Thousands of people gathered on Friday morning near Bourges, south of Paris, to celebrate a rave on a military site considered “very dangerous” due to the possible presence of unexploded ordnance, according to the prefect of the Cher department who spoke to AFP. The problem was that when the authorities realized the event had been called, they had already counted 2,300 vehicles, which amounts to about 8,000 people gathered at the Polígono, a shooting range of the General Armament Delegation, explained Philippe Le Moing Surzur. “They couldn’t have chosen a worse place,” he insisted.
The event organizers indicated to the prefecture, “through an indirect contact,” that they expected attendance of up to 30,000 people, noted the newspaper Le Parisien.
The participants have been settled since five in the morning on this military land located in the municipality of Cornusse, “which is very dangerous due to the unexploded ordnance it may contain.” The prefect urged attendees to refrain from lighting fires, digging, or picking up any objects from the ground, as they could be ammunition.
The Cher prefecture, according to information published by AFP, has activated an operations center to coordinate an emergency device, especially to deal with possible fires or explosions.
The organizers of the “teknival de Bourges” explained in a statement released on social media that the event aims to protest, among other things, against a proposed law intended to “strengthen the penalization of undeclared or prohibited rave parties.” An initiative, approved in first reading in the National Assembly on April 9, must now be examined by the Senate.
