Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
France jails 7 New Year’s Eve ravers
PARIS — A French prosecutor said police detained seven people Saturday, including two alleged organizers, after a New Year’s Eve rave party drew at least 2,500 people in western France despite a coronavirus curfew and other restrictions.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted that actions by police around the site at Lieuron, in Brittany, “led to the end of the illegal party without violence” on Saturday morning, 36 hours after it began.
Prosecutor Philippe Astruc said an investigation has been opened for “endangering others’ lives,” “deliberate violence” against police officers and drug-related offenses. Investigators found that organizers requested a financial contribution to take part in the party and that illicit drugs were in plentiful supply, Astruc said.
Police detained two people born in 1998 suspected of being organizers after a police search found money, illicit drugs and sound equipment in the Brittany town of Iffendic. Five other people were arrested as they were leaving the party for drug-related infractions and transporting sound equipment.
Emmanuel Berthier, head of the local state authority, said in a news conference Saturday that police issued at least 1,200 fines, including 800 for not respecting the virus curfew, not wearing a mask and illegally taking part in a gathering. Hundreds of people were also fined for using illicit drugs, he said.
Regional authorities set up a coronavirus testing site near the rave’s location and urged all participants to quarantine for seven days, amid concerns that the event could worsen an anticipated rise in coronavirus infections in the coming weeks.
Ravers from France and abroad converged on a hangar in Lieuron on Thursday night to party into the new year. Officials said ravers attacked the police on the first night, torching one police vehicle and slightly injuring three officers with volleys of bottles and stones.
After the officers retreated, first-aid workers were sent in to distribute masks and hand sanitizer among the partygoers.
Partying continued Friday, even as French officials pleaded with the participants to leave and as inquietude mounted within the French government. Photos from inside the warehouses showed that only a few participants, who included foreigners, wore masks and that social distancing was virtually impossible.
Police officers had begun cordoning the site shortly after the party began, in an effort to prevent more people from joining it and to fine those who left.
Despite concerns that officers moving in may cause a mass panic, pressure to end the event — which was originally set to continue until Tuesday — mounted Friday, and France’s interior minister called a meeting.
But by Saturday morning, the partygoers had begun to disperse, with some reportedly managing to leave the site without being intercepted by officers stationed around the area.
The party took place despite France’s nationwide night-time curfew, which seeks to dissuade people from gathering during the pandemic.
French officials fear that year-end parties, including the rave in Lieuron, will trigger a surge in new infections in the coming weeks.
France lifted some coronavirus restrictions — including its nighttime curfew — for Christmas Eve, despite a warning from the government-advising Scientific Council that family reunions and parties may spark an “uncontrolled resumption of the epidemic” this month.
France reported over 19,000 new coronavirus infections on Friday, fewer than during the peak of the second wave in November but almost four times more than the target of 5,000 that the government had set. As a result, France has called off the easing of existing restrictions.
Information for this article was contributed by Rick Noack of The Washington Post and by staff members of The Associated Press.