El campo comÃºn balbucea

A free party (also named free , teuf or sometimes free festival ) is a free festival Tekno or whose tariff at the entry free and is left with the appreciation of the participants. The free party is often held in nature (forest, mountain…) or in unused factories or hangars.

The most used term in the beginning was that of Rave party . Today, the “ turnips ” more often indicate the regulated festivals, while the “ free left ” are based on the exemption from payment - or semi-exemption from payment - and clandestinity.

Presentation

A free party - regarded as a temporary Zone of autonomy " Z.A.T." or Temporary Autonomous Zone " T.A.Z." in English from the point of view of the participants or like a transitory zone organized by them and seen as a zone of not-right by the authority of a State which always sought to repress them insofar as they squattaient private or public spaces, temporarily or durably. It is a place where a Sound system “poses” “sound” (material of wiring for sound) to make some profit the participants. The installation of a free party is not limited to the system of wiring for sound, which is often accompanied by an impromptu bar and a space of rest indicated under the name of “Chill-out” where one often finds booklets of prevention on the Drogue S, the Sexualité, the Ouïe, etc…

The place, generally unusual for one evening (unused fields, caves, buildings…), is held secret until the beginning of the festival, which often gives place to a play of the cat and mouse with the police force. The modern means of communication, Cellphone and Internet, make it possible to relay quickly and confidentially information on the place. Indeed, the organizers often use infolines , questionable responders remotely with a code communicated on the Tract of the free party ; they reveal there the relative informations in the plan of access only to the moment when the free party starts.

The participants car-indicate themselves under the term of “Teufeur S”. Some use as means of transport of the trucks or more or less arranged Fourgon S, called “camtards”.

Contrary to an often made confusion, the term “ free ” should not be heard in the direction of “free” but in the direction of “free”, these festivals making a point by lower part very of dissociating mercenary attitude of the traditional evenings.

The use of the term “ free party ” in opposition to the term “ Rave party ” is allotted to the Spiral Tribe , one of the famous English collectives to have made known the free party through the Europe.

The term “its” often indicates the system of wiring for sound in itself, as in the expression “wall of sound” which indicates the alignment of enclosures diffusing the music or in the expression “to pose sound” which indicates the action to set up such a system of wiring for sound. But this term can also get busy like French-speaking synonym of “ Sound system ” to indicate the whole of the people taking part in the organization of the free party . Used in this direction, it can also be synonymous with “ tribe ” (English for “tribe”), term which proposes the organization, like the tribal and Community lifestyle often adopted by the Teufeur S.

The term “donation” is sometimes used as synonymous with PAF (share in the expenses) by reference at the time where this participation was left with the free appreciation of the public.

The music diffused at the time of a free party belongs to the kind of the Freetekno and is generally hardcore, tribe, Drum & low or Jungle, Hardtek, Speedcore, Acidcore, Dub ......

France

It is estimated that at the end of the Années 1990, there were a few tens of “free festivals” each weekend (of variable size, being able to gather between several thousands of people and nearly a hundred even less within the framework of one evening more private).

The first wave, directly resulting from the meeting of groups of technoïdes with English of Spiral Tribe, gathers Psychiatriks, Nomads, OQP, Foxtanz, Teknocrates, Metek, Fraktal, THC, LSDF, Furious. It is active approximately of 1993 with 1997. The second generation of organizers, for the majority beginning in 1996, gathers the groups the Small People, TNT, Heretik System, Troubles celebrates, K-Ball, DKLé, Corrosive, Mas I Farmhouse, Ubik, and soon several tens of independent groups.

In 2005, the collective of the sounds systems , created in 2001 to face the hostility of the project of Loi on daily safety (LSQ) counted more than one hundred of Sound system S, i.e. groups having a material of wiring for sound jointly intended to be used in free party .

Several series of laws came to frame the left free.

History

If the clandestine evenings always existed under various names or forms that they are the afterhour clubs during the Prohibition with the the United States or the evenings in the Catacombes of Paris in the Années 1980 and if this character of clandestinity generates similarities, the rise of the free party is intrinsically related on the advent of the Techno and technological advances which were contemporary for him (Cellphone and Internet) since it is via these new tools that the clandestine evenings were popularized.

The history of the left free is in the beginning related to that of the turnip left , even if in the middle of the Années 1990, the two movements started to diverge ( Voir the detailed article Rave party ).

From their clandestine character, the left free are with enfreindre certain a number of legislations according to what is applied in the country in question. In France, in addition to the problems involved in the harmful effect sound, the security instructions and the infringement of the property right, it is also question of clandestine work, non-observance of the royalty and of sale of alcoholic drinks without license.

