Techno Parade 2025 Cancelled Due to Financial Difficulties

No deluge of house, trance, or drum'n'bass in the streets of Paris this September: the Techno Parade, a festive showcase for electro music in France, will not take place this year due to financial difficulties. The event is "mainly supported by private labels, [but] these are increasingly difficult to mobilize," announced in a statement to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the Technopol association, which has organized the event since 1998.

In 2024, the Techno Parade was canceled due to the Paris Olympic Games. The last edition was in 2023 with some 400,000 participants – a record – on the occasion of the ^25th anniversary. Since the creation of the Techno Parade in 1998, three other editions have not taken place: in 2001, in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, and in 2020 and 2021, due to the health crisis .

"The objective is clear (...), the next edition will take place in 2026, this year being marked by a reflection with public and private partners on a renewed and equally ambitious model of the Techno Parade, more than twenty-five years after its creation," explains Technopol. "We have therefore taken the decision to rethink our financing model, work with partners over the long term, in order to preserve our event and keep it alive over time," adds the association.

"We already have expressions of interest from private partners (...) The 2026 edition will be all the more significant because Technopol is currently working, with our friends at Radio FG, on the inclusion of "French electronic music" in UNESCO's national inventory of intangible cultural heritage," Technopol emphasizes, recalling that President Macron has said he is in favor of it.

For the former Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, who instigated the Techno Parade in 1997, modelled on the Love Parade in Berlin, this cancellation is "a humiliation for Paris, France and the French Touch, at the very moment when President Macron has proposed the inclusion of the French Touch, which brings together the big names in electro music, in the UNESCO heritage list."

"This cancellation is the result of incompetence. Paris is nowhere to be seen, even though Berlin just shone with the "Love Parade" last Saturday. There will be great sadness in the hearts of many electronic music lovers in France," added Mr. Lang, contacted by AFP. For the former minister, "electronic music needs a major popular event. The money is found and the competitions are obtained. The Paris city hall and the State must take a strong initiative in the near future."

The first Techno Parade was held on September 19, 1998, bringing together 200,000 people "for the defense and recognition of electronic music," which was then demonized. Since then, it has covered 143 kilometers in the streets of Paris, with more than 350 floats and their "sound systems," 2,000 DJs, and 6.3 million participants.

Technopol, however, is inviting electro fans to Paris Electronic Week, dedicated to electronic music, from September 11 to 14 at the Cité Fertile in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis).