French / Paris Teknival 2006

[len]

anyone off to french tek im getting a ferry wednasday night but havent got the foggest idea where im going is anyone heading over round that time who knows where abouts where to head:horay:

[crappy-melza]

:weee: me and my friends are catching the ferry on wed nite too where r u catching it from we're going from dover hopefully there should be a good few cars with us and then we're from there i'm hoping the the driver of or car knows whee he's going im leaving it in whtat i think are he's capable hands argh:yakk:

["Sound-Guy"]

I know a few people that are goin, thought about it and even though it would be proper phat i'll be missing it. Cant really afford it at the mo anyway so my next party will be the next bank hol!

[hetty]

wish i could be arsed to get to france but i'm just too lazy
have a good one though

[665]

The few things I can say here are:

*there's an officially authorized Teknival kicking off,wich only desserves(IMO) the total BOYCOTT.Shame on it.


*If you have very big ears,you may find THE Pirate Area.


Good luck in any of your choice!

raaa

[Stevie_big_words]

wont be making frenchtek, would be gutted but other plans sound too good to miss in my area, some of u no wat i'm chattin bout :groucho:

[General Lighting]

I've never done Frenchtek and never will (despite being able to speak French and having a lot of respect and affection for the country), the best years of it have passed (as I discussed with 665).

The grass is no greener on the other side of the Channel, the cops have big guns and more CS gas and aren't afraid to use them, and like all big gatherings its not as friendly/multicultural as many claim it is.

Good luck to those who are going though...

I wouldn't mind however going to a small free party in France or another European country with good friends from both nations....

[liaphin]

The few things I can say here are:

*there's an officially authorized Teknival kicking off,wich only desserves(IMO) the total BOYCOTT.Shame on it.


*If you have very big ears,you may find THE Pirate Area.


Good luck in any of your choice!

raaa


INFOLINE FOR ILLEGAL EVENT:


ring from french phone:
0892683672
then press *
then press 1
then enter 152007#
don4t forget the #
at the end

the code for the Public is :
01052007#




thank you for your statement !!!

boycott the collaboration with the state in times of no necessity for it !!

they officially had to declare it as festival also, aslo its the first time in history they signed a declaration for it which makes it fully state controlled !

[liaphin]

I've never done Frenchtek and never will (despite being able to speak French and having a lot of respect and affection for the country), the best years of it have passed (as I discussed with 665).

The grass is no greener on the other side of the Channel, the cops have big guns and more CS gas and aren't afraid to use them, and like all big gatherings its not as friendly/multicultural as many claim it is.

Good luck to those who are going though...

I wouldn't mind however going to a small free party in France or another European country with good friends from both nations....

as you could see int he move of the czech scene, it is happening somehing in europe !!
the people who still believe in DIY and autonomy, who believe in this as basix for a freearty or teknival forced in france now a seperation of the movement. in the moment its still hot all here and alot of discussions about that, not only good and productive, but this will pass.

finally they understood that there is no sense to keep a scene united that has developed so mch different ideas about the same topic. fair play to those who want to do the legal one, just then be fair and dont play it as a free event nor a teknival.

scenes are born and grow and devide themselves in different drifts - thats the way it is and if we only see that it is necessary and also more productive, all is fine. freedom to choose for each one i say.

i think good time are going to come back again as there is a massive amount of people and soundsystems who dont want to go into commercialisation of freeparty at all. not cause they are crusty hipies believeing in a myth, but because they believe that autontomous spaces are now more important than ever before, regarind globalisation and the state europe is getting in !

:) all will be fine :)

[General Lighting]

I think if we can get the an acceptance that a party with about 500 people which causes no trouble, mess or disruption is legal as a law across the EU that would be good.

Britain already has this but insists on too much paperwork, apparently France has the same, doesn't ask for all the paperwork but some areas are easier to party than others...

[liaphin]

I think if we can get the an acceptance that a party with about 500 people which causes no trouble, mess or disruption is legal as a law across the EU that would be good.

Britain already has this but insists on too much paperwork, apparently France has the same, doesn't ask for all the paperwork but some areas are easier to party than others...

thats correct, hence whe the french see the negotiations as stopped as far teh government cares of adapting the law everywhere.
thats why they also do the illegal one: once as counter event to the legal festival covered in teknival announcement, once cause they want to put pressure again as they lost strength in the times of negotiations. to many people were liking the idea of the bizness with the state and the state therefore lost a bit of "respect" and thinks they can "rule" the scene as they want.

a europeanwide law about this would be wicked for some but not recommendable cause in other countries it would mean going step back as they still have more freedoms as others. for excample italian freeparty scene is totally against such a law, as they pretty much just take their free spaces without being fucked afterwards.

in longterm, as also there repressioin is growing, i thinkin meantime of other 5 years, we may really ave to end up with a european wide law

[General Lighting]

I think there are local differences due to terrain and local attitudes.