France

1993, first Teknival in the area of Beauvais.
1995, first circular emitted by the head office of the national police force: “The evenings turnips: situations with high-risks”.
Fine 1998, circular emitted by the ministries for Defense, the Culture and the Interior which distinguishes legal turnips and clandestine turnips .
May 2001, the success of the teknival of May first inspires Thierry Mariani which deposits an amendment with the Loi on daily safety (LSQ), aiming at authorizing the police force to seize the material having allowed the organization of the left free, under control of an police officer judicaire.
May 29th 2001, this amendment, after being altered by Daniel Vaillant, is voted by the Sénat. It is then inserted in article 23 of law 95-73 on daily safety. It stipulates that the gatherings in musical matter organized by individuals in non made-up places and who do not answer criteria, fixed by the national council, of organization and prevention of the risks likely to be incurred by the participants must be declared with the prefects of the departments in which the event must take place. With this declaration must be united an authorization of the owner of the ground. The prefect is free to refuse the gathering if the criteria are not respected. If a gathering would be held without preliminary declaration or in spite of a prohibition of the prefect, the material having been used for the organization of the free party could be seized and the punished organizers of a sorrow of Prison and 7500 euros fine.
June 5th 2001, following the reactions to this amendment, Lionel Jospin is seen constrained to announce the withdrawal of the device anti-turnips at the time of its passage in second reading at the assembly.
June 26th 2001, all the texts framing the festivals techno in the bill on daily safety are withdrawn.
October 31st 2001, because of the attacks of September 11th, the debate on safety is started again and voted a law in which one finds the preceding a little worked over again amendments, but applying from now on only to the gatherings joining together of the public to a ground which can receive more than 250 people, that is to say 90m ².
It is also starting from 2001 that the Teknival S were framed by the ministry for the interior.
May 3rd 2002, the decree on enforcement of a law of article 53 of the LSQ, known as Vaillant decree is signed by the Lionel Jospin Prime Minister. Technopol association, association for defense, the recognition and the promotion of the cultures, arts and the electronic musics, lodge a recourse with the Council of State to require the cancellation of the decree on enforcement of a law of the reason that the text makes weigh a mode of authorization and not a mode of declaration as it was presented by the government to the deputies of the National Assembly. The recourse is rejected and the text remains applied in a fuzzy way.
September 2002 On initiative of Technopol association, and lawyers of the movement, calling the State and the authorities made up to take their responsabilities, asking the systematic contest of the Red Cross, the firemen, the gendarmes and the police officers, following a series of serious accidents (death of young people,…), the authorities and in particular the ministry for the Interior, under the impulse of Nicolas Sarkozy, decide to frame rather than to repress the left free, in particular by the provision free by the State of grounds and manpower of safety and help in relation to the importance of the gathering.
Since 2003, of large gatherings had the appearance of a model of co-operation between the State and the movement teufor (as the mediators resulting from the collectives of sounds interlocutors with the administrations serve, then helped by the voluntary ones in order to program a coherent logisitque organization with the authorities). Which movement was organized in collectives or associations (the Collectif of sounds systems, Chep' Art, CTAC, Korg' N Heol…) and opened negotiations with the government as of the first seizures of sounds. These negotiations led to the nomination of a mediator of the State by prefecture and to several circulars aiming at encouraging the prefects to give authorizations, the experiment having shown that it was wiser to authorize them and to frame them to prohibit them.
2005, following these negotiations a change of the law by decree was to change to 500 (instead of 250) the number of participants before an obligatory declaration but in spite of the promise of a fast publication it is still made wait.

Free arts

In its aspect of free festival , the free party leaves a big part to various forms of artistic creation.

That it is about the music mixed by DJ S initially, resulting from free and distributed productions via of the alternative networks such as the Mail-order selling or even impromptu in real-time as the Liver S do it, with sometimes of the vocal interventions accompanying the sound on line.

Decoration is proposed, it also, with hangings, Tag S, sometimes of the Sculpture S or kinds of totem S like via the installations and the plays of lights.

Other forms of arts are also expressed, by services, in particular the arts of street with sometimes of the wader S and often of the pyrotechnical spectacles impromptu or not (fire-eater, Jonglerie with ignited torches, Bollas, etc) or also of the achievements of Tag S, more rarely of the Concert S and the services of Théâtre of street.

The Vjing is also very present in free party.

Polemics

Although these evenings are regarded by their protagonists as places of exchange, division and refusal of the mercenary attitude, a certain part of the public opinion and media do not see it same manner and the phenomenon often makes the object of criticism. The polemic is also present on the legalization of this kind of festivals, the raveurs wanting more freedoms. Those declaring that the goal of these festivals being to release itself from the work and the consumer society.

