Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › Time to fight our corner – what is the social case *for* free parties?
lets face up to facts – the days of relatively unhindered free partying are over.
After 14 years of unlicensed partying, locals and cops have finally had enough and the anti-party laws are being enforced to their full extent – with roadblocks, TSG units, confiscations and courtcases galore. Half the country is on zero tolerance, and if things carry on at this rate crews will run out of places to run to!
We are all aware [or should be aware] of how this situation has come about; despite the CJA being passed in 1995 (or perhaps because of it, as it united ravers with other outdoor activists!) the free party scene continued to increase, with a peak in events from 2001-2003 partly caused by cops being diverted away from other duties by the post 9/11 terrorist scares; and a particularly good summer in 2003 encouraging a lot more crews to hold outdoor events.
Multiriggers which went from Saturday night to Monday morning became commonplace; unfortunately sometimes without sufficient thought to such issues as locals access to their homes and workplaces, sanitation, or sensible parking of vehicles!
This peak in partying created a massive backlash throughout Middle England; locals complained to cops and MPs, and in 2004 the anti-rave laws were beefed up yet again. At the same time many cops were issued with upgraded communications equipment; this made it easier for them to co-ordinate anti-rave operations in rural areas which hitherto suffered from problems with police radio coverage.
The “anti” argument has been well discussed – criminal damage, lack of safety/sanitation, “intimidation” and “access denial” of locals (although TBH its more the locals paranoia than any real threats), widespread uncontrolled drug use with attendent social problems of crime and violence.
Its clear to anyone who’s been on the scene since the 90s that a lot of old skool ravers have been “dragged down” by class A drug use, the NHS could easily argue that the rave scene has left a lasting legacy of addiction in Britain – and recent events at parties have shown that the “unregulated community” of raves can often end up being regulated by wannabe “hard men” (particularly in London).
so what is the argument for raves? If someone in authority said “we would let some of these events happen if you could state a “social case” as to why they should not be closed down as a menace and cost to society, what would you say in defence of free parties?
Some things I have thought of..
but can anyone else think of any others? I really believe now is the time for all people involved to get their heads together and work out how we are going to keep this scene going – before it is too late…
I’m not really on form at the moment, having just driven to manchester (250miles) and back for a party which was busted and just got out my bed now, but i shall try my best to think of more.
GL, i’m going to be devil’s advocate to this list… apologies for any negativity… just trying to predict responses to this list
1) these events are less problematic: in many cases there is associated crime, you could argue that parties attract criminals such as drug dealers
2) affordable: so are youth clubs or playing sport
3) increased environmental awareness: not in any structured way… is there any evidence that this happens?
4) encourage 2-way creativity: a few photos of people hoovering wonky-donkey would wipe that one out
5) drugs are taken as a de riguer part of any party
i think parties will have to diversify massively before we can really arue that there are any social benefits of note
1) these events are less problematic: in many cases there is associated crime, you could argue that parties attract criminals such as drug dealers
2) affordable: so are youth clubs or playing sport
3) increased environmental awareness: not in any structured way… is there any evidence that this happens?
4) encourage 2-way creativity: a few photos of people hoovering wonky-donkey would wipe that one out
5) drugs are taken as a de riguer part of any party
i think parties will have to diversify massively before we can really arue that there are any social benefits of note
any attempt to put a pro-party case forward would only be the “lesser of many evils”.
Whilst there is crime and drugs; outside London (and even at better run London events) free parties have way less crime than the commercial urban music scene (garage / R&B ) which emphasises and champions dysfunctional criminal behaviour.
The ketamine phenomenon is mostly caused by prohibition – and even then from reading the Home Office papers its seen as one of the “least worst” street drugs………
I think society has to accept that there will always be an amount of drug use associated with any music scene. Look at the bay city rollers for instance…. and don’t tell me “Saint” Bob Geldof wasn’t a caner at least in his youth (he still looks like an old smackhead, although I bet that’s a designer hairstyle nowadays (or a wig!)) However if people aren’t killing each other for turf or fucking their lives up through addiction then recreational drug use isn’t a problem….
and whilst wandering in the woods off your head isn’t turning youths into the next generation of forest rangers, I certainly have seen a number of posts on places like psy-forum which show a high level of eco-awareness, a lot of my own friends have started looking up stuff about trees and plants etc on the web (although they don’t often admit to these “hippy” tendencies)..
OTOH I do feel the ball is actually in our court and many people aren’t even bothering to play the game up, whilst the ref is getting ready to send us all off the pitch for hooliganism and time-wasting….
1) these events are less problematic: in many cases there is associated crime, you could argue that parties attract criminals such as drug dealers
2) affordable: so are youth clubs or playing sport
3) increased environmental awareness: not in any structured way… is there any evidence that this happens?
4) encourage 2-way creativity: a few photos of people hoovering wonky-donkey would wipe that one out
5) drugs are taken as a de riguer part of any party
i think parties will have to diversify massively before we can really arue that there are any social benefits of note
1) any nightclub, or late night venue will attract drug use, and the cops know it. if we show that we are about promoting sensible drug use, and are realistic about it, we are more likely to at least get a reasonable debate.
2) i think it would be relatively easy to make the case that raves fulfil both sport and socialising categories, and that an alternative to these traditional youth activities is neccessary to keeping yoot positive.
3)a lot of todays yoot dont think to go for bike rides or walking off in the woods with their mates and dont see much countryside. i dont know when else i spend 12 hours outside at a stretch..just the experience of being in nature has a profound effect, i think, and i thank the press for pointing out the mess. it may be anti rave, but it gets back to a lot of ravers, and makes them think.
i agree that we have a long way to go before parties are something we can shout about too laud. i think that info points would be a good start, somewhere for ravers who are fucked, lost, been mugged etc can go with out disturbing the dj. somewhere with just some info about safe raving and some free water or summat. the problem is funds. if i had the money and info to set one up, i would, and im sure it would collect good donation money for itself and the rig. plus being a good thing for us to point to for the authorities…
i think that one of the positive social benefits is that a free event breaks down class boudries, and is a socially inclusive thing. you cant be too poor to go.
they have massively more potential than that which has been unleashed..
i know there are positive aspects, you know there are…
but the arguments need to be really robust and be in line with decision makers’ agendas
sorry, that’s not very helpful…
I’ll sleep on it
There will always be us mixed bunch of party animals in society, so instead of us going nutts and being proppa outcasted when all we wanna do is party to louder than usual tunes away from commercialised society. Why cant they give us more tollerance after all arent we allowed freedom of expression through music and aint it better that we have it away from suburbia. I dont know i think they realise how tolerant we are of their demands on us, we’re easy pickings for the statistics cuz we are peaceful bunch who just wanna party. I personally aint seen any serious clashes with the law, only them spending hours sitting and enjoying the tunes. I dont know i just thought that shouldnt it be their target to reduce arrests and stop wasting so much tax payers money on us friendly bunch, awwww will they eva try and understand us and stop branding us. We only get defensive when threatened with arrogant ones who wanna spoil our way of letting our hair down. If they compared the amount of actual trouble caused by us party people compared to the nightmare they have in clubs/pubs. I dont know i just think the tax payers money could be spent catching proppa criminals or on schooling or sumfin.
0
Voices
5
Replies
Tags
This topic has no tags
Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › Time to fight our corner – what is the social case *for* free parties?
