| CzechTek | |
|---|---|
 CzechTek 2004 | |
| Genre | Electronic music |
| Location(s) | Czech Republic |
| Years active | 1994–2006 |
| Attendance | 40,000+ |
CzechTek was an annual teknival normally held on the weekend at the end of July in the Czech Republic. It attracted thousands of free tekno dancers from several European countries (40,000 people attended in 2003 and 2006). Open invitations were usually made to all sound systems, performers and all people with positive thinking.
The first CzechTek was held in 1994 at Hostomice, it was organized by the Spiral Tribe sound system and a group of artists called the Mutoid Waste Company. Various foreign sound systems also attended. The festival was held at the same location the following two years. After that the festival was held in a different location in the Czech Republic each year, usually on ex-military land or in a meadow near a forest. The location of the meeting was always revealed one day before the event on Czech rave websites. Unlike more commercial festivals such as Love Parade or the Street Parade there was little or no organisation, though later teknivals required organisation due to large numbers of attendees. [1]
| Date | Location | Legality |
|---|---|---|
| 28 July – ? 1994 | Hostomice pod Brdy | Legal |
| 26 July – ? 1995 | Hostomice pod Brdy | Legal |
| 26 – 28 July 1996 | Hostomice pod Brdy | Legal |
| 25 – 27 July 1997 | Stará Huť near Dobríš | Legal |
| 30 July – 4 August 1998 | Stará Huť near Dobríš | Legal |
| 30 July - 4 August 1999 | Hradčany nad Ploučnicí near Ralsko | Illegal |
| 28 July – 2 August 2000 | Lipnice near Třeboň | Illegal |
| 27 – 30 July 2001 | Doksy | Illegal |
| 26 – 31 July 2002 | Andělka near Višňová | Legal |
| 25 July – 3 August 2003 | Letkov near Kopidlno | Legal |
| 30 July – 3 August 2004 | Boněnov near Chodová Planá | Illegal |
| 29–31 July 2005 | Mlýnec pod Přimdou | Legal* |
| 27 – 30 July 2006 | Military Area Hradiště | Legal |
CzechTek 2005 took place in Mlýnec in Tachov District, close to the German border in the west of the country. The organisers claimed to have permission from the landowner to set up the event, but shortly after the festival began, around 1,000 riot police arrived, using heavy equipment including tear gas, water cannons and the military BVP vehicle. Police cited damage to private property, and argued that the owners of the neighbouring properties had not agreed to allow access to vehicles and that the authorities had not been informed of the event.
The police damaged cars, electronic equipment and other property, and clashes between police and revellers resulted in multiple injuries on both sides. Police used massive amounts of tear gas and stun grenades, broke car windows with iron bars or threw gas grenades in. One participant was killed by a truck on his way to the festival in the early morning hours. [2] [3] Several dozen festival-goers were injured, fifteen seriously, and about fifty policemen were injured, five seriously. [4]
Following the police actions there were protests outside the Czech Interior Ministry. The Czech president Vaclav Klaus criticized the police's use of heavy force. The Prime Minister, Jiří Paroubek, defended the action, declaring that the tekno fans were "not dancing children but dangerous people". [5]
Several months after the clash, all charges against police were dropped, in most cases due to failure to identify individual police officers, and in other cases because it was deemed that an offence had not been committed. [6] In April 2006, there was a march followed by a free party in Strasbourg, France to protest against police repression in general and against the actions of the Czech police in closing CzechTek specifically.
On 14 June 2006 an agreement was signed between the Czech Army and the Association of Czech Sound Systems. The festival was held on land which was part of the Hradiště Military Region. Close cooperation with the state administration caused some resentment among the freetekno community, but the festival went ahead without any repeat of the previous year's violence.
| Types of DIY parties |
|---|
| Music played at the parties See also Rave music |
| Famous parties |
After the event in 2006, the co-ordinators announced on the official CzechTek website that the festival had been discontinued, stating that "in regard of the fact that the situation around Czechtek isn't bearable anymore, the representatives of the Czech freetekno community came to this radical decision. This year, and very probably even never again, any action of size and under the name Czechtek won't be realized". The reasons given were:
The announcement was signed by: Oktekk, Strahov, NSK, AKA.IO, Komatsu, Spiritual, Mayapur, Layka, Pentatonika, Merkur, Fatal Noise, Matchbox, Luxor, Cirkus Alien, Vosa, Bazooka, Koryto, Shamanic, Zuqwa, Czajovna, Figura, Machine Works, Metro, Ultimate Crew, Basswood, Mutaphone, FDM, Jednota, TMC, NabaziGangoo, Massive Elementz, UANDU Tribe, MHD, Hondzik Sound, Witacid, Iluzor, Detox23, Pandemic, Spectro, Radiator, Swampsound, Gummo, EskanoiZZe, Tsunami, Yaga, Synthetik, MiMiK, Squakka, Mandala, Alkaline, Dynamodestroy, Triptekk, Tekkirk, Remek, FSS, Shadow cabaret, Invaders, Mushroom, Bassmekk, Swazarm, Techamin, Laydakk, Othersidesystem, Inkognito, T2B and others. [7]
Freetekno is a cultural movement that is present in Europe, Australia and North America. Freetekno sound systems or tribes form in loose collectives, frequently with anarchist philosophies. These sound systems join to hold parties wherever a viable space can be found – typical locations include warehouses, fields, abandoned buildings or forests. Because freetekno parties are usually held illegally this sometimes leads to clashes with the police, as was the case at both the 2004 and 2005 Czechtek festivals and many other, smaller parties around the world at different times.
A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the free festival movement. It typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one system or of many and if the party becomes a festival, it becomes a teknival. This typically means that drugs are readily available. The word free in this context is used both to describe the entry fee and the lack of restrictions and law enforcement.
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Spiral Tribe is an arts collective and free party sound system formed in 1990. It organised free parties, festivals and raves in the UK and later Europe in the 1990s. Spiral Tribe was involved in the Castlemorton Common Festival, and members have released music on labels such as Network 23 and Big Life Records. The sound system combined pagan beliefs with New Age traveller culture and rave to form teknivals. After a hiatus, the collective reformed as SP23 in 2011 and continues to organise events.
Free tekno, also known as tekno, freetekno and hardtek, is the music predominantly played at free parties in Europe. The spelling tekno is deliberately used to differentiate the musical style from techno. The music is fast and it can vary between 150 and 185 bpm and is characterised by a pounding repetitive kick drum. Nevertheless, bass drum distortion by clipping is used less often as in the related genre of mainstyle hardcore. Nowadays, some tekno producers also use drum sets that rather sound trancey, since many members of the tekno subculture as well as the psytrance subculture frequently attend the same raves and the two scenes are closely connected.
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CzechTek in 2005 was a freetekno music festival in the Czech Republic on Friday, 29 July 2005. Taking place in a meadow next to the D5 motorway near Mlýnec in the Plzeň Region, the festival was raided the following day by riot police using heavy equipment including tear gas, water cannons and military BVP vehicles.
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