Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › Time to re-introduce the ravers’ support network?
something has been preying on my mind for about 5 years now, actually probably for as long as I have been involved in this site.
the rave lifestyle is obviously fun or else no one would do it particularly with the crackdowns – at its best it is one of the most inclusive and enjoyable social activities anyone can be involved in.
but its often only really a few hours of uber-accelerated fun and loud music often propped up with a heady brew of recreational substances, and the social aspect other than “how big is the rig / does it play the genre we like” does seems to be declining.
I’ve seen too many crews split permanently over politics and personality differences (this is one reason why there were so many small rigs in the Thames Valley) =- raving is also hard on some peoples friendships/relationships especially when they are in shared houses/squats or their week starts with a comedown and a lack of money / boring job…
I’ve also seen some really solid relationships crack up under the strain of raving (the extended party times are causing paranoia more through sleep deprivation than drugs!) – another pressure point is when the authorities get involved and arrest people, they are very good at driving wedges between people and forcing them (sometimes inadvertantly) to incriminate one another…
which leads me to another point – although in the UK we are unlikely to be shot at or thrown indefinitely into gulags, most ravers will have at least one dealing with the criminal justice system in their time partying.
Usually its relatively minor – the penalties are cautions, fines, or in extreme cases a short prison sentence. But they still have an effect on people, and not just one person.
Families and employers often end up being contacted by cops to check on bail etc, court cases are reported in the paper for all to see, more and more employers are asking for enhanced CRB declarations (even normal corporate businesses who don’t deal with kids) so even cautions count against you now. Prison makes people unemployable – they don’t even get an interview.
It may seem like nothing at the time, but think about the case of someone 5 years down the line who is counting on a new job to fund the home for himself, his pregnant partner and the new baby – and then gets refused an interview because he was cautioned for two pills at the free party they went to a few years ago.
Everyone eggs each other on to party harder, faster, and longer. But is there anyone to help those who end up in trouble or marginalised by society because of their activities?
Where are the people to help others find housing, employment, cheap resources etc when normal society has abandoned them? I used to see a bit of this a few years back and it was the other side of the underground rave scene but it seems to have declined drastically.
in the 90s it did seem better and thats not nostalgia caused by the time lapse (I was a cynical bastard back when I was a young teen and always have been)
in the early days our “crew/gang” at the time were Readings proto-chavs and we did do some anti-social things like low-level crime but we stuck up for each other – if someone got thrown out of home by their olds for doing too much drugs we found a squat for them; everything we tatted or nicked we shared… we’d always get together and hang around instead of stay at home all week and annoy our familes/housemates on comedowns (there wasn’t as much net connections though and computer games weren’t as good)
people also seem to shut themselves off and don’t talk to one another from Monday to Wednesday when recovering from raves…
The biggest irony is our communications infrastructure is way better than it ever was before. We have websites and messageboards, more broadband, better mobile phones – yet people seem to be interacting less these days and when there are pressure situations it seems to be “every person for themselves!?”
I’ve not seen a decent positive squat/social area run by ravers in my area (I don’t just mean Reading but Oxon, West Berks etc) for years now. If a squat happens it becomes a crackhouse and is evicted and everyone ASBOd within days and TBH you can’t blame the cops/locals for this…
we used to have places you could chill out, do some art, set up a “mad scientist” project, play music as loud as you wanted, fix up bikes but no one bothers any more
perhaps we’ve got too much money, or the social groupings have broken apart and there is too much use of injectable drugs so middle class kids won’t hang around with squatters/homeless people (despite the fact most young homeless are middle class kids whose family do not tolerate their current lifestyles?)
but if there is more money about then surely people could pool their resources and set up legal social info centres like the ones I found in London? Nor is fear of being nicked putting people off getting buildings as there are stilll places being found for raves……. (social centres need less space and last longer as locals are often more supportive)
I know some people are still helping each other out but perhaps its unfashionable to admit to doing so (why, they might be called a “hippy!”) – but I think its definitely time to make this fashionable again and re-introduce our “support networks”.
thats why the brighton alliance of sound systems is so phat, cos they seem to be the only organisation in the country that is actually trying to get freeparty crews trained up, and aware of their legal rights, as well as providing community events that the whole community can enjoy, thus raising an improving our public profile.
the thing about raves, tho, is if you think about em too much, you realise that its a lot of money, and a lot of risk, putting on parties for people you dont know. so a lot of the time when people realise what theyre doin, they stop doin so many. in brighton, the crews that would benefit most from BASS arent members, cos they are too busy actually throwing parties. so its tricky. the people who are invloved appear to be already converted to dong things a little more sensibly, and those that arent are the ones throwin all the parties!
i would love to see similar organisations springing up around the place, i know surrey/berkshire have a fair few systems, as does norfolk and bristol. its just getting someone sensible enought o run and organise and take minutes at the meetings, who actually cares about raves! its tricky. plus freeparty heads are not exactly lazy, but blatantly a bit disorganised. so gettin everyone to turn up is nigh on impossible!
