climate protection
Climbing athletes turn off lights in Paris
Climbing athletes from the collective “On The Spot Parkour” shimmy up facades and pipes in Paris to switch off useless shop windows and advertising signs at night. photo
© Michael Evers/dpa
When the parkour athletes arrive, the lights go out in Paris. At night, the climbers have their sights set on uselessly gleaming shop windows and advertisements. The police even see the actions positively.
For their tour of Paris, the young people meet at a bus stop near the Opera on Friday night. Then it starts, together they move through the center. But they’re not targeting hip bars or clubs; instead, the troupe is on the lookout for brightly lit shop windows and neon signs.
From 1:00 a.m. onwards, they get down to business: they jump with a good run or climb up a drainpipe to reach the emergency switch mounted at ceiling height and switch off the lights. For the athletes of the “On The Spot Parkour” collective, the aim is to stop wasting electricity and encourage the population to save energy.
“We’ve been doing the lights-out campaigns for two years,” says organizer Kevin Ha, who leads the group in Paris at night, which advertises itself as the city of light. “The message is that everyone’s behavior can have a positive impact on energy consumption.” The DNA of the actually non-political group remains the sport.
“Light off” just as a bonus
The sport called Parkour, which originated in France, is characterized by jumping over benches and railings and climbing walls. The aim is to overcome typical obstacles in a city as elegantly and quickly as possible.
“We train together regularly, the ‘Light off’ campaign is a bonus,” says one of the young people. The fun of the sport is combined with a campaign that is useful for the general public, namely stopping the nocturnal waste of electricity. Then he rubs his sneakers over the asphalt to roughen them up and get more grip for the next climb on a smooth wall. He has to run up several times before he gets to the counter and it gets dark in the window. In order to demonstrate the joy of the successful action, the athlete quickly does a somersault backwards, with hands black with dirt, it goes on.
The light-off rule has been in effect since 2018
Strictly speaking, the experienced men and the only woman on this summer evening are only implementing a regulation from 2018. Because between 1:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. the shop window lighting and illuminated signs have to be switched off, explains Kevin Ha. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is also planning something similar in Germany in order to achieve energy-saving targets. As the night tour in Paris shows, a number of shops, banks and insurance companies do not follow this rule here.
At a long-closed exchange office, for example, the blue advertisement shines into the night. One of the athletes jumps up and reaches the switch actually intended for the fire brigade in emergencies with the first attempt. That was easy, it gets dark just as quickly in the shop window of a bridal shop. Under the guidance of her comrades on the sidewalk, the young woman then climbs up the facade of a men’s outfitter, where the light is still on. “I train indoor climbing and outdoor parkour,” she says. Every few weeks she is also part of the nocturnal tour of Paris.
The waitress at a café next door, who is still cleaning up after the last guests, looks skeptically at what the group is doing and quickly locks the door. “The police reacted rather positively,” says organizer Ha. “They know the law and know what we’re doing.” Logically, they did not come across the affected shopkeepers at night.
The environmentally conscious facade climbers are now not only found in the French capital. Groups are also on the move in Marseille, Rennes, Toulouse and Aix-en-Provence, says the organizer in Paris. Some residents there shouted that they should get away, says one of the climbers. “Others see our argument.”