Several thousand participants were still present Monday at the Teknival, which has been taking place for four days on a military site near Bourges, where agricultural damages have been reported.
“Up to 3,000 people” were still on site Monday around 7:00 p.m., according to the Cher prefecture.
While some stages have been dismantled, music was still playing on Monday, according to the mayors of neighboring municipalities, who reported numerous damages to agricultural land adjacent to the Teknival site.
Festival-goers “drove through fields with vehicles and there were also fences broken in the meadows,” described AFP Sébastien Péras, mayor of Ourouer-les-Bourdelins, who did not report any “major damage.”
“I have a very strong concern from the farmers,” said Denis Durand, mayor of Bengy-sur-Craon.
“Municipal teams collected a lot of waste,” added the mayor, mentioning “cans scattered everywhere” and “wild parking” in his town of 700 inhabitants.
Under a gray sky, with the ground made muddy by the rain, a clean-up of the site was undertaken by participants and bins brought to the scene.
“It’s self-management, it’s a bit like every free party, we leave the area clean. It’s a common rule,” said a participant to AFP on Monday.
Monday evening, a significant gendarmerie presence still surrounded the site, with 19 checkpoints and 600 gendarmes present.
“22,423 checks have been made as of Monday, May 4, 7:00 p.m.,” specified the prefecture in their update, also mentioning 10,017 vehicle checks, 3,578 fines issued, 17 arrests, and eight in custody.
“Deteriorations have already been observed on site: numerous tags, a bunker door broken, a damaged electrical box, a broken barrier,” added the prefecture.
-“Trauma” –
“We left the party at 6 a.m., we hoped to find a way out, but no, there was no exit possible without getting fined. They even fined us twice. We are waiting to contest them when we receive them,” explained a participant to AFP, an engineer accustomed to free parties, who was returning to Var on Monday morning.
The fixed penalty for attending the event is 135 euros and can go up to 750 euros in case of escalation, according to the prefecture.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who met with farmers, local residents, and officials over the weekend, stated that “everyone leaving this Teknival” would be “fined on two grounds,” for trespassing on a military site and participating in an illegal gathering.
Between 17,000 and 40,000 people have participated since Friday in this free party organized on a military site near Bourges, the hometown of Laurent Nunez.
The organizers intended to protest against legislative texts aiming to toughen sanctions against the organizers of free parties and their participants, moving from simple fines to criminal offenses.
Bengy-sur-Craon Mayor Denis Durand lamented the “trauma” caused by this event for his fellow citizens, who suffered from noise disturbances and traffic difficulties.
“We respect the regulations, laws of our country, and we see that for three days, nothing is respected anymore,” he criticized.
Rallies are planned on May 30, June 6 and 13 in several cities including Paris, to denounce a proposed law passed in the National Assembly but not yet scrutinized by the Senate.
Since the beginning of the event, the Cher prefecture had warned of the danger posed by unexploded munitions in some areas of this vast shooting range under the Directorate General of Armament (DGA), in use for over a century.
Two shells were discovered over the weekend near the gathering, requiring the intervention of DGA deminers, according to authorities.
The Cher prefecture announced Monday morning the “progressive resumption” of the activity of the DGA Land Techniques with tests “safe for the still present festival-goers.”
Published on May 4 at 7:29 p.m. by AFP.
