Well – thought I’d start the discussion of the original topic off (being as we’ve cleared up the “is it a good idea to do it here?” question 😉 )
So (this stuff is both from experience and reading around the subject):
1) Having a party isn’t illegal in itself until it has been served a section 63 notice (ie you’ve been told by the OB to stop), and that has been ignored. Basically, if you’re told it has to end by a policeman, then that’s what you have to do.
It helps here if there is someone on the rig that is willing to deal with the OB when they arrive – one thing that gets right up their noses is getting to a party and being met with lots of blank looks and replies of “huh?” when they ask who the organiser is. This also needs to be someone who is mature enough to realise that the cops on the ground are just doing their job – having someone they feel has the ability to help them do that job will mean they will be much more willing to deal with you as people instead of “evil ravers”…. Obviously you may feel that having someone own up to organising is a recipe for prosecution, but see point 2 before you decide to antagonise them this way unnecessarily :wink:.
Try and keep the firebrands in your crew away from them too – having people who want to argue with them around is just going to cause you trouble. Remember that they are just people doing a job, and when they first turn up they will be nervous about the situation they are going into – this is especially true if they have orders to shut you down (put yourself in their shoes, and imagine having to go and tell a group of probably caned people that their party has to stop – takes a fair amount of bravery to go into that not knowing which way it’s going to go down.) Argueing and shouting at them is just going to be counter-productive for everyone – they won’t be shutting you down unless they have to, and no amount of argueing with them will change that.
2) PEL/TENS legislation – it is now essentially illegal to have an event that is “public” without getting a TENS/PEL. This includes free events, and events for charity.
Used to be a loophole in the legislation that allowed the asking for “donations” to get into a party without a license – these were classed as “private” functions. This changed in the 2003 amendments, and now an event needs a license as long as it is open and advertised to the general public. This has been used recently to prosecute organisers of raves after the event (using video and photographic evidence etc).
This is a bit of a problem, but not something that can’t be dealt with by a bit of common sense and a fair amount of patience: Basically, what it does is stop you from advertising any parties you do on public forums in interwebland, handing out flyers, and anything else that comes under the heading of “publicising” the party. What it doesn’t do is stop you from having a gathering of a group of friends to listen to some music (if everything is done by word of mouth, the party isn’t considered to be “public”). It means you are going to have to slowly get your parties going letting the word filter out from your personal friends, to friends of friends etc – you’ll be having very small parties to begin with, but it’s surprising how quickly it can build up to being quite big parties….
And as a quick side note to this – charging at free parties is stupid, and generally rude (sending round a donation bucket to cover the costs is cool, but it’s a donation, not a fee). If you want to make money from your parties, do it legally and get the license, provide toilets and general facilities, and have an event that isn’t going to get shut down….
3) Don’t antagonise landowners by wrecking their land, and don’t annoy the general public by wrecking public land.
Not strictly speaking laws, but a bit of thought into what you do will go a long way to making life better for everyone…
If you’re having a party, make sure the site gets cleaned before you leave – this means having some people go round collecting all the bottles/cans/wrappers etc and binning them properly. It also helps to educate your party people about this stuff – like burying your shite/bog roll if you go to the toilet (unless you plan on having toilets available), and using bins to toss your empties. When it comes to the crunch though, you have to be willing to clean the whole site yourself (you can swear at your punters for being louts after the fact), because you are the people having the party. Saying “it’s not my problem because I do X, Y or Z to make the parties happen” doesn’t cut it. You’re organising the party – you make sure the site is clean after it…. If you’re not willing to do this, don’t have the parties….
Try and not use private land unless you have permission, and if you do end up doing so, if the landowner comes and asks you to stop, make sure you do. Here it also helps to talk to them like a real person too – you may find that if you explain what you’re up to, and that you’ll clean the site, and make sure people don’t vandalise stuff etc that they are happy to let you carry on – if you live up to your promises, you may find they’ll let you have parties there in the future (the forrestry commission are pretty good for this – the land they own is for public use, and it’s often the case that visitors are slobs, and the places can get quite a mess. If you turn up, have a party, and the site is clean when you leave they will generally be happy to have you do it. Obviously this entails cleaning up mess that’s there when you arrive, but it’s a small price to pay for having a regularly usable site…)
That’s all I could think of for the now – may come up with more later… Somebody elses go :wink:.
