Street Parade in Zurich

Charter a Private Jet to the Street Parade in Zurich

The Street Parade in Zurich is unlike any party you’ve ever seen. Close to a million people come to dance in the streets at the electronic music festival that celebrates love, peace, tolerance and freedom.

We Can Get You There

If you’d like to be among the masses dancing around the Lake Zurich basin at the Street Parade, Paramount Business Jets can arrange a flight for you into any airport in the heart of Europe, including:

• Dubendorf Airport, LSMD, Dubendorf, Switzerland (5 miles)
• Zurich Airport, LSZH, ZRH, Zurich, Switzerland (6 miles)
• Emmen Airport, LSME, Lucerne (Luzern), Switzerland (23 miles)
• Buochs Airport, LSZC, BXO, Buochs, Switzerland (29 miles)
• Mollis Airport, LSMF, Mollis, Switzerland (32 miles)
• Alpnach Airport, LSMA, Alpnach, Switzerland (32 miles)
• Donaueschingen Villingen Airport, EDTD, ZQL, Donaueschingen, Germany (41 miles)
• Neuhausen Ob Eck Airport, EDSN, Neuhausen, Germany (45 miles)
• St Gallen Altenrhein Airport, LSZR, ACH, St Gallen, Switzerland (48 miles)
• Meiringen Airport, LSMM, Meiringen, Switzerland (48 miles)

What To Expect

It’s a techno music festival with loud, very loud techno music, and all different sorts of people in the streets to enjoy it.

A rave of sorts, you might meet people from a dozen different countries in an hour. The crowd is mostly young adults, but there are older and younger people there, too.

Despite the crowds, the Street Parade continues to be one of the safest mass events in the world, likely because of its underpinnings of peace and tolerance.

The 2.5-mile route on the scenic Lake Zurich starts around 1 p.m. at Utoquai in Seefeld. From there, the party moves around the lake until it gets to Hafendamm Enge, where the biggest crowds gather.

The driving beat of the music comes from seven stages along the route and 30 brightly colored trucks called Love Mobiles.

It’s tough to understand the enormity of the event unless you see it from the air like in this video from 2013.

Among the during- and after-parties is the legendary “Lethargy,” which has a large lineup of its own, in the Roten Fabrik, a former factory that is now a music venue.

How It Started

In 1992, Marek Krynski, now a 47-year-old banker and father of four, was a college student who witnessed the growing popularity of house and techno music. It used to be only heard underground, but it was coming to the mainstream.

He asked the city to authorize a “demonstration in support of love, peace, freedom, generosity, and tolerance.” Once he got the approval, he went to work. Street Parade was born.

Tips For Going

• Drinks are very expensive. Take your own water. You will be thirsty.
• Bring clothes for swimming or changing because you can go swimming in Lake Zurich if it’s really hot. (It will be pretty warm; wear cool clothes.)
• The music is really loud. For the true experience, you’ll want to go without earplugs, but you might want to stick some in your pocket just in case.
• The crowds at the beginning of the parade aren’t as dense as the crowds at the end, although it’s questionable how far a crowd of a million people can move anyway.
• The party’s not over when the parade is. There are 100 parties in and around Zurich. Check into booking after-parties in advance.
• Be prepared to wait a half hour in line to get into a toilet.
• If you go mid-afternoon – 2 p.m. – you’ll get to see the floats and everyone hyped up and having fun. By 6 p.m., people are getting tired and, by 9 p.m., it’s really winding down. Music stops around midnight.
• Costumes aren’t required, but you’ll see a lot of people dressed in them. Get a costume if you want, the more outrageous, the better.
• A million people put a huge drain on cell towers. Don’t lose your friends! It might take you a long time to find them with your phone.
• Carry as little as you can, so things like purses and camera bags don’t get hung up in the crush of people.

What Else To See In Zurich

• Marc Chagall’s church windows masterpiece: In the 1970s, Marc Chagall, a famous artist from Belarus, painted a five-part stained-glass window series for the Fraumünster church in Zurich.
• Cabaret Voltaire: Dadaism – a movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values, according to Merriam-Webster – was born in 1916 at the Cabaret Voltaire on Spiegelgasse Street where exiled artists got together to question the meaning of art. Today, you’ll find examples of their works, a shop, and a bar at the cabaret.
• Niederdorf: A walking shopping and dining promenade in Zurich’s Old Town. There are markets, shows, and attractions in the day and at night.

Picture 1 Source

Picture 2 Source