A country like the UK is actually very small and a lot of land is held by ancestral royal families or big agricultural companies so there are big conflicts over land use, plus no real wider cultural acceptance of loud music and partying.

Even so, the UK did actually have a very good scene but people overdid the same areas and the local people and farmers complained. Even today in larger rural areas of the UK where venues are well chosen the parties are still often left alone.

there is I think a worrying trend though of puritan/conservative people across Europe getting into positions of power, if not quite national leaders in local councils and that is where they can do a lot of damage..

[liaphin]

there is I think a worrying trend though of puritan/conservative people across Europe getting into positions of power, if not quite national leaders in local councils and that is where they can do a lot of damage..


that is indeed worrying !!!!

[Tributek]

I've never done Frenchtek and never will (despite being able to speak French and having a lot of respect and affection for the country), the best years of it have passed (as I discussed with 665).

The grass is no greener on the other side of the Channel, the cops have big guns and more CS gas and aren't afraid to use them, and like all big gatherings its not as friendly/multicultural as many claim it is.

Good luck to those who are going though...

I wouldn't mind however going to a small free party in France or another European country with good friends from both nations....



Hi all,
I really agree with you.
I spend 7 years on free scene in France as I'm french. I can tell you that the spririt is really dead. The very best teknival I mades was in 1999-2000. Since french tek are just a big meating of kebab vans and drug!

The free is no more as it was as people just go there to get fucked with drugs...

one point is that the muzik is still good but not the spirit.

It's my point of view and I would no more want to go in a french tek, even If most of my friends are part of sound sytem and keep making some fucking noise there.


But if you had never seen such a big meting it could be a good trip for you...

[General Lighting]

we have (or had) big raves in England too, but the same things happened as in FRance and even without "legal" teknivals.

if I ever go to France it will be either on my own (perhaps to do some cycling as well) or with a small group of friends, and as much to explore a place quietly as to go to a rave - but I would like to find a rave with about 500 people or so, like the ones I've heard are permitted out there....

maybe one summer in the next few years I will get round to this..

[Tributek]

SUre it's the better way to enjoy party in FRance: to find a little rave in the fields with about 300-500 people... In this party all people are just friends lol not really but in some case you can really find a good spirit as well.

But all the big parties with 2000-3000 peoples or more (teks) are just an open market of drug!!

I did not have the opportunity yet to find free parties in England but I would like to see it at least once... REmember that free mvt comes from england I espect good vibes could be still here ;)

[General Lighting]

I did not have the opportunity yet to find free parties in England but I would like to see it at least once... REmember that free mvt comes from england I espect good vibes could be still here ;)

there are still lots of good parties of that kind here, but we have to be very careful of cops as we do not have the acceptance in our country by wider society. If you stick around here though eventually people will help you find some parties - often by going to legal events in smaller venues you meet people who help you find the underground parties ;)

what sort of music do you prefer?

[Digital-A]

tributek your from oxford, just down the road, im sure we can sort something in time :wink:

["Sound-Guy"]

A few mates left to go yesterday morning, spoke to them last night and its madness. Over 100 rigs apparently! :crazy_dru raaa

[General Lighting]

fair enough if they're younger and never seen a large multirigger like that but as the French themselves imply its more like a low-cost Glasto travellers field than a small friendly free party..

Also, its obviously gonna be good on the way in but what about on the way out? I still don't like this "6 squadrons of gendarmes" idea much.

For a similar crowd in England at a legal event I think they would use a quarter of that amount of civillian cops if there was no trouble; and they would be unarmed and in normal uniform unless something kicked off.

A French friend told me that the gendarmes were mostly people like you and me (ok maybe younger than me :laugh_at:) doing their compulsory national service, they are probably a bit bitter and and angry they can't party themselves, and they have the power to point real guns at you and search through your vehicles.

I think people need to be very careful about stashing items well...

[General Lighting]

I've just picked up the following news..
the "illegal" ravers have gatecrashed a separate site by breaching the gates at three separate points, and just running towards the gendarmes shouting!
the gendarmes threw a single CS-grenade and then retreated :laugh_at:(my French friends have told me previously that the gendarmerie is often made up of youths on their national service and not all would want a big fight, and a lot of the cops are "for show" rather than any real trouble
see post below for an update from liaphine (taken from SJ)all seems good for the moment but has anyone got any more precise news?

