Exhibition Celebrates 30 Years of Love Family Park

“Keep the Vibe Alive: 30 Years of Love Family Park” is an enthralling exhibition currently being held at the Historisches Museum Hanau. This exhibition commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Love Family Park, a festival renowned for its vibrant celebration of electronic music. Originating in 1996, the Love Family Park festival has become a significant cultural event in the electronic music scene, drawing thousands of visitors annually.

The exhibition, which runs from May 8 to July 12 with an opening vernissage on May 7, features 23 screens and over 100 photographs, posters, and films from the organizers’ archives, offering a comprehensive historical and cultural insight into the festival’s legacy.

The Love Family Park festival began in 1996 as an open-air daytime event held at Dunlop Park. Attendance grew through the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, reaching up to 20,000 visitors at its peak in that period. In 2002 the festival relocated to the Großauheim Main Meadows, changing its venue while maintaining its status as a major electronic music gathering. The festival’s development over these years established it as a recurring feature of the regional festival calendar.

The exhibition is presented in cooperation between Historisches Museum Hanau, MOMEM Frankfurt, and cosmopop GmbH. It is curated by Dr. Torben Giese, who serves as director of the Stuttgart City Museum and as volunteer curator of MOMEM Frankfurt. Giese co-founded the initiative Save The Park in 2011, a detail that is part of the exhibition’s curatorial context. The collaboration brings institutional, curatorial, and event-organizing perspectives to the presentation of the festival’s history.

Admission to the exhibition is priced at 7 euros, with a reduced rate of 5 euros for eligible visitors. The museum’s opening hours for the exhibition are Tuesday through Friday from 10:00 to 17:00, and Saturday through Sunday from 11:00 to 18:00. Visitors are advised to consult the Historisches Museum Hanau homepage for further visitor information and any updates prior to planning their visit. The cooperating organizations and the museum homepage serve as points of contact for ticketing and additional exhibition details.

Dr. Torben Giese is credited as the curator of the exhibition “Keep the Vibe Alive: 30 Years of Love Family Park”. He serves as director of the Stuttgart City Museum, holding that institutional leadership role alongside his curatorial activities.

In addition to his directorship, Giese acts as a volunteer curator for MOMEM Frankfurt, contributing curatorial expertise to the museum initiative. Giese also co-founded the initiative Save The Park in 2011, a fact noted in relation to his involvement with the festival and its preservation efforts.

These professional roles are listed among the exhibition’s credits and contextual information about its organization and curation.

The Love Family Park festival has experienced several significant location changes and regulatory challenges since its inception. Initially held at Dunlop Park in 1996, the festival moved in 2002 to the Großauheim Main Meadows. This site is part of the Hessian Mainauen landscape protection area, where concerns arose about noise levels, drug use, and environmental impact. These issues were pivotal in affecting the festival’s operations.

In 2013, Hanau authorities banned the festival from being organized in the city, despite a petition garnering more than 20,000 signatures aimed at reversing this decision. Regulatory issues regarding noise and community safety were key factors in this outcome. Further challenges emerged in 2023 during negotiations to secure Frankfurt’s Rebstock Park as a new venue. The initial discussions faltered due to noise protection requirements. However, the festival eventually succeeded in organizing a new two-day format in Rebstock Park, scheduled for July 25 and 26, indicating its resilience and adaptability to regulatory environments.

CONCLUSION

Keep the Vibe Alive: 30 Years of Love Family Park serves as a cultural and archival record of the festival’s thirty-year history, assembling more than 100 photographs, posters, films and a multi-screen audiovisual program from the organizers’ archives to present its development. The exhibition is realized through cooperation between Historisches Museum Hanau, MOMEM Frankfurt and cosmopop GmbH and is curated by Dr. Torben Giese, linking institutional curation with festival practice. It documents the festival’s venue changes and regulatory challenges, including environmental and noise-related concerns and the 2013 ban, through curated archival material. The presentation consolidates the documented legacy of Love Family Park within the regional history of electronic music and DJ culture.