Backdoor NYE warehouse rave prompts arrests, curfews in France

Approximately 2,500 EDM enthusiasts gathered for an illegal NYE warehouse rave in Brittany, found in northwestern France, to celebrate 2021 in the style to which they’ve grown accustomed. The only problem was that the year they were sending out happened to be accompanied by a global health pandemic.

What went down at the NYE warehouse rave in France

According to those who were there, the event was attended not only by people who traveled in from all over France, but also from other countries in Europe. Attendees agreed to meet at a public parking lot, forming caravans to the warehouses which were owned by a storage company. According to media coverage of the event, local police tried to stop the event but faced fierce resistance from attendees. From first-hand accounts, social distancing and mask-wearing etiquettes were abandoned, a police car was reportedly set on fire, and attendees threw bottles and stones at law enforcement officers.

Although it was intended as a two-day rager, from New Year’s until Saturday, the party was broken up on Friday morning when authorities finally interceded. At that time, according to French media outlets, about 1,200 individuals were charged with crimes ranging from narcotics use to violating Coronavirus restrictions. Additionally, to combat these illegal gatherings, France has issued a stringent curfew of 6 pm in the regions including Brittany, along with Marseille and Naples, where similar gatherings have also occurred. While all of France must adhere to a strict 8 pm curfew, it remains unclear how extra curfew measures would affect the ravers, considering how the rave community has historically functioned counter to enforced government regulations.

NYE warehouse rave raises questions about rave culture at large

This event isn’t the solitary example of gatherings that have formed, against local regulations, in any part of the world where someone can plug in a deck and wheel in some boxes (Including, apparently, the lads bathroom at St. Antony’s Roman Catholic School in Manchester, England). France’s reaction to the event is indicative of a series of such events where citizens have feared that the behavior of a few has affected the health of the whole as reports of these events have not curtailed. In England, the US, and Australia, similar scenes have also taken place, sometimes with arrests, sometimes not. Although there are a range of polarizing opinions on the matter—all of which raise questions over the ravers’ intentions, the meaning of EDM, and what it means to be a member of that subculture—it seems the people of France have had enough of the shenanigans.

Via: The Straits Times.

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