Party Vibe

@barrettone 557646 wrote:

I don’t find this to be the case anymore. Barring some really posh nightclubs the prices I have paid for licensed events has usually been cheaper than a rave, especially as a student. Entry prices for a nice venue like Koko will set you back all of £7 (£5 if you are a student) and there are many others with similar prices. Raves are becoming way too expensive now.

There have always been some venues like this near Universities (i suspected it was one that was around when I was in London some years ago and it turns out that this was the Camden Palace) and in the affluent central areas. The running cost of the night time economy in those areas is subsidised to some extent by taxes paid by local businesses (including the unis), and Metpol being fully aware there are many middle class students from rich foreign nations they need to protect from the locals.

That venue has always been a crossover point between guitar and electronic music since the 80s, but I rarely went to Camden as I come from South London and every time I went North of the Thames the Met would be on my case.

It didn’t even seem to be just because of my skin colour (or the same would have happened where I lived and the Met were trying to move on from that) but because I was from SE13 by birth, lived in SE9 and I was studying in W1 my travel patterns must have matched a profile of someone “dodgy” – they had CCTV in London by the late 1960s and by the late 80s were experimenting with computer based profiing.

They must have thought I was an English born dealer, were thinking “why would he travel several zones and cross the Thames to get to uni?” and that I must have nicked the student ID from a “genuine Malaysian student” at some point. There are reasons for this as there is widespread duplication of real names amongst those of Malaysian Chinese ancestry of a certain age group but cops use this as an excuse to “stop and check the whole bloody lot of them” (whether it is in UK,MY or SG). I should have answered the cops in a fake Chinaman accent but probably would have only got nicked for “being racist”.

@Izbeckistan 557710 wrote:

These raves need a few sober people on deck employed to look after the vulnerable.

though its not what I’d consider a negative racial stereotype, something I’ve encountered more recently when I was attending East Anglian raves, is a lot of youths somehow got it into their heads that because I work for a local healthcare company, am a “bit older and more mature” and of SE Asian ancestry, that I can fix people. I can understand why this happens, but I only look after the computers and telephones at these places! The best I can (and did) do is switch on my portable GPS in case the location was needed by Eastamb, tell them to “get the casualty clear of the crowd without being too rough, keep watch on them especially breathing / lifesigns and calm them down and if they really thought life was in danger to call nines” – unfortunately many ravers delay this because the Police turn up as well although this is routine operational practice for any night time event, licensed or not.

The casualty did not need hospital treatment and made a full recovery, but it was one of the main incidents why I stopped attending these events.

I see enough ambos and patients bluelighted at work as it is and have full responsibility for 3 telephone systems at different sites which are regularly used for nines calls and comms to NHS and operate 24/7 so whilst I do have some experience in dealing with emergency situations I would rather do something less stressful at weekends…

The Dutch have drugs advice workers in all towns at “night time economy areas” (so they are available to anyone attending a range of events) but they are part subsidised by the Council and some areas are reducing funding same as in the UK…