The French interior minister has vowed to clamp down harder on illegal rave gatherings after tens of thousands attended an authorised event this weekend.
Laurent Nuñez, France’s Interior Minister, visited a site close to his hometown this Sunday where a large free party had been ongoing since Friday on a French army training ground, so far without significant disturbances.
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The minister surveyed the area from a national gendarmerie helicopter, which gathered between 17,000 and 40,000 attendees from across Europe, and he also inspected a medical station established at the perimeter of the festival site.
The choice of the venue was deliberate: in a communiqué mimicking an official prefectural decree published on Saturday, the organisers highlighted that the minister originates from Bourges, the capital of the département. Their stated aim is to symbolically occupy the training ground to «celebrate joy and mutual aid,» sending an anti-militarist message opposing the state’s tough stance on ravers.
The government’s position is clear and firm: no tolerance. Laurent Nuñez expressed to reporters that such demands will solely «reinforce the government’s resolve to intensify efforts against this type of unauthorized event, which citizens at large find incomprehensible.»
He criticized the «recklessness» of participants, who «invade» this zone «disregarding the ongoing activities there and ignoring the disruption caused».
Laurent Nuñez further announced that the administration will continue to promote its «Ripost» legislative bill, ratified by the government at March’s end, which strengthens penalties for unnotified free parties.
«From this point forward, organising a rave will be classified as a criminal offense carrying up to two years of imprisonment and a 30,000-euro fine,» he emphasized, adding that penalties for simply attending such events will also be introduced.
As early attendees began departing the site on Sunday afternoon, the minister warned all those exiting the teknival that they would face dual fines – one for trespassing on military property and another for disregarding the prefect’s directive.
Authorities, initially caught unprepared, rapidly set up a significant security response. Over 600 gendarmes remain stationed around the teknival location.
A preliminary report from the minister stated that 33 persons received medical treatment, with 12 hospitalized, «partly due to drug consumption».
From the beginning, law enforcement highlighted «pyrotechnic hazards» related to the potential presence of unexploded ordnance at this range, which was recently used for tests involving the Caesar artillery system.
The prefecture reported on Saturday the discovery of a shell near a local road at the site’s edge. A second unexploded device found since then is currently «being managed,» according to Laurent Nuñez.