Infringement of the property right

The first subject of polemic is the attack with the Property right.

In the beginning, in a preoccupation with a clandestinity, it was rare that the owners of the grounds on which took place of the free left are contacted. And although that is not shocking for industrial premises closed down and actually left with the abandonment, the agricultural land, sown meadows or grounds are on the other hand used by their owners.

Despite everything with the evolution of the legislations in many countries, much of organizers as of other actors of the movement try to communicate with the owners in order to limit the conflicts, to facilitate the search for an adequate ground and to obtain an prior approval.

Pollution and noise pollutions

The majority of the complaints relative to a free party relate to noise pollutions. Indeed, although the festivals take place in moved back places, power of wiring for sound (several tens of KiloWatts) made that they are audible with several kilometers with the round. Despite everything, the organizers generally take into account the orientation of the closest dwellings to place the sound in another direction.

The left free taking place in general in calm places, they sometimes destroy for several days this quality of life. Trampling and the motor vehicle traffic destroy the vegetation, leaving a ground ecologically devastated.

Moreover, some teufeurs , denounced by other more respectful participants of the Natural , do not carry with them waste of their festivals. It happens that for a three days festival, they are several tons of refuse which remains in full field, with load for the commune or the possible owner to finance the collecting of it.

This situation having been noted by the organizers, many initiatives multiply to encourage with cleaning, as the exchange of a bag-dustbin full against a beer or cuts interdependent of the sounds for cleaning at the beginning of afternoon. It also happens that some teufeurs voluntarily on the spot remain part of the afternoon to clean the site.

Accidents

Clandestinity initial and inherent in these festivals is often pointed like a factor of dangerosity by the media when it occurs an accident. However although these accidents are largely médiatisés the percentage of accidents compared to the number of participants, with the number of organized evenings is negligible and of nothing higher than that of other festive events.

These accidents are generally related to the catch of Drogue and often touch a young population. But there still, in France at least, the evolution as well of mentalities as of the legislations will have allowed an assumption of responsibility of the problem by co-operations with the Croix-Rouge, the Civil security, the fireman S or Médecins of the world.

Drug

Because of Libertarian spirit inherent in the left free and car-responsibilisation which results from this, large a Tolérance exists with respect to the products Psychotrope S or Drogue S.

In spite of this tolerance, the participants in these festivals do not have all the same behavior vis-a-vis drugs, some do not take any drug and the great majority has a relatively moderate consumption of these products, which they perceive like simple a entertaining use. Some see a means there of amplifying or to illuminate their personal conscience by the Transe like a resurgence of the Community fright practiced in India, in Africa, Asia or South America where a social or religious use is made drugs Psychédélique S. Of others see there especially a means of eliminating the Fatigue by consumption from Stimulant S, standard Amphétamine S or a means of limiting the feeling of depression related to the descent (fine of the effects) of exciting drugs or Hallucinogène S by the consumption of Opiate S (Heroin, Opium, Rachacha). Principal consumed drugs are the Cannabis, the speed, the Ecstasy (called taz, touched, kseu or XTC), LSD (called trip, peutri or paperboard) (also taken " has; the goutte"), the Cocaine and the Kétamine.

This open-minded will have also made it possible to tackle this problem of face and to try to bring there solutions in particular by Prévention via the Réduction of the risks with the installation of informative folders and the presence, within the free party itself, of stands of information held either by associations of Teufeur S or users (in France, for example, ASUD, Preven' teuf, Techno+) or by ONG (in France, for example, Médecins of the world, Croix-Rouge and Spiritek).

Polemics within the movement

Many polemics exist within the movement itself. Recurring is that which aims at determining if the movement is before very festive or political, polemical which brings various interpretations of the movement: the political slope remaining in favor of small gatherings with size human and free from any legislation since clandestine. Criticism is done more virulent because of framing of the State and the investigations carried out in margin of the gatherings for the research of the infringements, in particular with the legislations on the narcotics.

Another polemic aims at the mediatization of the movement and the massive surge of participants whom it generates, generating of the problems of pollution and factors of harmful effects (cars, carparks) and of noises for the residents of the common neighbors

Examples of large gatherings

In France

Largest free left in France is the Teknival S which last three or four days.

See the detailed article Chronology of the teknivals.

In the rest of the world

See the detailed article Festival of music.

Random links:

Toxaemia (paradigm) | Championship of Morocco of football 1972-73 | Corb Denneny | Chachlik | Aqueduct of Segovia