This whole story begins with a young Parisian who came to Berlin for a few months while writing his fanzine 'Rocknroll Suicide'. Interested in underground culture, he made contact with Fraktion Nimmersatt after seeing the Faceless Spaces film on Youtube.
This kid was 'Ronan from Paris.' He told us about throwing raves in the Paris catacombs... dressing up as street workers to lower the sound equipment underground through manholes, powered by electricity taken from street lamps....
''Ok, let's go to Paris?!!!''
There's nothing better when drunken ideas turn into reality. Fast forward a few months, and we are booking flights. Originally maybe only 4 or 5 of us would go... the group size continued to snowball until we were a total of 19 (!) Berliners. (Including one that last minute changed his flight back from Sri Lanka just to make it to the rave.)
The poor Parisian crew, they must have thought ''fuck, that's a lot of people we didn't expect!'' Yet they managed to be the best hosts one could wish for.
In less than 2 hours after landing, we were already heading underground for a 6 hour tour of the catacombs. Our tour guides took us to several bunkers and special spots (a personal highlight was lying under a well of hundreds of year old bones). Their patience was unmatched, guiding a group of about 15 overly-excited tourists as we waded through water and almost lost 2 members of our group (shortly before we were about to exit, we had made it so close!). Big up to our tour guides for a special experience.
The next night, we went underground again. This time to the rave spot to make a plan and set up a bit. And then the next night was the Rave, and so we went underground again. In the 5 days I spent in Paris, I saw daylight for a total of probably 3 hours (we were there in December). I probably spent as much time underground as I did over it. (Plus we stayed on the ground floor, so I never even climbed to the first level of a building). It was a proper Rat's Holiday.
To be hosted in a different city and make connections with new people made the Rave extra special. I loved managing to connect and communicate even through language barriers. We all loved the music, especially the opening dub set and the live hip-hop act! Something different than we are used to at raves in Berlin.
A final shout out to the Paris guys... a talented group of people doing cool shit! This was just the first of many Paris/Berlin collabs to come ;-)
Analog rave photos from Felix Nathan.
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