Possession Festival 2022 Paris | Review
The currently extremely hyped collective Possession organized its first multi-day festival in Paris. However, all that glistens is not gold! Harsh critique rose about the organizers and this review will objectively check if it is justified or not.
Location:
Paris was recently awarded being the most expensive city in Europe, based on property prices. It is obvious, that there are no empty warehouses in the city center that could have been used for an event that size. So I will rate some different aspects.
The festival took place on the ground of the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace — the aviation museum. Which is basically a ~50-minute train and bus trip from the Paris city center (we started from Point Neuf) plus an additional ~15 minutes by foot to the entrance. What I really disliked is, that it didn’t seem, that someone informed the city about the event, to maybe provide some additional or bigger busses. This led to the buses on both the way there and back being extremely crowded. I can’t comment on the shuttle provided by Possession themselves, but for such an influx of people, there should have been additional solutions.
On the other hand who seemed to be informed very well were the police. Already when we arrived at the metro station transitioning to the bus the whole station was filled with officers. On our way to the festival there was a constant police presence at nearly every bus stop and then on our walk to the entrance. We’ve seen people get searched and also heard stories from friends (not just random people) being picked on their way and extensively searched. A friend described it as doing a full strip-tease.
Additionally, there are multiple comments on social media and stories I heard from friends of friends, that have been charged with minor possession (unintended pun), and were basically forced by police to confess, or sometimes even spend a couple of hours in jail. The justification by the police was, that they’ve been searching for weapons.
I can’t verify all those claims and luckily I wasn’t confronted by the police. But such a situation and welcome brigade definitely leave a bitter aftertaste. It is quite the opposite of the always propagated “safe space”.
It’s understandable, that police are aware of what happens at raves and that not everyone plays by the legal boundaries. But then those efforts should be targeted towards people with larger quantities, potentially selling on the festival grounds. But definitely not at people carrying personal amounts!
What I positively want to point out is, that while the warehouse where the stages were situated inside was rather unspectacular, when stepping outside it was cool to see the airplanes and even a space shuttle during the sunrise on the horizon.
A cool idea for the location, overcrowded public transport, and a presence of police that was absolutely not justified: 3/10
Sound-system:
The Soundsystem was extremely hyped up by the organizers beforehand. As you can imagine in such a setting it is next to impossible for me to verify the exact model number and how many speakers they’ve used, so this will be less technical than usual.
Each stage hosted an identical set-up consisting of the following L-Acoustic speakers: 16 SUB KS28 subwoofers (double 18-inch), 8 X12 satellites for the front row, 6 K3 line array modules, and 6 Kara II line array modules after 20m used as delays.
Overall I have very few complaints about the sound. I am not an engineer but it might have been nice if additionally some subs would have been used — maybe flying from the stack. To keep the bass consistently strong in the rear part of the dancefloor.
Also, I noted, that when I was at Velizy stage and Dax J played, at around 6 o’clock the bass suddenly got dialed back a lot — it felt as if the subs have been turned off. And when I Hate Models played an hour later the opposite happened and to my ears, it sounded as if the bass was overpowering the mids and highs. But it only happened two times that I’ve noticed.
Overall the sound was loud and powerful. L-Acoustic is an industry standard for a reason and they’ve seemed properly tuned.
I need to point out, that everyone I talked to said, that the sound was far better on Saturday than on Friday. It seems that on the first day there have been noise complaints or something similar and they couldn’t run the system properly resulting in huge disappointment by lots of people. Also on that day, people complained, that the stages have been overlapping in sound. I didn’t notice that on Saturday. Sure, everything happened in one big warehouse, s.t. there never was a fully quiet drop, but it wasn’t bad. The problem was more prominent between the stages which I will address in the next section, but not on the dancefloor itself.
