CzechTek

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Type of DIY party  v • d • e 
Free party / Squat Party Teknival
Freetekno Sound System
Music Played at the Parties
Also see Rave music
breakcore - dubstep - drum and bass - free tekno - gabba - jungle - psychedelic trance - speedcore - acid techno and techno
Famous Parties

Castlemorton Common Festival - CzechTek - Stonehenge Free Festival - Reclaim the Streets

CzechTek is an annual teknival normally held on the weekend at the end of July in the Czech Republic. It attracts thousands of free tekno dancers from several European countries (40,000 people attended in 2003). It makes an open invitation to all performers, soundsystems, performers and all human beings with positive thinking.

The first CzechTek was in 1994 at Hostomice. Every year the festival has been held in different locations around the Czech Republic on the same date. The festival is not the same as more commercial festivals such as the Love Parade or the Street Parade. It is usually set on ex-military land or in a meadow near the forest. There is little or no organisation, for example sometimes there are no toilets, although recently toilets and drinking water have been provided and rubbish collection has been organised in the week following the teknival. The style (or image) of the people is also different (from that the Love Parade's participants) - it is more underground. The location of the meeting is usually revealed one day before the action on Czech rave websites.

The Czech media portrays the festival as a haven for drug abuse. People living in neighboring villages sometimes complain of loud noise lasting for days and of waste left behind by visitors. Police have regularly been accused of incompetency when attempting to deal with the problems.

Contents

[edit] History

© 2004, Techno.cz. Foto: flash CzechTek 2004
© 2004, Techno.cz. Foto: flash CzechTek 2004
Date Location Number of people
28 July – ? 1994 Hostomice pod Brdy legal 300
26 July - ? 1995 Hostomice pod Brdy legal 300
26 – 28 July 1996 Hostomice pod Brdy legal 1.500
25 – 27 July 1997 Stará Huť near Dobríš legal 5.000
30 July – 4 August 1998 Stará Huť near Dobríš legal 5.000
30 July - 4 August 1999 Hradčany nad Ploučnicí near Ralsko illegal 5.000
28 July – 2 August 2000 Lipnice near Třeboň illegal 10.000
27 – 30 July 2001 Doksy illegal 10.000
26 – 31 July 2002 Andělka near Višňová legal 20.000
25 July - 3 August 2003 Letkov near Kopidlno legal 40.000
30 July – 3 August 2004 Boněnov near Chodová Planá illegal 20.000
29 - 31 July 2005 Mlýnec pod Přimdou legal* 5.000
27 – 30 July 2006 Military Area Hradiště legal 40.000

[edit] CzechTek 2005

In 2005 the CzechTek festival was broken up by around 1,000 riot police using tear gas and water cannons. They also brought a tank. This action left around 30 dancers and 50 police officers injured and caused protests outside the Czech interior ministry. In addition, a raver was run over and killed. The Prime Minister, Jiří Paroubek, defended the action, stating that the techno fans were "not dancing children but dangerous people" [1]. Opposition parties and media took this event as opportunity to condemn the government.

After few weeks the protests and media attention fizzled out. Several months later all charges against police were dropped. In April 2006, there was a march followed by a free party in Strasbourg, France to protest against police repression generally and more specifically against the actions of the Czech police in closing CzechTek.

[edit] CzechTek 2006

In 2006, the festival was held on land which was part of the Hradiště Military Region. On 14 June 2006 an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Defence and the Association of Czech Sound Systems [2]. It took place without any repeat of the previous year's violence.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

© 2005, Techno.cz. Foto: flash CzechTek
© 2005, Techno.cz. Foto: flash CzechTek

[edit] External links

[edit] CzechTek 2005

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