Party Vibe

Unfortunately what happens now in the UK is that all EDM events are put in deprived areas of big cities anyway where there are no other jobs because the profits from them do not cover the costs of emergency ambulances (they had already paid for 6 to be put on standby).

These problems are not at all unique to Northern Ireland, even the Netherlands has the same issues which is why today all the big dance events are run by only 4 big companies and the owners of one sold it to the USA (plus they are confined to certain areas of what is already a small country), and they are trying to “gentrify” some EDM genres and make them appeal more to our age group.

The “disaster zone” comment appears to have come from a charity worker, but the “major incident” declaration made by NI Ambulance Service after existing on site paramedics, charity workers plus 6 NHS Ambulances already allocated to the event were not able to cope and multiple admissions required to Emergency Department.

There are also reports of overcrowding/potential crush risks, so declaring a major incident (which any of the main Emergency Services can do) would be correct procedure for this happening anywhere in the EU.

Apparently 10 000 tickets were sold, but hundreds of youngsters were turned away due to being underage (minimum age for this event appears to be 16 which is also normal for a similar event). PSNI (nearly wrote RUC there, which you shouldn’t do today) made 3 arrests and found a small quantity of drugs, there are claims some “bad drugs” were about (I’m sure some current RC’s if combined with alcohol would make you very ill). Also incidents of violence were reported within the venue, and one youngster filmed a fight on his mobile and handed the footage to the BBC anonymously and said he had been scared by this.

BBC News – Belfast’s Odyssey: ‘Disaster zone’ outside DJ Hardwell gig

Its made the Dutch news as well (followed by a link to one of this tracks :laugh_at: )

100 stonede bezoekers geweigerd bij show Hardwell – Buitenland – VK

The Roskilde incident is used as a warning to all event organisers in the UK and many other EU countries as is the crush at Loveparade 2010 Germany – but what makes things worse is some countries and local authorities simply ban all music events in their region and/or shift the remaining ones to “poor” areas. This is what made things at loveparade worse as it was moved away from Berlin to some random semi rural area near the Dutch border the same year that the Netherlands had declared zero tolerance policies and made it more difficult to hold music events in that country, so Loveparade ended up with two countries worth of party people all in the same place.

To be fair the event managers and emergency services did react quickly and did a good job keeping the young people safe, though it does seem like the venue was getting near or above safe capacity and it really should have been done by booking Hardwell on two dates, though its a vicious circle – if the event was affordable to teenagers in the first place the profits may not have been all that much. In the UK about 90% of music events are run by people with other day jobs in their spare time as it is.

I was going to hold a rave for my 40th and could legally obtain a place to do it and the license (even a councillor and a policeman were encouraging it) but when I looked further into this realised I would be personally liable in civil and criminal court if anything happened to anyone and although it is possible to get insurance for the costs, all my personal details would be published in the media as well, and it could affect the reputation of my employers.

I think the UK law is much harsher on things like “night time economy” or “music events” (which are viewed as non essential in more affluent areas) than the rest of Europe as even if there is a small incident in events today promoters can be arrested and put before both criminal and civil court, but the law here is lenient on stuff like an electronics or computer software company which makes poor quality products and/or does not pay its taxes.

Also the reason there might be so many teens at this event is British society begrudingly tolerates the under 25’s having a bit of fun but now increasingly brands someone above 30 who is still into any form of electronic dance music as a potential drug dealer, if they are parents they are dodgy parents and if childless a dodgy person who grooms teenagers for sex or crime, and lacking maturity. People half my age at work are genuinely shocked to learn I like house, trance and other dance genres as they think I am “too intelligent” for that sort of stuff or “too old”.