I on my part was satisfied on Saturday except, that I would have wished for a bit more bass in the rearer part of the dancefloor: 8.5/10
Lights and atmosphere:
Kudos where it is due! The light show was absolutely amazing. The best light shows I’ve seen before have been at Awakenings and Horst Festival. Possession could easily keep up with them, on all stages! It was incredibly well done and I can encourage you to watch this montage to get a feeling of it:
My only critique in that regard would be, that it was very front facing. It was basically only great to watch when you were facing the DJ. I myself like to not always face the DJs, turn around sometimes, and ideally have a show where I lose the sense of where left and right are. Like e.g. in Tresor Berlin. But some people prefer it that way because it encourages a certain group dynamic.
But lights aren’t everything. This section is also about the atmosphere and there exist some major critique points:
- Temperature: As expected in summer the middle of the dancefloor was hot! But it wasn’t anything extraordinary, and other events that I’ve reviewed have been much more intense (e.g. Charlotte de Witte at Watergate). The problem is, that the nights in Paris are already rather cold. When going outside to sit down and chill this resulted in being between two extremes. It would have been nice to see if some blankets were handed out or something to prevent people from getting a cold, especially since a lot of them have been in very revealing outfits.
- Chillout areas: The temperature problem is quite prominent because the outside area was basically the only place where you could have a break from the music and talk to some people. There have been some carelessly placed wooden pallets inside as well, but where they have been it was so loud, that you couldn’t relax or talk without screaming. Also in those spaces, the music of two adjacent stages overlapped resulting in just a pile of noise.
- Backstage/DJ-placing: Again, call me old-fashioned, but what I enjoyed about going out to electronic music events was, that there was (at least in Berlin) no bottle service and no separate VIP area. What possession did, was to place the DJ on a stage and allow a selected crowd to dance with/next to him. In my opinion (and others as well) that felt very staged and VIP-like. Further distancing the DJ from the actual crowd. If they had placed the DJ in the middle of the crowd that would have been incredible. But even reducing the distance would have been helpful, as it often wasn’t even possible to clearly see the person playing.
- Filming: What should I say? Possession would not be where they are today without filming. They gained huge popularity through their collaboration with Boiler Room and play the social media game very well, posting the right videos. But sometimes I was just baffled. People filming themselves making out with each other or doing drugs. There have been constantly people holding their phones in the air. Maybe at least one stage or area with a No-Photo policy would have been nice.
The light show was without question a 10/10, huge compliments to the engineers! However, the other points devalue this to a 7.5/10
Organization:
This is the most difficult section to write. There has already been an ongoing discussion online, which Possession tries to suppress by deleting all negative comments. One of the brave souls that have spoken out is doerty_oerdi. Please check out his Instagram post and take some time to rest some opinions in the comments, which you would otherwise never see on the Possession socials.
However, my goal with those reviews is to rate an event as objectively as possible, which means I can only describe what I have experienced. Also, my guess is, that it was particularly bad on Friday, which I haven’t attended.
The security was very lax. I didn’t have the feeling they cared at all. I brought my cousin with me who is a 17-year-old girl. She also looks quite young. Don’t hate on me I am not a complete moron. There have been some ground rules I set with her and we basically met up every hour s.t. I could check on her.
When entering no one seemed to care, let alone check her ID. I had a bottle inside the back pocket of my pants and an oversized T-Shirt that covered it. But I wasn’t even really trying to hide it and still, the security didn’t notice it. My question then is, why is the police enforcing such strict checks if the people who actually are responsible for it are completely clueless?
This story continued inside. The security sometimes walked around but I never see them engage in something, even when people have been on the floor and looking like they could use an: “are you okay?”
However, I, fortunately, wasn’t in such an extreme situation as described by doerty_oerdi. So I can’t comment on the reaction. Who actually also should be there for those people is the awareness team which was hugely announced on Possessions Instagram. However, I don’t recall seeing any of them. Given, I haven't specifically looked for them. But usually, you notice those people unintentionally. So either they have been too few people on sight, or they have been barely visible due to bad closing (Tip: Black is a bad color for an awareness team). Or both. I also saw only very few medical personnel. Basically as much as the last time, I was at Tresor, and this is an event at least 5 times the size. So due to those facts, the stories I’ve read seem at least realistic to me.
