Beach Front Party
June 1996 by Mark
At the last mo plans for hitting RTTS at the Fridge on Friday were shelved as words reached our ears of a free open air party to be held at a southern seafront location on the Sat night. The rumours were from 2 very reliable sources and the dj’s were to include top goa trance dj’s (amonst others)….. weather forecast brilliant………………. who could resist.
Just in case the whole thing blew out TRIP web pages were scanned for a back up party but the nearest psychedelic one was the Spacehopper in Brum which was too far to go from where we were going. So it was shit or bust.
90 miles down the m25 and other motorways flashed by in no time and we soon found the location as other potential revellers were all about town at pub kicking out time wandering down to the beach front. T’was a fine but cool night. We still had the feeling that it may or may not happen and this added to the excitement.
We parked up down a deserted beach path and stumbled down to the front, ears straining to hear any repe-titive beats.
Other guys were all around us some clearly pissed up and just along to see what was going on down their town. We followed some distant sounds and soon found ourselves at a party right on the seafront under tall white cliffs a long way away from anywhere. Generators were powering sound rigs, lights and visual projec-tions. Perhaps 150 people were dancing about to the hard trance sounds.
The psychedelic sound people 500 yards up the front were having trouble with their supplied generator (the organisers had supplied 110v instead of 240 v) and it wasnt till the early morning that they worked miracles and managed to get some sort of sound out of their equipment. So we went back to the hard trancey sounds and tried to get into it (with considerable success – similar music to EFS) and whilst it did not trans-port us to those special places that only psychedelic trance can the sheer energy had us freaking hard on the floor.
More people added till I guess there were 400 or so total revellers there some sitting around fires some sit-ting in perches in the cliffs or just walking along the beach. Pissheads as usual fucked off about 2am to leave it to the enthusiasts and the vibe whipped up. Plod appeared along the front and visited for 10 mins and viewed proceedings from their car, and to their credit did sod all and just turned around and went away.
Although free we gave 10 quid between us as a donation to the cause. The best bit was freaking whilst slowly becoming aware that light was creeping up on us and dawn broke at 4am to bring a different atmos-phere to the party…..it was a further full 2 hours before the sun burst brilliantly over the cliffs and the dancers caught each others eyes grinned and yelled as the dj put on a massive number which brought the party to a pinnacle. I will remember that moment for ever.
We wandered down to the psychedelic end of the beach as word reached us that they had pulled of the impossible and got their equipment to work. Here we freaked some more and was reminded just how much difference there is between good psy trance and the stuff we had enjoyed earlier. There was amongst the revellers some of the biggest names on the psy trance scene revelling in the ultimate a free party on the beach with perfect weather.
Some early dog walkers must have wondered what the bloody hell had hit their quiet little backwater.
Suddenly limbs got tired as the now very hot sun beat down on us and we decided to leave. GOD KNOWS how many people I shook hands with, grinned and struck up brief conversation with, all guys reciprocated and I must say it was a very very special party and the long drive back was done with a cheshire cat grin and the thoughts of ‘can this experience ever be topped? There were people who had travelled a long way for the experience and were not dissapointed. It was fair to say that the organiser was blown away by the number of people attending his bash………… he was on one from the success.
