Inside the Grand Palais in Paris for “La Nuit de L’Electro”

Last night was the second annual Nuit Electro at the Grand Palais. It has always struck me as contradictory that an all-night electro party can be thrown in the Grand Palais, but a Richard Serra sculpture is seen as disrupting the sanctity of the Tuileries Gardens. As such, I applaud the bureaucrat who approved the second installment of this party. It’s not just the re-purposing of historical architecture that’s important about this gesture, it’s the concomitant recognition and elevation of the electro movement amongst the venerated art pieces exhibited in the Grand Palais. Still however, there was an element of lo-brow mixed in: a hot dog stand offering “100% Boeuf Hot Dog New Yorkais” was one of the attractions inside as well as patches of grass for people to lounge on. The visual theme entailed large white orbs hanging from the ceiling, and each party-goer was given wands and a mini bottle of bubbles. In terms of the music, the renown DJ Laurent Garnier (the “God of Electro”) played an highly anticipated set. Here’s a selection of pictures taken between 1am and 6am last night (err..this morning!):