Pubdate: Wed, 08 Aug 2001
Source: Detroit News (MI)
Copyright: 2001, The Detroit News
Contact:  http://www.detnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/126
Author: Jamey Keaten, Associated Press

RAVE-RELATED DEATHS, PROPERTY DAMAGE DRAW FIRE IN FRANCE

Political Battle Brews Over Freedom To Party At Will

PAULE, France -- To the young, they are free-for-alls of drug-induced 
revelry and thumping techno beats in the bucolic French countryside. To 
President Jacques Chirac, they are a growing problem.

Rave parties, Dionysian fests involving abundant marijuana, heroin, cocaine 
and especially the designer drug Ecstasy, have been around for about a 
decade in Europe. But now, with five rave-related deaths reported in a year 
and increasing property damage, they are drawing the attention of France's 
political establishment.

Some of the secretly organized parties draw tens of thousands from across 
Europe. Others are small regional affairs. But they all feature drugs, 
techno music and the open air.

Elsewhere in Europe, there are larger, much more organized and urban rave 
parties, such as Berlin's Love Parade, which drew at least 800,000 last 
month, and Zurich's Lake Parade, which drew 750,000. In France, typical 
raves take place in rural areas. News travels by word of mouth, and 
authorities are almost never forewarned.

Since July 2000, at least five people have died in connection with rave 
parties in France -- two of drug overdoses, one who fell off a roof, one 
who fell into frigid water and one in a drug-related shooting. Last month, 
two women were raped at a rave in eastern France.

The political battle over the raves began in April when conservative 
lawmaker Thierry Mariani introduced a bill requiring organizers to give 
notice to authorities. Many ravers protested, saying spontaneity is an 
essential element.

Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin was unable to persuade the leftist 
majority in the National Assembly to back the bill, which died last month.

But Chirac revived the issue, using his traditional July 14 television 
interview to say a new law might be needed -- although he hoped it wouldn't 
be necessary.

Last month, some 30,000 people, mostly in their 20s, traveled by car, 
camper, van or hitchhiking to a grass field near this Breton village. Many 
came from hundreds of miles away, including some from Britain.

The aim, said many, was to reaffirm their freedom, escape a world gone too 
commercial and flee a nightclub scene that has become stale or too expensive.

The Paule rave drew people from a large nearby music festival and 
snowballed into a four-day, round-the-clock affair in a mud-covered pasture.

Attendees, many with pierced noses and trendy hooded jackets, found out 
where to go by word of mouth. Many were angry that the government would 
consider clamping down on them.

"What makes them flip out is that they don't control us," said Fleur 
Dupleich, 23, a film student in Paris.
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