Aboutaleb open to 'dance parade new style'

A majority of the Rotterdam City Council has called upon mayor Aboutaleb Thursday to allow another dance parade next year. The mayor is against  a parade with trucks and DJ's, but sees opportunities for new dance initiatives.

The Dance Parade has not been organized since 2010, because the safety requirements have been tightened in Rotterdam. Aboutaleb firmly assures the dance parade old style will never return.  The mayor invites event organizers to come up with new ideas, and encourages them to think along the lines of a large dance party inside or outside.

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The parade organizers agree a Dance Parade New-style creates opportunities to come up with new concepts and omit what did not work, but you just can't leave out the Unique Selling Point of the Dance Parade, which makes it exactly that: a parade, with trucks. It would be like celebrating Sinterklaas without Sinterklaas, new years eve on January 23, or the City Race with go-karts instead of cars.

Critics agree public safety has to be top priority, but point out there have never been large-scale violent incidents during the parade. The parade was banned from Berlin, because of violent incidents, but Zürich, Switzerland still enjoys their parade. Interestingly enough, in 2008, the organization had a budget of about 1 million euros. The parade visitors spent about 120 million euros.

According to the Events Policy events must represent urban themes, such as port city, young city, multicultural city, a daring city ("This can only be in Rotterdam. Something I've never experienced."), Rotterdam Sports City and Cosmopolitan, international Climate Culture.

The organizers argue the parade more than meets these requirements. Statistics show the parade draws a lot of non locals and even from abroad, which should be considered a pro and earns the City a lot of revenue.

It is sad the mayor wants to hear nothing of a Dance Parade old-style with trucks through the city, especially since the decision was motivated by the failure of the mayor himself and the so-called security services he's been hiding behind for years now.