Illegal Rave Draws 1,500 to Aubigny Despite Prefectural Fire Ban

Overview

• About 1,500 mostly young adults converged on an agricultural plot next to a wood in Aubigny over the weekend, with music running from late Friday night into Saturday before police and locals forced most people to leave.
• The Préfecture des Deux-Sèvres had issued a weekend ban on musical mass gatherings to reduce wildfire and public-safety risk, citing the high fire danger and limited local resources.
• Gendarmes set up a ground cordon and used a helicopter to monitor the site and limit movement, saying they were working to make the area hermetic to prevent traffic in and out.
• Organisers said they ran on-site fire-prevention patrols and placed extinguishers, but mediators and journalists reported hard drugs being sold at the event with visible price signs for substances such as ketamine, cocaine and LSD.
• Local farmers and the mayor pressed attendees to disperse, cutting the crowd to a few hundred by late Saturday and leaving authorities still monitoring the scene because regional firefighting units remain tied up fighting the Gironde fires.