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BERLIN - More than 1.5 million people danced through the streets of the western German city of Dortmund at the annual Love Parade techno music festival.

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Roberto Pfeil

A techno music fan celebrates during the Love Parade in Dortmund, Germany on Saturday, July 19, 2008. The Love Parade takes place in the western German Ruhr district. Stickers on her bra read, "We are sexy."

Once a summer institution in Berlin, the parade - staged under the motto "Highway of Love" - moved last year to Germany's industrial Ruhr area.

A roughly two-kilometre main road was closed to allow brightly or scantily clad, mostly young people to dance to techno music blasted from 37 floats.

The original Berlin Love Parade grew from a 1989 peace demonstration into a huge outdoor celebration of club culture that drew about 1.5 million people at its peak in 1999.

However, financial problems forced the cancellation of the increasingly commercialized event in 2004 and 2005.

The parade returned in 2006, attracting between 500,000 and 700,000 people.

Last year's Love Parade took place in Essen.