Best New Music Festival

Love Parade

www.loveparadesf.org

Culturally active San Francisco didn't seem to need another parade clogging up its streets, but the Love Parade has filled a void we didn't know we had. This new free festival has given the normally fractured local electronic music scene an occasion to unite, enticing the whole city to dance to different flavors of music. Its Embarcadero route has also given Farmers Market denizens something extra colorful to look at, as floats and people in fuzzy bear costumes and other outrageous garb boogie past. An export from Berlin, where it had more than a million attendees at its peak, the Love Parade has also held massive events in places like Vienna and Tel Aviv, but it is particularly suited to the home of the original Summer of Love. Last year's S.F. debut was auspicious, and plans for this year's event in September are already under way.