Of course loads of British people still like the music but its quietly listened to on radio stations or their hi fi systems at home…

what I found worst about this incident was that unlike Roskilde which appeared to be a genuine mistake by the organisers not realising how big/popular the event had become and Europe’s borders had then only just been loosened, by 2010 everyone had plenty of time to deal with this change, and the Loveparade incident happened due to the actions of the middle classes of two prosperous European nations in peacetime, who not prepared to pay even one euro in tax money to keep their own children safe nor remember that it was not so long ago that Europe was not as peaceful…

As for the Hardwell gig, all they would need to do is have one event for young adults, and a second one for younger teens but allow their parents (30-50 age group) in a separate room, and bring in nuns instead of bouncers to keep the boozing under control (they would most likely confiscate the excess booze from the kids, and drink the lot themselves). And any kids who were fighting could simply be told if they cannot behave, they must go to the other room where mum and dad are dancing and the potential embarrassment factor would be enough for them to behave. They might still need a combination of bouncers and healthcare workers for the nuns (as some would overdo it and/or overexert themselves) but less than this week when at first (on seeing a headline with Belfast and the emergency services everywhere) I thought folk actually had been setting off bombs again….

Scotland has cancelled his event, and mainland Ireland has put the whole national Police on alert, anyone would think Hardwell had started World War III across Europe and had sold all the drugs and booze to these teenagers with all the fuss that is being made about what is a relatively minor incident.

I feel a bit sorry for the him TBH (and he’s way younger than I thought, had always assumed he was about my age)
as he’s not even from the UK but is being associated with the fallout from social problems that in the UK at least are probably older than he is and existed when I was 14-16 (some years ago!)

younger people here are not given much else to do other than drink and take drugs hidden away in small groups and hassled by cops if they make any noise, there aren’t even many part time and less full time jobs for them, the the rest of the UK wonders why they cannot behave well in big groups (and it is a big shame that NL and BE and other nations appear to be to be trying to save some Euros by following the UK and shutting down youth services, harm reduction centres etc) – it was not worth it in the 80s and is not worth it today.

NL and BE call this behaviour “kattekwaad” which is defined as the acceptable amount of mischief or mildly sinful behaviour (if they are religious) a youngster or kitten/cat can get into (usually a boy and/or a tomcat), eventually both are expected to grow up and behave, but they also try to find better things to do for these young creatures…

For instance in one high school the chap who makes all the computers work would usually be plagued by young hackers, so instead he was allowed to help them set up a radio station. The kids wanted the music playout system to work just like Dalet that Armin and others use at Hilversum, but that is €40 000 for one license which schools cannot afford, so the system admin wrote in his spare time a program which looks and works just like Dalet (I use it myself).

And I used to get a lot of Dutch cat videos until the Information Protection Ministry complained about Google surveillance, and it seems that not only do they try and raise poes, kater en kittens as a family if possible (tom cats are more paternal than meny realise), also kittens and cats are taught to behave well and even to fetch objects on command (usually young women teach them this, and the items are things like hairbands and even remote controls and DECT handsets, which often get mislaid in a family house).

The Dutch subsidiary of Sanovo makes a machine called Staalkat (steel cat) which is supposed to represent a machine as strong as steel but agile as a cat, that can sort thousands of eggs and put them info boxes without breaking them (I’m not sure if our cats would have done this, they would more likely crack the egg and eat it as they were allowed to eat eggs which accidentally rolled off the table)

I admit myself although I initially started meowing to protect my cat from a bully cat, we did subsequently meow together to tease my sister and for the joy of making noise (as I’d been told off by for playing music too loud. Actually the cat often also got told off for meowing loudly to get food/attention and we realised if we meowed together, no one could blame either of us for starting the noise :laugh_at: And he later became friends with the “bully” cat because I had managed to get the position of alpha male. So young males forming gangs works even across species boundaries. And at the time I started was well into my 20s and the cat was an adult too, but my family put up with it as it was better behaviour than either of us had been up to when younger :laugh_at:

@Angel 561119 wrote:

I heard cats meowing in one of the mixes you have made.

Is it your own?

unfortunately he is no longer around and was so surveillance aware I could never record his meow as he’d hear the high frequency signal recording equipment makes (above human range of hearing) and stay quiet. I could only photograph him with an ancient Soviet film camera and a long lens and would have to hide away. The meowing cats are from a collection of recordings a Dutchman put on a random part of his website and it was the last place I’d expected to find them, as it was not a nature site but one about computer programming!

Sorry for fcuking this thread up

Can you split it and put the last posts on Life forum instead