After French crackdown on rave parties, party goers move from France to Italy
By Yahoo News – Thursday September 5 2002
Copyright: Yahoo News
ROME – After a French crackdown on rave parties, hundreds of young people from France came across the border to Italy Thursday for the start of a huge party on an Alpine meadow.
The Italian news agency ANSA, reporting from the Italian town of Cuneo, a few kilometers (miles) from the border with France, said participants had originally planned to hold four days of partying in their homeland but had to make other plans after the French crackdown of the last few months.
ANSA reported that French authorities closed the road that leads to the border-crossing point in hopes of discouraging the flow of young people to the event.
By early afternoon, dozens of tents sprung up on the grassy meadow not far from customs offices on the Italian side of the border, ANSA said.
On Wednesday, France’s interior minister offered to hold talks with organizers of techno dance parties, as the south of France braced for a huge rave to be held at a secret location in defiance of the law.
Last year, the four-day festa drew 10,000 people to southern France.
France has passed laws to give authorities more control over rave parties in response to several deaths and accidents.
In May, the government adopted a measure requiring a one-month notice for any event with more than 250 participants, amplified music and a high level of risk to participants.
