How annoying was this weekend…
(btw, this wasn’t my rig or anything to do with me, I was just there as a spectator…)
Psy trance party on Friday night. Lovely little location and a huge amount of effort had gone into setting up. Screen with projector, laser shining off at the hills on the side of the valley, lights and flurou all over the place. A small stereo stack and friendly people.
Trouble was, as we arrived in the car park (about 0035 sat morning) so did the police. I walked up the hill with them towards the site though none of us could hear it until a way up the path from the road. I asked how many people had complained and they said I wouldn’t believe them if they told me (never trust a copper ;))
Turns out they’d had no complaints at all!! Not even a single one! A National Trust warden had driven past the car park and seen the cars and phoned them. As a result of the ZERO complaints they couldn’t Sec63 it (ha ha ha ha… or public nuisance, or anything along those lines!) Fair play to the police, when he called it in he said it was a small party, friendly and all that, but the National Trust said they wanted us off. So the copper said – be on your way. I pointed out that trespass is a civil matter and not enforceable by the police but the courts. He they said that aggravated trespass is a matter for the police, but no one was resisting I said. He said that the fire constituted damage to the property so it had become agg. Trespass. Not having a lawyer nearby (and not wanting to cause too much aggro) I conceded and got him to follow me round with a torch so I could do a litter pick instead.
In the end 6 police cars and a fire engine (for the fire which we wanted put out properly before we’d be happy leaving the site) turned up to shut it down. Not sure what happened after that as I headed home as I needed sleep for the footie on Sat…
So. A couple of points. The whole reason the party got shut down is cos people parked in a car park. Halfway up this track is a large area of grass. By being responsible and getting people to park in the car park they gave the party away so the Nat Trust have now forced our hand and the directions to my parties will now say ‘don’t be responsible, park on the grass instead’ I don’t want this, neither does anyone really but it seems to be the only way…
The second part is; does a bonfire count as damage therefore making it agg. Trespass? If the fire wasn’t there and there was no damage then the police would have had to concede that there was nothing illegal going on…
So it was a bit shitty really.
And to top it all off. Friday night there’s 6 police cars to stop a friendly party breaking no law. Saturday afternoon there’s more police on the high street than I’ve even seen. But when it comes to half midnight it takes them 30 minutes to get a car down to clear up after a fight in which my mates ear got bitten off. 30 minutes from a phone call from a pub saying there’s someone here with half an ear. I was fuming…
Priorities…