I would like to think that the spirit of community will never leave the scene but I agree that it does seem less prevelant then it was before. I think that this is symptomatic of our stagnated political system and general sense that getting involved in the way we shape our society (of which we ARE valid members!) is futile.
If you take youth culture as a benchmark you can see that, historically, the youth movement has in every decade from the 40’s onwards, a part in challenging of societies norms and the struggle for acceptance. I think before there was more of a sense of personal responsibility in terms of knowing your rights, perhaps having its seeds in trade union movements and I suspect that it has been the general demonisation of movements such as this from Thatcherite times onwards that has stolen back power from the people.
Even in the early days of rave, the warehouse and free party scenes held remenants of these earlier movements and I think this is what some folks remember seeing when they think back to the ‘good old days’ ( sigh…. :bigsmile:! I catch myself doing it too and it makes me feel like my dad!)
Perhaps one of the problems is that the youth movement seems to be getting younger (it’s not just that I’m getting older – honest!) and as a result folks come to the scene without knowing their rights. They then grow up and the next generation comes along with the previous generation having lost the skills to challenge society around it so that over time the whole movement suffers.
Even in these challenging times when we are encouraged to relinquish our freedoms so that the state can protect us from the monsters under our beds, I do think however that there are organisations (and hopefully always will be) who are willing to continue fighting the good fight (the real good fight that is!). Although they do seem few and far between, some nights (such as Inukshuk and Synergy who post events here) are carying things on as best they can. I believe that there are a number of ways that we can do this to ensure that the embers of hope can be kept aglow.
Firstly and perhaps obviously we should support events such as these in any way that we can – even if that just means turning up and making a donation. Secondly we can shout as loud as we can to make it plain that we too are valid members of society and as such forge a role for ourselves as a community not just on the weekend but even on those grey start of the week leading up to Thursday days. Finally I suppose it comes back to that sense of personal responsibility regarding what happens to your own life. This entails remembering that the lot of those around you ALSO affects your life and so it’s in your own best interests to look out for your fellow man! Random acts of kindness is one approach – ensuring that you do a job that let’s you go to sleep at night is another – go on, use your imagination, we’re still a creative and fundamentally loving community :cloud9: Oh – and don’t be afraid of being called a hippy – it doesn’t hurt really!
On a housing advice note – I recently sent the attached text file (hope it works) to a mate who asked my advice on his housing situation. I felt it contained some reasonable general advice for anyone who was living at home with their folks/friends and looking to move out so I posted it on the Inukshuk board. Hopefully it might help someone here too – NB: always seek advice from a housing agency/local authority in addition to the stuff posted here as everybody’s situation is different :bigsmile:
I think one reason why the non BASS people are the ones putting on parties may be obvious, as free parties are not accepted by wider society anyone who holds a free party then goes to a high profile public meeting where media, council and perhaps cops are present is just asking to be nicked!
as well as BASS there is also the K32 collective which contains rigs from Bristol, the southern part of the Thames Valley and London.
Ravers aren’t that disorganised though nor do they lack resources, otherwise the raves would never happen. There are more crews and more rigs about than ever before, at recent warehouse parties there has been so much rig its overloaded power distribution networks that were deemed good enough for a factory to use 10 years ago!
If crews wish to move to licensed venues or debate with the councils / cops most are able to sort this out, its already happening in our area because free parties are harder to put on now…
What I am aiming at (and have been mentioning for some years) is a support network which extends beyond the weekend and beyond just partying, and also clearly puts across the social case that these low cost events should be allowed to continue in some form.
Inukshuk and the Synergy project are indeed very good examples of this.
ideosphere is spot on with his observations about the demise of collective solidarity – and an ultimately destructive culture of individualism and nihilism. We are, after all, mostly dealing with “Thatchers children.”
I wouldn’t however say that people don’t know their rights (at least with legal stuff, particularly getting lesser penalties for motoring offences/low-level crime even when they are blatantly in the wrong!) – nor do they lack assertiveness, but a lot of this energy is channeled in the wrong way.
“freedom” sometimes is used to cover up socially dysfunctional behaviour, whilst conversely a lot of energy seems to be expended in picking apart others’ lives and behaviour and other forms of in-fighting.
There is a nasty culture of violence and misogyny creeping into the rave scene and its associated street culture which also needs to be checked.
At free parties conflict with cops/locals/landowners sometimes seems to be seen as a source of amusement or a chance for “lads to prove themselves” rather than something to be avoided whenever possible, and it is resulting in people getting hurt on all sides.
We’ve already had ravers and cops injured, some seriously, how long before some idiot decides to give an elderly farmer a “few good slaps” for defending his own land, a few more wannabe macho lads join in and we are dealing with a murder case?
Also raves are becoming less safe for girls/women and that is not acceptable.
