Feast Moves To Suburbs Of Paris
MONTREUIL, France — In a darkened theater, dozens of young people sipped beer and watched a film about suburban dance parties. Before it ended, techno music drove the crowd toward a dance floor at Espace Albatros, an arts center in Montreuil, a suburb east of Paris.
Though most major European cities have lively urban party scenes, Paris has witnessed much of its night life decamp to the socially and historically estranged suburbs, like Montreuil. There, a new generation of partygoers have established a cheaper alternative to the urban dance clubs. “They’ve been bored with the parties that used to be in Paris,” said Leny Decret, a 26-yearold junior manager at a digital advertising agency.
The shift of the dance party scene from the city to the outskirts started around 2009, when Le Monde called Paris the “European capital of boredom,” thanks in part to noise ordinances and poor late-night public transportation.
Young and mostly middle- class Parisians banded together to establish informal collectives of musicians and other artistic types to perform regularly at venues in working- class suburbs.
“There’s an adventurous side to going beyond the périphérique to party,” said Eric Labbé, who manages public relations for the Zig Zag club in Paris, referring to the French capital’s ring road.
Organizers of these suburban dance-music festivals have created a more open, free-spirited milieu than the exclusive — and expensive — club scene in Paris. The dance parties are held mostly on weekends, and many of the events during the spring and summer months are held outside and in the daytime. Entrance fees are usually less than the 20 euros, or about $22, that clubs in Paris charge, and some are free.
The events draw young urbanites to neighborhoods they would not normally visit. One arts center and occasional club, 6B, in a former industrial building in St.-Denis, north of Paris, draws electronic music fans to a neighborhood where unemployment has been nearly 20 percent, twice the national rate.
“Walking out of the 6B, that’s a slap in the face,” said Benedetta Bertella, 31, half of a husband-andwife D. J. team. She describes homeless camps just outside some of the clubs where she plays, adding, “You think, damn, we’re partying here.”
Some who live in the communities that host these dance parties view the Parisian partygoers as intruders.
“There’s no respect,” said Rachid Dendoume, a 48-year- old foreman living in L’Île-St.-Denis, across the Seine from 6B. “It’s noise pollution.”
But others, like Mady Senga-Remoué, 35, who lives near 6B and has attended the parties there, said the changes were having a positive influence. The space, she said, encouraged activities.
“It’s like a hive,” she said.