Party Vibe

many friends of mine were involved in FrenchTek so I shall speak to them; however I wouldn’t expect to find much logistical info about it this early – any more so than info on the 2005 Glade festival or even Glastonbury!

Although the FrenchTeks are “legal”, they appear to be far more a “grudging acceptance” (with the locals shrugging their shoulders in a typically French manner ) of the solidarité of the Euro rave crews, rather than an open welcome from the rest of French society.

From translating the French text of last year, I got the impression that each one has to be fought for; albeit nowadays around the council debating table rather than at the frontline – and eventually a compromise solution is reached between the local authorities, the cops and the raves. (a far better solution IMO given the previous incidents that globaloon and others mentioned, such as crime and deliberate invasions of locals homes!)

There as as many moaning NIMBYS across the channel as there are here, so if the French crews were to give away their info too soon, they could lose a strategic advantage as those who opposed the raves would have time to mount a challenge against a decision to permit the event in their area.

There is no problem driving a van to France; as an EU state there should not be any more problems than driving to other parts of the UK (apart from staying on the right side of the road ) The Brits who attend tend to work together anyway so there will be plenty of people to assist you nearer the time.

You can still start preparing now even if you do not know the venue;

here are a few ideas..

– make sure your vehicle is servicable, can handle the journey of several hundred miles and is unlikely to attract the attention of the French traffic cops for any reason;

– check your crews passports are in order (although France is in the EU a British passport is required as we do not have ID cards that other euro-citizens often carry),

– check your mobile phones are enabled to work abroad (beware, the cost is often €0.60 per minute even to receive calls!)

– perhaps even learning a bit of French to deal with road signs, shops etc.

bonne chance

glad to see info was helpful – BTW apologies for double post; I have been logging in and out today, ended up posting anon and now I find I can’t delete the anon post :confused:

AFAIK rigs did not get charged to be there (I will check though); the costs of providing the drinking water, trash pickups and the emergency service cover (about €80000 ) [ payment of this was a condition of the party happening ] were recouped by collecting a few euros from each raver….

I was surprised myself that firstly the French authorities actually permitted such events, and secondly they went off so trouble free!

A few things I was advised of by the phantom/void crew who took a rig there…

– the cops had some checkpoints. not sure what they were searching for (if anything); probably checking for unsafe/overloaded vehicles and gathering numbers for the eurocops computer.

– There is a defined finish time (about 3-4 days later) , by which the authorities definitely want you on your way.

Things got a bit darker around this time; lots more cops started appearing, and some odd “robo-vans” moved on to the site – these had warnings in 3 languages on them to clear the area or they would discharge irritant (CS) gas!

To cap it all, a military aircraft with loaded missile bays flew overhead.

That said no one actually did get gassed or fired upon so I think this last bit was more to hurry people along (you know what it is like getting sketchy people to leave 🙂 ) – but it does seem rather extreme considering the teknival was in the middle of no-where.

Everyone did get out OK though, even those who had managed to get separated from their lifts and/or passports – they are AFAIK all safely back in blighty and not being trafficked to provide “personal services” by gangsters 😀