The last sound that echoed on the bank was the song Pigsty, from the Bérurier noir group. Since this disastrous Music Festival 2019, during which Steve Maïa Caniço drowned in the Loire after a controversial police intervention, music has not been reignited on this little piece of the tip of the island of Nantes. In any case, there is no longer really room to install the famous sound systems who used to spit their decibels every June 21, at the foot of the gray crane, with the tolerance of the authorities.
Pointed out for the lack of security, the edges of the Wilson quay have since been prohibited from access by high fences and some barbed wire. Behind, an abandoned building bears inscriptions in tribute to the young 24-year-old presenter. Weeds began to cover those that had also been traced on the ground. And with them, it seems, a bit of the party spirit, of which Steve was fond.
“Today, everything is regulated, with rules”
While the trial of the commissioner at the head of operations on June 21, 2019 is due to open this Monday, five years after the tragedy, Steve’s memory still seems to be alive in the minds of the people of Nantes. A user of the parking lot located very close to where he fell, Emmanuel regularly passes in front of the giant fresco representing the young man with glasses and a discreet smile. A face that everyone knows now.
“No Music Festival has been the same since. We necessarily think about it, believes the fifty-year-old, who speaks of trauma. For me, it’s a bit of the carefreeness of the party, the party where everyone could come regardless of their background or age, which seemed to have disappeared with Steve. These young people were charged even though they posed no danger to anyone. Today, for any event, everything is regulated with rules, schedules…”
The difficulties of cultivation
It must be said that the health crisis and the security context linked to the attacks have not helped. “But there was a before and an after,” thinks a trader, who every June sees “small groups of five or six young people” gather with flowers in front of the giant portrait, and “the forces of the ‘order never far away’.
Coincidence or not, several cultural events have in any case faced difficulties in recent years in the Nantes region (such as the SweatLodge electro evenings, canceled the same day last May after several moves) in the name of security, the risk of nuisances, or the scarcity of available sites.
An “ostracization” of the techno movement
Last year, the Sound Walls wanted to return to their place in the city center of Nantes for the Fête de la Musique but felt excluded from the program due to lack of agreement on a location. A dancing demonstration was organized two days later, denouncing “ostracization in the cultural landscape of Nantes”. An example among “the many prohibitions against the techno movement” which tarnish the celebration and the tributes to his deceased friend, regrets So, member of the “Ju’Steve” collective.
“Of course they don’t want that [un drame] happens again, no one wants it, she believes, very moved as the trial which is being held this week in Rennes approaches. But banning the techno movement marginalizes an entire community which, compared to other musical cultures such as jazz or rock, does not have the right to live its music. »
For the “Ju’Steve” collective, citing the illegal rave parties in Redon or more recently that of Parnay, which ended in clashes, the “repression” has intensified almost everywhere in France in recent times. “Now, as soon as there is a big party, it’s the police. To make the free party look bad and turn it off. But we will not give up. We don’t see why we couldn’t party anymore, in Nantes or elsewhere. We also owe it to Steve, who loved it so much. A martyr killed for wanting to dance. »