However, the toilet situation was alright in my opinion. I suspect they must have a great Project Manager, who was able to drastically increase the number of toilets from Friday to Saturday. There have been multiple points both inside and outside as well as urinals for guys. Also, there have been two water stations with enough (Wasserhähne) which worked flawlessly all night long.
Another big topic that was completely ignored by the organizers was that multiple acts have (been?) canceled. I managed to snap a conversation before the comments got deleted. Up to the latest iteration of the timetable on their Instagram both Patrick Manson and Brutalism 3000 have been listed, so no idea who actually played instead of them. It just looks disingenuous towards the people who have been looking forward to their favorite artists and maybe explicitly due to them playing bought their (expensive) ticket. Not even a statement, post, or comment! Let that sink in before you decide to buy a ticket for another Possession event with a “great” lineup.
It is difficult to rate this because it is very subjective how you’ve been affected by those points. I didn’t care too much about the lineup and haven’t had any friends overdosing. I also don’t hold the opinion that the organizers are responsible for every spiking, overdosing and sexual assault incident — that is just unrealistic for an event of that size. However, they should provide the framework, with some well-trained and highly visible staff. Additionally with well marked medical/chill tents and first responders, which there was a lack of.
What really strikes a nerve with me is the behavior of deleting comments, ignoring accusations, and instead posting nice videos about how great everything was. That’s why I decided on a rating of 2.5/10 which is mostly thanks to the great Project Manager who was able to provide additional toilets and fix the sound issues from the previous day.
Music:
This will be controversial, as this is also very subjective. Most people I’ve talked to really liked the music, so I will present my opinion, but will try not to let it influence my final rating.
What was played is very hyped right now, we are basically talking about hard techno which is often even borderline hardstyle, goa, or psytrance. I hope you get the point.
I normally also have nothing against it, but since most of the DJs have been so similar, it felt like it was very bland without much variation. Basically, most DJs started already fast with 140+ bpm and finished their set with another genre like trance. One DJane that I particularly disliked was Cera Kiehn. I think one word describes her style very well: “tik-tokable”. Short breaks, some “stupid” lyrics, and goa/psytrance as the last few tracks. When she played a techno remix of 1–2-Polizei I quickly needed to question myself if I am still at a rave or a village funfair. Btw. I find it quite interesting that someone who promotes herself with “techno mental health” is unable to comment on the reported incidents!
Ok ok, maybe I am just getting old and I got familiar with the music when there it was more minimalistic and still at 130 bpm. So back to objective critique! Maybe it wouldn’t have affected me as much as it did if there would have been some variation between the stages. But if you look at the timetable, basically all DJs playing in parallel play a very similar style. I don’t need 3 stages if no matter where I go I hear basically the same!
I would have loved a stage with house music, or at least some slower techno. Heck, if trance is trending then have a trance stage! But if I have the feeling that when switching the stages just the track changes, I get bored.
Additionally, I think some DJs that canceled (or have been canceled) would have made this much better. I myself am a huge fan of the “Live from Earth” collective of which MCR-T and DJ Gigola have been announced. That would have already been a good contrast to some of the other acts.
Due to that lack of variability I give it a 5/10. The DJs that played really hit the nail on the head for most visitors, but I also think that it is somehow in the hands of the promoter to provide some variability and show their guests something new.
Pricing:
The entrance price was massively different depending on which rate you got. Ranging from 45€ for both days up to 90€ + fee (if 2 days have been bought individually).
Let's compare this to some similar events in Paris. For example on Friday Perc and Sara Landy, who are very similar in style to the Possession DJs, have been playing at Kilometre25 for 15€. Most other events at clubs like Sacré and the famous Rex club charged 15€ in presale for DJs like Ben Ufo, Ben Klock, Tijana T. But often those events only are planned till 6 or 7 instead of 9 o’clock like Possession. I think that rate 6 has been a bit steep and it would have been a better value if it would have lasted a bit longer till 10 or 11 o’clock maybe. But overall they have booked a lot of famous (expensive) DJs and visitors that booked in advance or checked the resale market (lots of people selling a few days before the event) got a good price.
