it was originally because it is a socialist tradition to have a party on May Day and there was once a more tolerant socialist government in France (which the French voted out when the recession started to bite).
For a few years at least the govt used to just let people do it, but there is a vicious circle where all the cops rabich metioned are finding a fuckload of drugs including heroin, and there have been incidents of violence and overdoses at such large events, and of course the rest of the french say “they are invaded by foreign ravers”.
There usually is a second teknival in the summer, but it tends not to be as popular with UK ravers because the weather is usually better here by now. its not as if everyone is going there because they love europe and multiculturalism, in many cases sadly its because British ravers have fucked up the scene in their own country. (I do realise there are exceptions such as my friends from K32..)