What will happen to the free party crews when the event finishes?

EDIT: some details corrected, see posts later on in this thread

[globalloon]

about 5 years ago i was 'walked' off a site by a CRS who held his baton between my legs :crazy: the whole way (about 2 km) punching the back of my head and when i finally turned around he punched my in the stomach

that wasn't a tek, but the cops freak me out in france

[the rev]

about 5 years ago i was 'walked' off a site by a CRS who held his baton between my legs :crazy: the whole way (about 2 km) punching the back of my head and when i finally turned around he punched my in the stomach

that wasn't a tek, but the cops freak me out in france

Was he on his own? I'm not sure I could have put up with that! Frech authorities can be complete bastards tho can't they

[globalloon]

Was he on his own?

no, he was part of the CRS

[Mr Fixxy]

I've just picked up the following news..

the "illegal" ravers have gatecrashed the sarkotek by breaching the gates at three separate points, and just running towards the gendarmes shouting!
the gendarmes threw a single CS-grenade and then retreated :laugh_at:(my French friends have told me previously that the gendarmerie is often made up of youths on their national service and not all would want a big fight, and a lot of the cops are "for show" rather than any real trouble
now the free party is on the same site as the sarkotek and everyone is being left to get on with it..all seems good for the moment but has anyone got any more precise news?

What will happen to the free party crews when the event finishes?


what were your sources for this mate?

[General Lighting]

what were your sources for this mate?
from trying to make out liaphines post on SJ - and anything else I can find. It is unclear whether there is one or two venues involved, although all the other reports I find relate to a single venue.

OTOH I would have thought if people are cracking a new site I would have seen something about it somewhere, on here, SJ network23 or the mainstream media.

This is the only current "mainstream" report I can find on tek (which doesn't seem to bad, only 4 in custody so far!)

http://www.liberation.fr/culture/250695.FR.php

[General Lighting]

there appears to have been more than one "rumoured" venue for the teknival anyway - this is from a French trance forum..

http://skyforum.ayzo.net/s,trancegoa,9,,16425,1,.html

[Dan Ooops!]

about 5 years ago i was 'walked' off a site by a CRS who held his baton between my legs :crazy: the whole way (about 2 km) punching the back of my head and when i finally turned around he punched my in the stomach

that wasn't a tek, but the cops freak me out in france


Ooooh!

Not quite to the same intensity (no batton between the legs!!) but when I went to FrenchTek in 95 (??) I got there on the Tuesday, had a wicked 24hrs with a bunch of English rigs (Bedlam/Spirals/Vox Populi etc) and then tried to return on the Friday night. I was rucksacked up to the max with tentage etc, and came across a gendarme (or CRS, didn't stop to ask) who just stood there with his arms crossed saying "Access interdit". Fortunately my french is good enough to understand what he was saying, but it wasn't the words that put me off, it was his gun. At this time in UK, we had had virtually no voilent party evictions (Acton Lane and Torpedo Town aside!!) and I was neither in a position to run across the fields nor argue with the gun-toting copper.

All you Euro guys might laugh, but until you've faced an armed copper who doesn't want you to do what we did most weekends in the UK, I have to say I chickened out and ran away.

Shame really, coz the atmosphere on the Tuesday had been amaxing, and it could only have got better by the weekend.

Fortunately for me, it was only an hour and a half from my parents holiday cottage, so I got back and spent the weekend chilling before comign back to England.

Good luck all those going - RAVE hard.

Dan

[Mr Fixxy]

interesting turn of events.

i am shocked if it is the same site after all the talk.

seems to be a massive cop out.

[General Lighting]

this is taken from SJ (will save liaphine cutting and pasting it here) - it looks like there was a different site and yet another disused airbase (there seem to be a lot of disused airbases in France, a leftover from the Cold War?)

PS: Anyone who has press reports please post links (in English or French, there are many here who can understand both).


FREE PARTY IS FREE AGAIN, at least in France!

As I described in the last post before I went, it already seemed like we had the sun on our side.
When I arrived there, it was truly like people described me by phone, a wicked mood of solidarity, unity and strength and as well power, because we had just fooled the state, when usually this is the converse.

When we arrived later and passed through the little village by foot, we met a lot of locals that were all outside their houses to speak about this weird thing that is happening in "our little village".

They were absolutely friendly, we explained them the situation and they were even happier:
What, you are against Sarkozy? Gooood people!"

Shouting on the police with the helicopters and "le flics sont malade", " you poor people et chased by them like dogs, wait, we will have word on our local newspaper about this ", really nice smiley some of them I met later at the party, dressed like ravers, the girl obviously just put some layers of clothes and voila...

The site we squatted was an old airfield, now used for windmills and owned by the village.
after we entered the mayor of the town came to speak to us and was like :" oh no, this will cost so much money, we did all new on the one side blabla... but, if you agree to stay only on one side of the airfield, then you can stay till Tuesday, no problem !" he was a really nice person with a 20 year old son who likes raving as well... doesn't take the thing so serious, more like "what young people do, aaahhwww, I wished to be young again"

Also the same filed has been squatted by 30 000 gypsies always again. the mayor so was happy that we ain´t gypsies and not so many and as well he was impressed cause it was always clean on the floor. “you are well organized you people, respect!"

The cops were at each exit and didn't allow more cars or vans to enter, the only contact to the world outside could do Tekno+, a French drug prevention association who did a crazy job this weekend!

Tekno+ use to be at each teknival to provide prevention and drug tests, chilling tent and food for the people. Usually there is also the Red Cross and medicine de monde. This time they had to do the job all by themselves and it worked wonderful. No bad things happened, not much ambulance need to come all the weekend. Autonomy can work!

There was anarchy and freedom in the air as I only felt it that intense long long long time ago !

There were not so many sound system and maybe at the top 5000 ravers, but those ravers were awesome, more a collective of people who didn’t give up to believe that it is possible to achieve this and more, that it is possible with that to show that we don’t need the state organized teknival, if it is only the people who care about the difference between the both of them.

Everyone was smiling and whenever I looked a person I got a glance back that said: "we fucking did it, thanks that you are here!"

Only to have lived this mood for a while was worth it!

Saturday was a day everyone just made party and speaking about if we would get seized or not and speaking about the following months and how it will develop.

All peaceful and friendly, no muggers, no dealer and therefore really few problems for drugs.
(I searched ages for some speed and end up paying at 10 in the morning in advance to a girl that promised me to give it to me in the evening, she hadn’t it with her. and she came back).

Food was alright, the sounds were doing some efforts and we had crepes, fries, and crepes and mergueze sausages. No food stands of course. All DIY...

At Sunday then the first sound system wanted to go in the evening about 8 a clock. The exit was about 1,5 km away and 10 minutes later we received a call: we are getting seized!

Immediately every sound shut down the music and ALL people went to the exit, armed with sticks and everything what they could find. Everyone went, apart some few who were building up blockades. The police have seen 3000 ravers moving towards the police from the helicopter and directly cancelled the seizing. The sound could go without even a drug test.

Then we went into negotiation because no one really wanted to do this for each sound that wanted to leave and result was: all sounds can go out free, with no problem till Monday evening 18.00 (which is now btw)

Our part of the deal was to not do riot in Paris the first of may, cause this is what we menaced them we would do if the seize only one sound or take only one driver license. As the cops just saw the solidarity the ravers just shown up with that massive amount of people ready to fight, they agreed to this deal and everyone is happy.

When I left this late midday, we haven’t even been drug searched or controlled.

So as résumé: we were right with the guess that sarkozy didn’t want this to clash!

BUT for him we have a little surprise, because we invited the press and they reported about the true background of the history. Nice ones!

Now the party is over and it was weird to get back in reality!

That we had to go today wasn’t a real problem for anyone, as most of the people want to be in Paris tomorrow and we also ran out of almost everything...

The music was mixed up, dominated by classical French sound, but as well a drum n bass and a psytrance (!) sound system. Respect to those who risked their entire systems because no one only took a kamikaze system!

I am still too excited to write better than this, sorry...

For all those who have been with us in Strasbourg, it was a total revival, the really same spirit between the people!

This weekend changed my attitude towards French ravers, at least to those who can still believe and were there, hell, they are great one smiley

What will happen after is that the French scene will officially split up; the part that has been at this tek gave birth to a new/old generation! A thing that had to happen and at the end it is all good.

Whoever want can go on with pathetic negotiations that lead to no where but to be controlled and have their monster event (well monster, this year 20 000 people and 20 sounds as I was informed). They also can call it like this year fuck the state - no one really cares because now people realized what it really is about!

It was a historic weekend, regarding the impact it will have in the press, in the scene and in the hearts of people who got back home with a lot of hope and happiness!

