San Francisco’s LovEvolution, which was supposed to occur on October 2, was cancelled due to the nineteen deaths at Germany’s LoveFest.

One million people attended the LoveFest event on June 24, 2010 in Duisburg, Germany when a mere 700,000 were supposed to show up. After police officials closed off the event, people stampeded through a tunnel to get in and many suffocated. A young woman told BBC News Europe, “Everywhere you looked there were people with blue faces,” she said. “How can I ever forget those faces? The faces of the dead.”

According to the LovEvolution website for San Francisco, LovEvolution was cancelled for safety reasons pertaining to the LoveFest in Germany’s problem of overcrowding. As event coordinators originally planned this year’s event, they strived to make the event safe and enjoyable. This required a space with a high maximum capacity, which was simply not possible. The only space available was Candlestick Park. However, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission could only issue permission two weeks before the event. The producers of LovEvolution said, “This was not enough time to properly produce an event such as ours.”

Senior Ali Ballantyne said, “The government always manages to take away happiness from people’s lives.” The government in this case was the SF Recreation and Park Commission.

In spite of this, Ballantyne also mentioned that people throughout the Bay Area are taking action by protesting. This will occur on the day the event was supposed to happen, October 2.

While LovEvolution may be cancelled, some partiers will not take no for an answer. There is a cancellation protest group on Facebook that is hiring DJ’s to lead San Francisco’s biggest party. “People are still coming, and no one is gonna be able to stop this event,” said one protester.

Though LoveFest, the day parade, may be cancelled, Love Week—from September 27 to October 3—will still go on. Love Week will feature Infected Mushroom, Shpongle, Hallucinogen, Dissolve, and Liam Shy at the Warfield.