A friend of mine was desperately looking for food and was really displeased by the selection and the pricing. Unfortunately, Possession deleted all the explanation posts on Instagram, where they described their offering. But if I recall correctly there have been only two food trucks that offered some basics.
The selection of drinks was also the worst that I’ve ever experienced at any event. I asked for a Vodka Soda and they told me, that they don’t have any sparkling water. I even think they only had Coke as a Softdrink (but correct me if I am wrong). Also, there was no wine (in France?), so it was either beer or hard liquor. The price for beer is generally high in France, so don’t be surprised about that. Due to that lack of variation, I only visited the bar once at around 2 o’clock and stuck to tap water after that. By then the bar inside also looked dangerously empty, and some who visited the first day reported that the organizers ran out of soft drinks at 5 o’clock with some bars as early as 3 o’clock. I however don’t know if the same thing happened on Saturday as well.
Overall the prices weren’t really the real problem here, but the lack of selection and availability. Since the prices themselves have been only a bit above average I would rate them a 5/10 but deduct 2 points for the above-mentioned issues: 3/10
Conclusion:
This is a difficult one! Mostly because I only can talk about Saturday which reportedly was much better. Friday must have been a real disaster by some reports and maybe someone will find some time to comment on that. Possession is very practiced in one thing: marketing. They do that very well and you can already see this in the videos that they are currently posting on social media. Negative comments get deleted nearly instantly and people who haven’t been there have no clue about the reality. And what is the reality? Possession Festival was a carelessly organized party that struggled to even get some of the basics right but managed to draw a huge crowd because they mastered the social media game and booked artists that are hyped.
The variance in what people report will probably be immense, starting with people having the time of their life showing amazing-looking videos up to some being carelessly left suffering due to the staff being overwhelmed or bullied by police before entering.
Due to that the only objective rating I can give is a 5/10, as I haven’t experienced either of those extremes.
In the last part of this conclusion, I want to point out one thing. I am going out to techno events for nearly 10 years regularly. Not every party was mind-blowing and amazing, and it doesn’t need to be! Because if they had been, this would mean they would’ve been all alike — average. A party should be a space where you are able to find a brief escape from reality. Not a contest about who can take more drugs, fuck more, or gain the craziest stories. Letting social media too much into this mentality will lead us to the comparison syndrome. And organizers like Possession will make use of that and gladly provide you with the fix you need.
But please take a moment to think about what you really want: a genuinely good party experience that will shape you in the long run or a short fix of validation, posting effect fireworks organized by people that don’t care about you and suppress all negative comments.
You decide who you want to support: by speaking out and with your wallet!
My state of mind:
Multiple people, I knew already visited the first day and reported negatively to me. A friend of mine who works in the industry told me about some difficulties the collective is facing internally and I was already aware of the reports by businessteshno about Possession not paying their artists and staff.
Basically, I went in with 0 expectations. Thanks to a friend (big shoutout Max!) I got a ticket gifted and purchased the second one for cheap — resulting in us paying 10€ per person for Saturday. The mentality was we have nothing to lose and a lot of people were interested in a review.
I went with my cousin as already mentioned. We’ve been to a daytime festival the day before (Beton Le Havre) and returned on Saturday afternoon to Paris. Not the ideal scenario, but I can’t say that I was exhausted. Surprisingly we met a friend of mine and had a beautiful evening with him and his girlfriend at the Seine drinking wine and talking. Due to the reports, we haven’t been too keen on leaving early but eventually left at around midnight in a good mood and with some desire to dance.
I was mostly pretty sober and since I didn’t like the selection only had one drink. I knew beforehand that there would be some germans I know both from Cologne and also Munich where I lived. So I was really happy to reconnect with those, exchange stories, and see some familiar faces. Overall a good base to start.
My french isn’t the best and definitely not on a level where I can have deep conversations. So it wasn’t the easiest to connect with some people there. I talked with some, but it felt like there was a general restriction towards the English language. But I don’t want to pinpoint that. I wasn’t in a super social mood myself, where I usually approach everybody, so I wouldn’t be too strict about this statement. Overall I would guess it was somewhere along the lines of 70% french and 30% international.