[liaphin]

i am sorry if my first post on sj was not comprehensible enough.

of course we were not at the legal site ;)

would have been a bit pathetic and we would rather have stayed home instead ;)

all went fine at the end, one sound has been confiscated against the deal with the cops, which will lead plenty of ravers today midday to go to the paris manifestations with their sound systems.

even tho no one really is angry about the seizure as it is nothing mire than for the press, to show they at least punished us and to scare people for the next time. legally to this sound will happen nothing but a day in front of the court were they will go out without any fine, cause there are no proofs that they had done the organization. the sound will be back in 1,5 monthes. we spoke to them right after they got seized and they were laughing, cause even the cops admitted that they had to do this for the press release :oh_god:

if something is still unclear, let me know.

about the legal one i don´t have much information, it started small and ended big, everyone is happy, people felt all like on a free event cause the floor was covered in human and dog shit, everything´s cool for everyone, everyone got what they wanted :)

and the scene is separeted, the mailinglist of the national collective of soundsystem will stop and start again as two different.

this step had to be done, cause it is not possible to keep such a big movement united if the ideals are so different.

there is not even a need to argue o struggle, at the end i think everyone will be happy with the solution to go different ways from now on :)

[General Lighting]

i am sorry if my first post on sj was not comprehensible enough.

of course we were not at the legal site ;)

would have been a bit pathetic and we would rather have stayed home instead ;)

thanks for the clarification, I wasn't sure TBH and having spent nearly all my life in England I'm not used to countries so many of disused airbases, although there are some here most of ours get sold for other uses very quickly (you might get one rave in them if you are lucky then they are locked down!) or the Americans use them.

all went fine at the end, one sound has been confiscated against the deal with the cops, which will lead plenty of ravers today midday to go to the paris manifestations with their sound systems.

even tho no one really is angry about the seizure as it is nothing mire than for the press, to show they at least punished us and to scare people for the next time. legally to this sound will happen nothing but a day in front of the court were they will go out without any fine, cause there are no proofs that they had done the organization. the sound will be back in 1,5 monthes. we spoke to them right after they got seized and they were laughing, cause even the cops admitted that they had to do this for the press release :oh_god:
best of luck, I hope this is the case..


about the legal one i don´t have much information, it started small and ended big, everyone is happy, people felt all like on a free event cause the floor was covered in human and dog shit, everything´s cool for everyone, everyone got what they wanted :)

:yakk: I hope this is not what you think an English free party is like! It is a lot cleaner, people (and dogs) go to the sides of the party area...


and the scene is separeted, the mailinglist of the national collective of soundsystem will stop and start again as two different.

this step had to be done, cause it is not possible to keep such a big movement united if the ideals are so different.

there is not even a need to argue o struggle, at the end i think everyone will be happy with the solution to go different ways from now on :)
sounds a lot like what happened in England about 12 years ago. I hope though there is still pressure on the govt to allow the parties with up to 500 people, as we have a similar law now in England which works but there is to o much paperwork required, the next step is to get the events tolerated without the bureaucracy.

[marktipsy]

ok its a late start but need to find location of site got mates there but cannot get in touch plaese some one post site adress its in full swing so i thinks pigs already in da know so please no cloak and dagger stuff cheers ...
:crazy: :crazy:

[marktipsy]

Ooooh!

Not quite to the same intensity (no batton between the legs!!) but when I went to FrenchTek in 95 (??) I got there on the Tuesday, had a wicked 24hrs with a bunch of English rigs (Bedlam/Spirals/Vox Populi etc) and then tried to return on the Friday night. I was rucksacked up to the max with tentage etc, and came across a gendarme (or CRS, didn't stop to ask) who just stood there with his arms crossed saying "Access interdit". Fortunately my french is good enough to understand what he was saying, but it wasn't the words that put me off, it was his gun. At this time in UK, we had had virtually no voilent party evictions (Acton Lane and Torpedo Town aside!!) and I was neither in a position to run across the fields nor argue with the gun-toting copper.

All you Euro guys might laugh, but until you've faced an armed copper who doesn't want you to do what we did most weekends in the UK, I have to say I chickened out and ran away.

Shame really, coz the atmosphere on the Tuesday had been amaxing, and it could only have got better by the weekend.

Fortunately for me, it was only an hour and a half from my parents holiday cottage, so I got back and spent the weekend chilling before comign back to England.

Good luck all those going - RAVE hard.

Dan
good party ......

bloody hot got sun stroke and spiked up big time but fat matt lol ..

got pigged out on monday morning few people dragged off site but after large protest and the thret that we would all go into town and have the party there instead they backed down and returned all aressted peeps .some escaping lenghty jail time as you can guess ... this dindnt get us off on a good foot but hey insnt that why we went .......viva la france . just about to get in car on head off to the tekky late start but hey sun morning always the best.......hope i can find it

[Dan Ooops!]

Massive Centrale in 1994 was the one..

Good luck finding this year's event - looking forward to hearing all about it when you get back. Knew you were old skool....