France's Crackdown on Free Parties Echoes UK's 1990s Anti-Rave Campaign, Scene Veterans Say

French authorities have intensified efforts to shut down unlicensed music gatherings, deploying tear gas and grenades and enforcing a new law targeting free parties, according to a report published by The Guardian. The newspaper said members of the rave scene see parallels between the current crackdown and Britain's response to illegal raves in the early 1990s.

The Guardian's report traces the connection back to Spiral Tribe, an itinerant sound system collective that fled England in 1992 after their involvement in the Castlemorton Common festival, an unlicensed free party that drew more than 30,000 attendees and lasted nearly a week. Following a lengthy and costly trial on public order offences, Spiral Tribe members were acquitted of all charges, the report said.

After the trial, the collective left the UK in repurposed military caravans and did not return, according to the report. Sebastian Vaughan, an associate of Spiral Tribe who performs as electronic musician 69db, told The Guardian that the group went on to help start "the biggest illegal underground movement that Europe had ever seen," a chapter of their history he said is less documented than their role in Castlemorton.

The Guardian's report suggests that France's current approach to unlicensed gatherings—including the use of tear gas, grenades and new legislation—bears similarities to the UK's tactics against the free-party movement in the 1990s. The report describes those tactics, as recalled by people involved in the rave scene, as "very authoritarian, very brutal."

The Guardian did not specify further details of the new French law or provide additional statistics on recent enforcement actions in the excerpt reviewed.