DOUPOVSKń MOUNTAINS, WEST BOHEMIA

Shirtless and sunburned, a young man stood with his nose nearly touching a towering stack of speakers, flailing his arms, kicking his feet, throwing punches that the speaker answered with a dull, thudding bass. Nearby, another reveler lay in a muddy puddle, sleeping off an intense night of dancing, oblivious to the pulsating bodies of dancers that surrounded him.

These were among the 40,000 ravers reveling at this year's CzechTek, an electronic music festival held July 28–31. Around them, and sometimes among them, were roughly 400 police. For the first time, the event took place at an Army base, about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Prague.

But while partyers left tired, and the massive open field was worse for the wear, CzechTek 2006 ended scandal-free. Police reported few major incidents.

That's a big change from last year, which saw a violent confrontation with police: Authorities stormed the field in Tachovsko, west Bohemia — where CzechTek 2005 took place — beating up many of the ravers and injuring dozens. The police raid came after several farmers who owned the fields near the CzechTek site complained about trespassers and the noise level.

The raid resulted in a scandal that shook the new government of Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek, who approved the crackdown and, along with Interior Minister František Bublan, drew fire not just from ravers but also from lawmakers and the general public.

Some feared this year's CzechTek would also end in violence, with some young drawn specifically by the notion of clashing with police. It didn't.

Safe, but not the same

Confrontations with authority were kept largely to ravers giving the occasional middle finger to police. Most seemed relieved that there was little trouble.

This year marked the first time in CzechTek's 12-year history that the state played a role: The Defense Ministry rented the site to the festival's organizers for 24,000 Kč ($1,065), causing some to note the strange wedding of authority and counterculture.

Stanislav Penc, an independent human rights advocate and an outspoken critic of last year's police crackdown, said the government's involvement this year does not change anything about the underground scene in this country that produces events like CzechTek.

"All the politicians have done is let 40,000 young people gather together and have a party at a legally rented site," he said. "This changes nothing about techno being underground."

Even so, some ravers complained that a state-sanctioned CzechTek robbed the event of its thrill and spontaneity. For its first nine years, CzechTek was held illegally, with participants finding out about the event's location at the last minute and property owners often unaware what was planned until they had a field filled with thousands of dancers and dozens of booming sound systems.

"It's always better if it's illegal," said Verča, a 19-year-old woman at this year's festival who did not give her last name. "But, in the end, it's always about the people and the music."

Jirka, a sunburned 29-year-old man with a blond Mohawk, said this year's event was better than before. "It's allowed, and this means we don't have to worry about anybody calling the cops on us," he said. "There are no villages too close by, and we can just do our own thing."

According to Defense Ministry spokesman Jan Pejšek, the location in Doupovské Mountains was chosen precisely because it's such a remote location. Josef Slunéčko, mayor of Mašťov, the closest village, said although there were some initial worries, locals didn't complain too much about the rave. "It was surprisingly peaceful," he said.

In fact, some of the locals grew curious enough that they decided to check out the party themselves.

"I've never seen such chaos in my life," said one Mašťov woman in her forties, as she surveyed the field dotted with haphazardly parked cars, tents, and writhing bodies that surrounded some 70 islands of sound systems.