Français
Following the publication of press articles referring to the difficulties encountered by some events organisers as a result of the Olympic Games next summer, we would like to provide you with some clarification regarding the 2024 edition of the Hadra Trance Festival.
The Ministry of the Interior has announced a massive mobilisation of police forces for the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in France next summer. This is news that will have a major impact on the entire cultural sector and on upcoming summer events: large-scale events requiring major (compulsory) security arrangements will have to be cancelled or postponed.
Since this announcement, we have been in contact with the Allier prefecture to find out what will happen to our 2024 event. We have learnt that the security services will be mobilised in the Paris region to supervise sporting events: this lack of manpower will jeopardise the success of the Hadra Trance Festival 2024.
We deplore the decisions of the Ministry of the Interior, which on the one hand is forcing us to increase the number of staff at our festival, but on the other hand is unable to ensure that this is done.
Nevertheless, the prefecture’s services ensure the overall safety of our event every year, and they are our privileged partners with whom we co-construct the safety and medical arrangements that are essential to the smooth running of the event. The gendarmerie, fire brigade, first aiders and security guards are all involved in ensuring that everything runs smoothly; their presence is compulsory and it is impossible for us to organise the Hadra Trance Festival without their support.
It was suggested that we change the dates of the festival to guarantee that it would go ahead. After working for several weeks to study all the scenarios that this change in dates would entail, it appears that such a change is impossible for several reasons: increased budgets, unavailability of land, competition with other festivals, absence of certain members of the team, partners and suppliers.
We are therefore obliged to maintain our current dates: 29 August to 1 September 2024. If the Hadra Trance Festival cannot be held on these dates, we will have to cancel it in 2024.
We’ve always worked closely with all the parties involved in the festival, be they politicians, associations or volunteers. We wholeheartedly defend the psytrance movement and its audience, and in the general interest we work to make this culture accessible to all. The Hadra association will always stand for the values of freedom that it has upheld from the outset, and is working to organise an event that is completely legal and in line with its positions.
Organising a cultural event such as the Hadra Trance Festival represents a year’s work for the permanent, casual and volunteer teams. Our presence at the Plan d’Eau de Vieure since 2016 is the result of a long-term collaboration with our local partners. Despite our doubts about the 2024 event, the association is not currently considering a change of venue.
So, in the interests of transparency, we prefer to state our uncertainties for next year now. We’ll come back to you once we’ve received more precise information that will enable us to definitively decide whether or not the Hadra Trance Festival will be held in 2024.
This is not the first challenge we’ve faced at Hadra, and it probably won’t be the last. We’ve already been through many crises and suffered a few setbacks; we’ve managed to overcome them and we’re still here, because the struggle feeds hope. We’d like to take this opportunity to offer our full support to the other organisations affected by these difficulties, and in particular to our friends at Woodstower and Aurillac, who are facing the same problems as we are in the Region!
The 2023 edition is being fine-tuned down to the smallest detail, and all the teams are continuing to work calmly to offer you an experience worthy of the most beautiful dreams that each and every one of us harbours deep down inside: see you in a month’s time to bring this collective dream to life.