The party ended badly. Fourteen participants in an illegal rave party, south of Rennes, were slightly injured after an intervention by local residents who wanted the music to stop and provoked violence, we learned from the firefighters on Sunday.
Around 3,000 people took part in a rave party in an abandoned 9,000 m² warehouse in Brie (Ille-et-Vilaine), not far from the Rennes-Angers dual carriageway. The participants “were installed next to a Traveler camp,” Julien Valdenaire, captain and commander of the rescue operations, explained to AFP.
“First altercations and it degenerated”
From 8 p.m. on Saturday evening, “there were the first altercations and it degenerated, with many injured. The gendarmes intervened to prevent this from causing numerous victims,” added the captain. Several complaints were filed by local residents. No arrests took place.
The commander cited “throws of projectiles” and “stones”, as well as “baseball bats”, specifying that the injuries caused were wounds and a fracture. An advanced medical post was set up near the scene to care for the injured. Eight people were taken to hospital. Up to 120 firefighters and 80 police officers were mobilized. The prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine issued an order on October 29 prohibiting “festive gatherings of a musical nature” in the department from Thursday October 31 to Monday November 4, 2024.
Around 6 a.m., calm had returned, according to the gendarmes and an AFP journalist present on site. The organizers stopped the music around 1 a.m., putting an end to the rave. Around 10 o’clock, the last revelers were preparing to leave, according to France Bleu Armoriquechecked by the police before hitting the road again.
“They stoned us”
Thomas, 22, was sleeping in his tent set up in the parking lot in front of the hangar when he was woken up in the middle of the night. “They stoned us to make us leave the hangar, there was a projectile, like a Molotov cocktail, which went over my head,” he told AFP.
The rave organizers then intervened on the microphone to stop the music, explains Malou, 22 years old. “They blocked the hangar to confine us inside. Those who were outside were stoned.” According to Pierre, 25, “the gypsies had warned the organizers in advance, telling them: If you’re still here Saturday night, we’ll break everything ».
According to a man identifying himself as a member of the Travelers and living near the hangar, “around ten” people from his community intervened during the night “to protect our children”. “We found a syringe in our garden, it’s not just because of the music,” he explained to AFP on condition of anonymity.
The prefect of Ille-et-Vilaine, Amaury de Saint-Quentin, “condemned” the organizers of this rave party. “Through their casualness and irresponsibility, the organizers endangered the participants, local residents, motorists and the security and emergency forces, both on the site and on the traffic routes,” deplores the prefect.
