HALF a million young Germans are expected to converge on the centre of Berlin today for the Love Parade, the world's biggest open air dance part, writes Den is Staunton from Berlin. The event has grown from a tiny gathering of 150 people eight years ago into an annual celebration of Techno, the most influential youth culture trend to grip Germany since Rock `n' Roll arrived in the 1950s.
The revels began last night with warm up parties at many Berlin clubs and they will continue well into Monday afternoon at more than 100 parties throughout the city. Forty loudspeaker trucks will pump out the music during today's parade, which leads through the Tiergarten, Berlin's main park, to the Brandenburg Gate.
Germany's leading DJs will perform at a closing party around the Victory Column, a Berlin landmark crowned with a golden angel that featured in Wim Wenders' film Wings of Desire.
Previous Love Parade's have processed down the Kurfuerstendamm shopping street but last year's 250,000 ravers were too much for the shopkeepers to cope with.
The police have greased lamp posts along the new route to prevent over excited participants from climbing them, and environmentalists have complained that the party could seriously damage the park.
Youth psychologist, Mr Klaus Hurrelmann, advised parents against forbidding their children from attending today's parade.
"That doesn't have a good effect psychologically" he said. "Young people want to escape the chains of a narrow, bourgeois society."