Discodamaged's Paris correspondent Jules tells us about the tribulations in Paris' getting less gay Marais district. Freedj has punishment closure, Woo club postponed, but rays of sunshine are the Circuit Party, gay rights, Scram and La Demence. Click the headline for Jules' report.
The bar and club venue Freedj has just been shut down by the Paris Police Prefect for 9 days from 12th May. This is the latest salvo in the battle between Frederic Herve (owner of Cox Bar and Freedj), Jean-Bernard Menneboo of Robins du Marais an association which supports the gay community and battles to keep the Marais as a place to go out in against Gérard Simonet of the residents association Vivre le Marais! which is fighting to have all gay venues shut down as they disturb the peace and tranquillity of the residents who live in the Marais, Mme Dominique Bertinotti (The Socialist Party's Mayor of the 4th arrondissememt) who seems to take exactly the same view as Gérard Simonet (she positively hates the idea of gay bars and clubs existing in her arrondissement and wants them all shut down), and the famously homophobic Paris Police Prefect always looking for the slightest excuse to shut down a gay venue (the Loco nightclub was shut down for a month for the allegation that it may have served alcohol to a minor, and gay club Les Bains Douches has been shut down for almost 2 years).
Here is a logo (also above) from the bar's website http://www.freedj.fr/ protesting at the closure. The closure was originally supposed to be from the 11th May but the bar mobilised up to 2000 signatures against the closure, the police seemed to back down for a total of one day only to confirm the closure on 12th May.
- WOO club's construction permit revoked by Paris' Administrative Tribunal
The Administrative Court of Paris has just suspended the construction permit which had been given to Frederic Herve for his WOO club development (also owner of Cox bar, Freeddj bar). The Paris Town Hall (led by openly gay Socialist Mayor Bertrand Delanoe) authorised the construction works for WOO club in a decision of 2nd September 2011. Gerard Simonet with the implicit support of Mme Dominique Bertinotti and the Paris Police Prefect challenged the awarding of the construction permit and won in a decision of 2 December 2011. To this day the construction permit is still revoked and the WOO club may well never open.
See here a guided tour of the WOO club by its owner Frederic Herve before he he was forced to suspend work. The project is ambitious Frederic Herve talks of a rising DJ booth which rises up during the night so that by the end of the night the DJ booth is suspended above the dance floor. The video is in French but you get an idea of the venue from the visuals. I hope that the works can continue soon Paris is crying out for more decent gay venues some of the existing ones get so crowded at the weekends (and even on weeknights) that you end up spilling most of your 7 EUR pint as people knock into you before you even get a chance to drink it. Frederic also seems to have the right idea he wants to create a fun venue which people will really want to go to (not just somewhere to go by default). See his comments below.
http://tv.yagg.com/2011/10/22/decouvrez-le-woo-le-futur-club-gay-du-marais/
- More details on Circuit Party 2012 (26 June to 2 July)
The English site is now running and ticket packages are available with deals from 55 to 260 EUR (depending on whether you want entry to the After Parties such as Matinale and Under and champagne on arrival).
http://www.pariscircuitparty.com/ENG/tickets.html
Tony Vancraeyenest the brains behind Circuit Party (his grandfather's name was Achille Zavatta!) is currently negotiating with the RATP (Paris' TFL and also now runs buses on some routes in London) about keeping the newly automatic Line 1 running all night along from the Marais to La Defense. There will be a dedicated entrance to the main venues from Metro station Grande Arche La Defense (Line 1, RER A).
The highlight for me has got to be the 3000 capacity UNDER party taking place in La Grande Arche after the main party. I have only been to one Under Party in Club 79 and it was stunning, with seemingly the whole of the Paris scene there including people that you don't normally see at the after parties. The Matinale after party also looks good (excellent music).
The dancing group Kazaky are taking part in the main events and the DJ lineup (guests and residents) is as below.
