Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › French Tek 2006
Does anyone know the date for French Tek? The crew and myself want to get our arses over there this year…
Nice 1!
nice 1
it has not been authorised yet for this year, and it is not as simple as before due to ongoing problems and opposition
last year there was a big oversight on the part of the local authorities and the organisers. the area was a habitat for all sorts of wild species (which caused friction with greens in the local government).
Amongst these species was a caterpillar with irritant hairs which can cause serious allergic reactions. this caterpillar is common in hotter meditteranean countries but a hot spring encouraged it to breed in large numbers in this particular part of France.
No-one – not the organisers, cops or local government warned the large contingent of people including those from other, colder, countries such as the UK and Eastern Europe (who would not expect to encounter thse creatures) of their presence or the potential danger they posed.
several people suffered health problems due to these caterpillars, a significant amount of persons at the teknival.
Red Cross units and the Fire Brigade were deployed at one point to the site to treat the numbers of injured, and it was declared a local “major incident area”. (apparently there are no public ambulances in France, you have to pay for them!) gendarmes (military cops) tried to even stop the event but realised this would create further problems
A friend of mine was affected by the caterpillars (a young chap in his 20s who is otherwise healthy and does not even get stuff like hay fever).
He had an extremely serious life-threatening allergic reaction and required emergency medical treatment in France, and further treatment in Britain, it appears the severity of the allergic reaction attacked his immune system as well. He was in and out of all sorts of hospitals and medical facilities for months, missed a load of parties throughout the rest of the season due to illness and has only recently returned to good health (nearly a year later)
I do not think he was the only casualty either (final casualty count was around a hundred)
This whole operation must have cost thousands of Euros in unplanned and unrecoverable costs to the local economy, as well as further costs to public health services across the entire EU.
Worst of all this incident (or at least stopping it reaching such a scale) was completely preventable. These irritant caterpillars are not alien species but are a known part of Europes wildlife! All that was needed was to warn people attending of their presence.
The were also (isolated) incidents of violence against English crews at the event; and allegations that the site was not cleared properly and “pollution” was left behind which in French is often a more polite term for merde (shit)!
This may however be more because of the very aggressive way in which the Frenchtek site is cleared by gendarmes – those who are slow to leave a treated to a “display” of paramilitary policing hardware including robot vans which discharge CS gas and planes with what appear to be actual bombs (hopefully they are only “practice inert ordnance”) overflying the site!
incidentally the moment anyone mentions Frenchtek on here we get incoming traffic from the French defence ministry (who run the gendarmerie).
This event is clearly now treated as an unwanted invasion than an event accepted by French society (other than French ravers who I have a lot of respect for for putting up with stuff like this and still doing parties…) – the wider view of the population does seem to be “we gave it a chance but it is too risky/expensive”
However One aim of the “Manifestation” in Strasbourg (listed on this site) is to attempt to convince the French authorities to authorise a teknival site in a safe area for this year (as well as putting the case forward for permitted parties in the whole EU!)
last year there was a big oversight on the part of the local authorities and the organisers. the area was a habitat for all sorts of wild species (which caused friction with greens in the local government).
Amongst these species was a caterpillar with irritant hairs which can cause serious allergic reactions. this caterpillar is common in hotter meditteranean countries but a hot spring encouraged it to breed in large numbers in this particular part of France.
No-one – not the organisers, cops or local government warned the large contingent of people including those from other, colder, countries such as the UK and Eastern Europe (who would not expect to encounter thse creatures) of their presence or the potential danger they posed.
several people suffered health problems due to these caterpillars, a significant amount of persons at the teknival.
Red Cross units and the Fire Brigade were deployed at one point to the site to treat the numbers of injured, and it was declared a local “major incident area”. (apparently there are no public ambulances in France, you have to pay for them!) gendarmes (military cops) tried to even stop the event but realised this would create further problems
A friend of mine was affected by the caterpillars (a young chap in his 20s who is otherwise healthy and does not even get stuff like hay fever).
He had an extremely serious life-threatening allergic reaction and required emergency medical treatment in France, and further treatment in Britain, it appears the severity of the allergic reaction attacked his immune system as well. He was in and out of all sorts of hospitals and medical facilities for months, missed a load of parties throughout the rest of the season due to illness and has only recently returned to good health (nearly a year later)
I do not think he was the only casualty either (final casualty count was around a hundred)
hi there
it is usually in france like this in the last years that the negociations abotu the authorisation are going til just before teh date of the event. after all its a case of seeing the things realisticaly from teh side of the government that it would be much more expensive to evict such a ammount of people in case it would be illegal, than to give authorisation and have a little bit of influence if it comes to choosing the venue or dealing the traffic etc.
the last year was a bit of a trab as the ministry offered a place which was a natural protected area and the moderators of the teknival refused to take this and asked for a betetr one. the better one has been the airfield and they knew it jus some days before. only the moment they have been there by themself just the day before it starts they have realised the caterpillars but not the danger in them. when they knew it it was too late to call the people back, send them back home or warn in a better way as they did with flyers at the venue. as usuallythe red cross attened the whole time and fortunately noone died what would probably have happened without the attendance of first aid. but after all it was the ministry that choosed the venue and they should have been aware about the danger.
Worst of all this incident (or at least stopping it reaching such a scale) was completely preventable. These irritant caterpillars are not alien species but are a known part of Europes wildlife! All that was needed was to warn people attending of their presence.
for this reason the donations, and believe this is a huge ammount of money, goes in the pocket of the government to recount with the ambulance, red cross and fireworks services.
a eviction in case of unauthorised event in comparison would cost much more, so even for the ministry its not a so bad deal. still the question why they offered once a natural protected venue that got refused by teh organisers and after this venue with the caterpillars that were a real treat for some people with allergical reactions ? i dont want to say it was for purpose – but the idea is close. personally.
the event has always been treated like this, but the ministry didnt have another chance then authorising it due the huge ammount of people and the size of teh scene in france. after all it was as well been used to make pressure to the government to get a law that makes it easier to do freeparties as this was really difficult after the 11.9 and the following security laws which included the freeparties and made it almost impossible to do it anymore. now its again more liberla for little free parties which is caused by the pressure of teh teknivals.
the aim of teh manifestation has nothing to do in first place with the teknival at the 1st of may.
the aims of the manifestation are different. its to show solidarity between the european subculutres such as freeparty scene, squat scene, trailersite scene and any kindof alternative lifeforms that are suffering repression and police brutality. the maifestation dont want to get the huge teknivals legal. it stands to force the european parlament to realise that the actual situation of social, youth and cultural issues arent good. the alternative scene is a necessarity of europe and part of it and we wish to get the nations to stop or limit repression. squats being closed whilst young people cant afford anymore rents, state cant afford anymore cultural and youth work but close social centers etc. the teknival which hopefully will take place after the manifestation is as well a opportunity to limit the risc of riots, as it will be a reason for the people to leave strasbourg and not cause countless mutliriggers around the area.
the french teknival is as well connected to a manifestation in paris that stands contra sarkozy, the interiour minister who is a proper rightwing and mainly teh cause for the riots in november. as well still a pressure cause even thou they got the law for doing the small freeparties,but not every prefecture is respecting it and still repress soundsystems. till they didnt reach a fully realised situation for freeparties they wont stop to do the big teknivals. to all of them who have attented it once it may have become clear thats not a thing of spirit , more a gathering of likeminded people with the interest to get into a liberal situation for the freeparty scene that need to be healed. it is more political than cultural.
surely meanwhile the negociations about strasbourg it will be a thematic to get a better venue this time for first of may. it will as well be more hard this year than it was last year.
but please dont mistake the strasbourg event as somethign that asks for right to party and rinse the fund of the state.
it combinates much more interrest groups than only teh freeparty scenes of europe and in first place only tries to get in a sensible discussion with the parlament, medias and governments abotu cultural, social and alternative issues.
Nice 1!
fatty you lightweight its may the 1st of on wednesday we are gonna be slamming better than last year as fru r going this year and you knows they always do the best techno
oi oi vic, i posted this thread last year, lol.
av a good time out there dude, wish i could get the time off work to go out.
Lucky feckers!!!
This year’s frenchtek thread: http://www.partyvibe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=31052
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Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › French Tek 2006