And however we spin it, a free party is a situation where a group of people have carried out a covert operation and imposed their wants and desires on another community – be that the locals in the city/town/village or the workers in the adjacent industrial units.
Raves take control of a resource often worth thousands or millions by force (if only force of numbers) – if they are not to be merely seen as common criminals there is some moral duty to respect the space (by preventing needless vandalism), to minimise the impact to others such as noise pollution or access denial (through bad parking) and prevent situations which require attendance of the Emergency services (Fire, Ambulance) and a further cost to the public purse. (of course if the cops decide to turn up not a lot we can do about it, apart from negotiate with them!)
I think there is a regional aspect though – in the city areas of London and the Midlands there is so much real hate and darkness (murders, gunshots) that it forces the good people together to do positive stuff and provide safe community spaces.
Perhaps in the SE we have it too good sometimes (although lets face it, Reading, Oxford, Aylesbury and Wycombe are fast becoming “outer Londonistan”)
It seem sometimes if one rig round our way gets busted everyone just follows the next one – those who are nicked are left to fend for themselves and scrape together the money for their fines,
Everyone has enough money to rent a house or families to support them, or if jobs aren’t easy to get people do crime instead of trying to survive by squatting and recycling/tatting
I’ve noticed a lot of the younger people find raving gets a bit too much after as little as 3 yeares and may will simply “grow out of it” or burn out and become negative, dysfunctional people when a bit of discussion and support could have stopped this..
creating community spaces is something people who can’t afford rigs or do not have stuff like transport/loads of spare time (perhaps have to support their families) can get involved in, its a good break as well for those who need some time away from the hectic atmosphere of parties but want to still do something positive.. also if these spaces are carefully chosen they can be licensed under the new TENS laws for parties…
Ravers are a legitimate part of society (most of us have jobs and contribute to society in a “normal” way) but we are also in a glass house and need to stop lobbing rocks about, and perhaps work together to patch up a few already broken windows..
As long as you can still get hugged back to reality by a random stranger, it cant be so bleak!
Valid points though, but lets face it some crews are about the plur thing and some are about huge rigs and badness, i havent been around long enough to say really but i’d be pretty skeptical of people saying that back in the day every freeparty had that positive vibe going.
But yeah improving links between the rave scene and the squat movement would be good for everyone. A lot of things will have to change if raving/recreational drug users are going to get rid of the current misfit status. Im not sure it will ever happen sadly, the lifestyle produces at least as many fuckups as it changes people for the better.
this sometimes happens at outdoor parties in our area; but TBH its diminishing as just like normal society fear of crime makes people wary of going outside their main group. If you go to a multirigger nowadays people often seem to stay within their crew group….
we’ve also got a problem of people bringing their personal beef to a party and settling scores there. Its a massive problem in London but getting bad in the provinces – at our NYE party two lads both of whom I knew fought over a five year old grudge :rant:
nostalgia is an odd thing, and depends a lot on when people class “back in the day”. I’ve managed to survive raving since 1991, and TBH the early 90s parties are not the paradises people made them out to be. The early 90s honeymoon period lasted as little as perhaps one summer in 1991 until the scum moved in and it got a lot darker.
It was a far more expensive business back then (rigs were more expensive, as were drugs) – so those who couldn’t siphon money from legitimate income funded their lifestyles by crime at all levels.
There were a lot more “traditional” gangsters involved in those days – a lot of “wannabe hard men” about- ravers themselves were always twoccing / shoplifting / burgling if they didn’t have jobs (although it still happens today there’s more peer pressure against this lifestyle) –
By 1992 violence was common even at raves with security and the only reason why there weren’t as many fights/robberies is simply because there weren’t as many mobiles / digital cameras / portable electronics to nick.
Also without the internet and sites like this to spread health info loads more people had serious physical and mental health problems than nowadays.
It was paradoxically when the CJA became law in 1994 that things got better – because the Govt clamped down on protests and squatting as well as raves and the internet had become a public resource by then a lot of groups got together and partied together.
Beforehand you’d only hang around with “middle aged hippies” in order to score drugs. by the mid 90s people started listening and learning from their older peers, and the “middle aged hippies” started raving as well !
Things definitely did improve then… it was a new burst of energy and ideas, which towards the end of the 90s (added to the wider optimisim in society caused by the dot-com boom) did make parties better for a bit…
these links once existed but appear to have been diminished, particularly in more affluent areas of the SE.
There is now once again a gulf between “ravers” and “activists” despite the fact that free party is a form of progressive political activism as it is overriding the market economys private property rights, thus attacking one of the most fundamental parts of capitalism!
its not quite as bad as that; from 15 years experience I’d say only a quarter of all ravers seriously fuck themselves up, most who go down the wrong roads are sorted out by their peers and families – and many return to the scene but self-regulate their lifestyles a bit better.
This leaves 75% of people to continue partying and doing other positive stuff!
0
Voices
5
Replies
Tags
This topic has no tags
Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › Time to re-introduce the ravers’ support network?
