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This is an open letter to all the actors of music and nightlife in Paris. To the attention of the Home Secretary, the Minister for Arts, the Minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Sea, the Mayor of Paris, the Prefect of Paris and of the Ile-de-France region, and the Chairman of the Regional Council.
PARIS
when the night dies in silence
We* , artists, developers of places of broadcasting, actors of present musics, and professionals of the nightlife in Paris, are urged to warn public opinion and politicians about the constant pressure and its serious consequences we feel every day, having to deal with neighborhood issues and nuisances. The general law of silence which strikes our events and places of social gathering is about to turn “The City of Light"” into the European capital city of sleep. In the meantime, not only does it endanger our companies and our jobs, but also the influence of Paris and its touristic appeal on the international cultural scene. It is now an emergency to require solutions from the legal and statutory structures which frame our activities.
Paris basically suffers from a critical lack of places where culture is allowed to express itself. Present musics, which do not benefit from the support of the government and autonomous regions on their actual level of popularity, are mostly concerned. This is both due to an over-centralized urbanization and a subsequent land pressure. In spite of this reality, many Parisian places of musical broadcasting (bars, concert halls, nightclubs) paid the price for a never-ending quest for quietness during the last ten years. It is now a fact that Paris has given up its European leadership in the profit of cities like London, Barcelona, Prague or Berlin, where more and more artists and French professionals expatriate every day. Let’s also mention the Parisian audience who flies away from our city to party anywhere else.
The situation has even more deteriorated due to the recently passed anti-tobacco law which forces clients to remain outside our places. Even if this law was applied with great care and consciousness, it leads to numerous consequences:
- It extended the boundaries of our responsibility to the street, where we obviously don’t have the same legitimacy.
- there is an obvious confusion between the nuisances coming from musical broadcasting, and neighborhood usual problems linked to the occupation of sidewalks.
- It reactivates statutory restrictions ignored until then, like forbidding people to dance in bars or concert halls, only to intensify or accelerate the decision of penalties.
What is the sense of a Public Health Measure which leads to a ban on dancing?
Each year, there are more and more official closings (either temporary or permanent) and cancellations of license or night permissions after 2AM. Let’s also mention the tremendous amount of fines. The list of all the places concerned, and of all the events which have been cancelled, would make this letter considerably longer, as the list itself gets longer every day.
The first 3 factors of the equation are simple: no culture without music, no music without places of broadcasting, no places of broadcasting without nightlife. But to have an accurate opinion about the real situation, and of the deadlock in which Paris is being stuck, one must consider the last factor of the equation: no nightlife without tolerance. This both means accepting life as it is, and that fair compromising is compulsory, as in any kind of arbitration. Permitting to think that the Parisian nightlife could or should blossom without disturbing the perfect stillness of one single resident, is nothing but dangerous hypocrisy. Living together in a metropolis is impossible without mutual efforts in the shared territory of public space.
We legitimate :
- A clarified and balanced legislation, in adequacy to the cultural and social reality.
- Works of sound insulation in places of broadcasting, supported by public funding for their achievement.
- That the opinion of these places of social gathering and their audience’s shall be as considered as the opinion of side residents.
- Thinking about a zoning of party places and giving a legal status to their historical identities.
- Organizing the vacancy of public places or waste land for punctual events, or settling perennial infrastructures.
- That acts, and not just words, shall encourage culture and support its most simple places of demonstration.
- That all institutional actors shall become aware of the cultural and economic importances of nightlife, in the essence of a capital city like Paris and of a region like Ile-de-France.
* Initiated by Technopol (the association which defends and promotes the electronic culture, and organizes the « Techno Parade » and the « Rendez Vous Electroniques »), Plaqué Or (artists and parties promoter) and My Electro Kitchen (record shop and promoter).
Text adapted by Lydie Clark. [ www.myspace.com/lydiejay ]
