Party Vibe

this was the 1st time I had been to an outdoor party for 3 years – having taken a long break from partying from 2002 onwards for a number of reasons…

So it was with great interest and anticipation I set off on the journey with a couple of friends from Reading. After a few wrong turnings [1] we ended up at Farley Mount; a bit of Hampshire woodland which once was the haunt of a notorious highwayman surrounded by areas which had seen fighting during the English civil war.

But thankfully tonight there was to be no-one getting robbed; nor (at least until Sunday) any major fighting – just one of Southern England’s finest Moots [2].

We arrived to find Hampshires finest traffic cops and various “Rural support units” – more bobbies in Range Rovers [3] blocking the entry point; and Hampshire’s spotter plane [4] (which would not have looked that out of place in an old war movie!)

These cops were however relatively good natured and didn’t really bother hassling us as we parked the car and entered the site on foot, although they said that the party would be closed down soon.

Some rigs were already there and setting up; Storm, Tunnel and Brainfuel (they were negotiating for *hours* with the very tenacious traffic cops; the most senior of of whom carried a blue folder throughout the dialogue. Perhaps this contained the “What to do when a RAVE happens in your force area” type documents the bobbies have become very fond of compiing recently….

The traffic cops (understandably) expressed concerns over “obstruction” and “bad parking”; to which many responded “we would have parked in better places, but there are a large amount of Range Rovers blocking the road”, and a big white car with its headlamps on full beam dazzling everyone coming up the hill 🙂

Eventually, the rigs set up and the music kicked out; the Police found their backup slowly drifting away and a crackling voice on their radio said no more was to be found from elsewhere; the traffic cops found themselves outnumbered, the butt of many jokes and realised they could not stop the ever-increasing flow of vehicles now arriving at the site.

They still returned later with an even more senior officer, who took a look at the rigs, and then all went to the roads and directed the remaining cars into appropriate car parks! That was the last we were to see of cops for some hours. We all went exploring the various parts of the site; I met many friends old and new, and completely overlooked a mound of gravel (put there to deter ravers’ vehciles after a previous event at this site!) until I had been brought sharply to the floor by falling over said mound.

The rigs became louder, night became a beautiful early morning. With no roadblocks, yet more vans and cars arrived. Survival crew had joined at the entry point, along with Underdog (with an excellent female MC called Lia D).

The atmosphere was brilliant. Although previous UK outdoor parties had been blighted by bad attitudes and violence, there was none of this here – minor disagreements due to “crew politics” were sorted out peacefully, former “enemies” partied instead of provoking eacb other.

Although the full Sokaid Collective could not turn out in full strengh due to the earlier confiscation of their generator sets at the ill-starred UK Teknival, Somatek decided to set up an Itsy-Bitsy style mini-rig.

However, some of the crew were in no state to set up a rig; I offered my assistance and although successful in setting up the system added a rope burn (from a genset starter rope) and an electric shock (from a faulty earth on a mains lead)to my catalogue of minor mishaps for the night. Even these did not dampen my renewed enthusiasm for outdoor events – wandered about the site chatting, dancing and obtaining some excellent video footage until early afternoon.

By then the spotter plane had returned – it circled the site every minute. I managed to get some footage of it; and got the impression the pilot was aware of this and ever so slightly showing off with a few subtle banking manoevures.

However at the entry point things were not so rosy. The traffic cops had been replaced by 3 vans of rather more unfriendly Hampshire “territorial support group” [TSG] units; about 20 officers in total all in “public order gear”. These are referred to on the British street as the “riot squad” – although like most cops here they carry no fire-arms they have shields, hard helmets and batons raised and are intended to be intimidating. When you see cops like this, it usually means that they means business.

Word went through the site that the TSG were about – as it was afternoon already and many had had a good innings some rigs stood down; and the post-rave collection of trash in bags (an essential part of UK outdoor raves) started.

What happened next is unclear. Survival were still playing, and either the cops tried to seize their genset without warning (they should issue an official warning before doing so) or people who should have known better attempted to pelt the cops with cans, bottles; in retaliation, some of the cops charged and a few ravers were hit with batons.

However the gung-ho cops had overlooked the fact that there were rather more people in the woods than you would have seen at the entry point..!

At this point, hundreds more people came out of the woods, and advanced towards the cops. There was no further violence. They put their batons down; backed off, their sarge said words to the effect of “OK – you win this round! – we won’t bother you any more!” and retreated.

But as it was now mid-afternoon, many people were becoming tired due to the summer heat and as “normal” people were starting to fill up the woodland and park, the crews chilled out for a bit, and soon afterward those who had kept going until the bitter end stood down , packed up the rigs, and filled trash bags so the site would not be left in a mess leading to a further appearance of the cops.

All good things have unfortunately to come to an end and we could have done without the violence on the part of Hampshire Constabulary -(the traffic cops had already been told we would stand down by Sunday afternoon!) but this was an amazing start to Britains “Moot” season.

I hope part two is even better..

GL : GB-RDN

[1] UK crews – buy *proper* OS maps and learn how to give directions
properly!
[2] A “moot” in an old English term for a group discussion (often on legal matters) or a meeting of free people in the countryside.
[3] A British SUV.
[4] Hampshire use a fixed wing aircraft for surveillance rather than a helicopter; it is cheaper and provides higher quality pictures.