Charles Guyard, correspondent in Quimper // Photo credit: Fred TANNEAU / AFP 7:57 p.m., April 1, 2024

Thousands of participants in a legal rave party met on Friday evening on the runway of Quimper airport in Pluguffan, after a weekend of full-throttle music. They are leaving little by little this Monday. A demonstration that the authorities preferred to supervise rather than ban, since they were unable to avoid it despite a prefectural decree.

“To see so many people arriving at an airport is still annoying.” Noting that the airport in his town was invaded in a few hours by several thousand partygoers raises even more questions for the mayor of Pluguffan, Alain Decourchelle since France had just raised its Vigipirate plan to emergency attacks a few days earlier. However, it was on the tarmac that a rave party ended on Friday evening. 

“Fortunately the control tower was notified immediately,” explains the elected official, that is to say during the night from Friday to Saturday. Except that the rave party was not improvised on the tarmac at the very last moment, according to the participants on site.

An organization made by exchange on encrypted messaging

“I was made aware of it a month ago. We have groups on social networks. So, we have all the information,” explains this participant at the microphone of Europe 1. This information, which several thousand people had thus in their possession, the authorities still got wind of it since several banning orders had been published to this effect last Wednesday in Brittany.

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A question persists: why were the police still caught off guard? “Did we know that this would happen here? Of course not,” assures Alain Espinasse, prefect of Finistère. “All this is done by exchange on encrypted messaging. Obviously there is intelligence, but when you have several hundred people rushing, for the safety of people, you do not oppose it and everyone must then assume their responsibilities ", he explains. Equipment was seized and tickets were issued, notably for illegal parking.