Free Parties and Teknivals: Gift-Exchange and Participation on the Margins of the Market and the State.1

Abstract

Through raves and then subsequently through “free parties” and “teknivals”, French fans of electronic music have developed festive practices at the margins of the market and the state. In France, these events—especially so-called free parties—are often associated with free-access events or inversely with settings for parallel economies. And yet, these parties operate under a logic of gift-exchange, playing on its symbolic dimensions. The free party is experienced as a collective production, in the sense that the organizers of these sound systems expect an investment, an active participation from the audience, and also in that the participants, faced with the party-as-gift made by these collectives, are drawn into an obligation to contribute to the event in their own way. This participation can take the financial form of a donation, but can also be made by helping to set up or clean the event location, enlivening the festive space through spectacular street-theater, and also simply by dancing. This organization through gift-exchange is thus directly connected to the kind of participatory experience sought by the audience. The party-as-gift also prompts other collectives to offer their own festive gifts in turn; this entails a degree of emulation between sound systems. They acquire prestige and renown within this social world according to their capacity to provide both music and parties as gifts.2 A reading in terms of the gift makes it possible to capture how the pleasures of giving and spontaneity can coexist with economic interests and prestige.