more homogenous crowd. I got there just in time to hear Fred rock the crowd. I love Fred because he’s not afraid to bust the disco tunes with vocals you can sing to but also mix it up with deeper mixes, the kind that makes you feel the bass inside your waist.
I left the DNA Lounge promptly at 4:20 on Sunday morning. Overall, an amazing day and night in one of the most impressive, beautiful and electric cities in the world – San Francisco.