Party Vibe

There are claims further in the report that he was threatening violence. In this case the cops would nick him for his own safety – he is after all heavily outnumbered and although 98% of ravers are peaceful there is always the chance someone would try to play the hard man.

Things can get a bit twisted on Sunday comedowns – and cops know more these days about the psychology of rave crowds (or any large crowd) and what they are capable of.

BTW this report is about 2 years old – there were also a number of fairly pragmatic comments where non-ravers were asking why it was not possible for farmers to rent out their land to hold these events legally.

The truth is that it is; all farms can have up to 21 days of non-agricultural activity on them in a year without jepoardising their Single Farm Payment (the new subsidy) but groups like the NFU often exaggerate the level of risk that rave events pose to the farmers business.

TBH the risk from a well-run event (such as the Planet Yes event which was AFAIK licensed) is no worse than any other business risk involved with farming and could make use of land that is unusable for agriculture or livestock.

OK I can see that some farmers may be angry as they feel they are being “bullied” into accepting these events on their land but if they rent out an area for a TENS event the liability rests with the organisers (who are accountable for any problems that may occur) – seems like a fair system to me.

for years farmers were propped up by an EU subsidy safety net which was keeping a lot of unprofitable farms going – now this is has been heavily downsized there is probably going to be more “low value” land turning up anyway; particularly in areas remote from villages…

Of course not all farms would be suitable though due to location (particularly here where most of the ground is flat!)

Clearly if the noise is disturbing others it would be even worse as the farmer is making money from this as well – it would be no different from if he decided to run agricultural machinery or do heavy building work all through the night.

the organisers also need to work carefully to keep noise out of non-target areas (noname has posted loads of good info about this) and be prepared to relocate stacks or reduce sound levels. People collect huge stacks when they can get the same sound quality out of far smaller ones…

Also people need to park sensibly. If need be crews have to put on hi vis and direct the traffic into a parking space (makes it easier for people to get out again).

A bit of organisation and consideration for the wider community can easily stop many problems before they happen.

nah, TBH you didnt; I have been partying from 1991 but IMO from the late 90s until the PEL backlash in 2004 was the best time for UK rave.

There was a honeymoon period with UK raves but it lasted from about 1991-1992 – a mere year before things started going darkside.

those big circus tent parties of the early 1990s were often blighted by organised gangs of rudeboys going straight through the middle of the crowd and mugging people with knives etc… even today at large organised raves robbery is a big problem.

This country is angry and violent and you cannot keep a lid on a crowd that size without security who can watch people closely as well as put in the muscle; but security of that calibre are intimidating (they have to be!).

Even when crowds reach 4000-5000 at outdoor raves you get the gangs of local wannabe hardmen / car-stealing chavs / pikeys etc all on the outskirts

People look at early 90s parties with rose coloured specs and the videos you may see have been edited to make them look better (the organisation wasn’t as good as its made out to be) – they were fucking expensive too and a lot of the money went straight into the hands of the cops for PEL license fees.

for every good pill there were just as many snide ones and it was an expensive lottery at £10-15 a time

Because of this there was also a lot more crime done by earlier ravers to pay for the lifestyles and a lot more hardcore gangsters in the scene as there was a lot more money to be made serving up.

even then I used to primarily go to free parties had one stack of a few speakers as rigs were way more expensive back then – by the mid 1990s the Chinese had mass produced everything and reduced the start up costs for stuff like amps (even if they are made here the components are usually Chinese these days)

If party crews can get round the backlash and work with local communities there are still plenty of decent events to come..