GUEST DJ's >>>> ABEL (USA) - JUANJO MARTIN (ES) - GIANGI CAPPAI (IT) - FABIO WHITE (UK) - ELIAS (ES) - STEVEN REDANT (ES) - HUGO SANCHEZ (ES) - BENJAMIN (NL) - DARKO (DE)
CIRCUIT PARIS PARTY DJ's >>>> SEBASTIEN TRIUMPH - MARC ROBEN - AUREL DEVIL - MICHAEL MARX - XAVIER SEULMAND - ROMANO B - JOHN DIXON - MANUE G - RAF FENDER
GUEST DJ's >>>> ABEL (USA) - JUANJO MARTIN (ES) - GIANGI CAPPAI (IT) - FABIO WHITE (UK) - ELIAS (ES) - STEVEN REDANT (C\\\ES) - HUGO SANCHEZ (ES) - BENJAMIN (NL) - DARKO
- Gay Marriage and Gay adoption rights within a year in France
Gilles Bon-Maury, spokesperson for Lesbian, Gay and transgender issues for François Hollande's presidential campaign team, has indicated to Le Figaro that marriage should be open to gays within a year. It is expected that gay couples will also be given the right to adopt. The plan is to base the law on the text of a recent PS (Parti Socialiste) proposition which was tabled in the previous parliament but which did not receive parliamentary support. Interestingly there will not be the possibility open marriage and adoption rights to gay couples any earlier because the parliament will be too busy enacting all of Francois Hollande's PS governments new legislation (assuming that the PS manages to get a majority in the parliamentary elections to take place in June). In other words the new government will be far too busy putting everyone's taxes up to pay for their largesse!
- Paul Heron at Scream (Paris) followed by After Rouge (new after party every Sunday morning).
This Saturday 19 May sees Paul Heron jetting in from London (or more likely catching the Saturday evening Eurostar from St Pancreas) to play at Scream's new monthly event London's Burning. This is followed up by the latest after hours party to hit Paris (the After Tomate party is getting a rest) , the After Rouge party from 7am until 1pm. You can see more details on Scream's website for all Scream and After Rouge events taking place in May. There is no darkoom at present however there is an apparently men only "macho bar" where presumably you could have sex if you wanted too. It's a shame that the darkroom is not presently available as when you see the hot totty that goes to scream you suddenly fancy shagging it, all of it LOL. I shall be writing to Francois Hollande for a reconsideration of the police's decision!
http://www.scream-paris.com/#!samedi_19_mai__scream|cmw9
- La Demence Tattoo Sunday 27th May & 23rd Birthday party 31 October until 4th November 2012
The next edition of La Demence, just in case you didn't know already, is Sunday the 27th May. The following Monday is a bank holiday in most of continental Europe whereas in France it used to be a bank holiday until former Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin decided to make it a national day of solidarity. The idea is that you go to work but you don't get paid and your employer contributes your salary plus all the charges they pay on top of it to help pay off the enormous and growing debts of the French Social Security system. Most people take the day off. The DJ lineup is as follows:
LINE UP - DANCEFLOOR 1
22:00-00:30 Andrei Stan [Ro]
00:30-03:00 Oliver M. [Uk]
03:00-05:30 Steven Redant [Es]
05:30-08:00 John Dixon [Fr]
LINE UP - DANCEFLOOR 2
00:00-03:30 Dikky Vendetta [Nl]
03:30-07:00 Elias [Es]
07:00-11:30 Ben Manson [Fr])
The official video of the Easter Party weekend has just been released you can see it below. Aside from the cruise (22 - 29 July) and the regular monthly events at le Fuse, the next big La Demence Circuit Party style event will be the 23rd Birthday party bash. Details of the party are below. Thierry tells me is hoping also, for the first time, to organise a darkroom at the Mirano Continental (all the other venues do of course have darkrooms).
Birthday party
Wednesday 31 October (22h-12h)
Opening party
at Fuse club, rue Blaesstraat 208, Brussels
Thursday 1 November (18h-00h)
FSM sex party
limited access – rules on www.fickstutenmarkt.com
at Steelgate, rue des Chartreux/ Karthuizersstraat 52, Brussels
Friday 2 November (22h-08h)
Mirano Continental
at Chaussée de Louvain/Leuvensesteenweg 38, Brussels
Saturday 3 November (22h-08h)
Main Party
at Ancient Casino, rue Duquesnoystraat 14, Brussels
Sunday 4 November (22h-12h)
Closing party
at Fuse club, rue Blaesstraat 208, Brussels
Finally here is the official video from the recent Easter party la Demence-fest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4N4ASZmX8o
Adieu for now,
Jules
