Party Vibe

I reckon thats only because of the ketamine..

Most times we would cain loads more and party on wondering round cutting shapes with are half full bin liners in are hands,gotta have respect or it dosent work im affraid.

in my old city I used to frequent a lot of squats, I liked my amfetamines and other stimulants.

There was one squat where all the speed freaks and pill heads lived, and it was often absolutely fucking spotless. after every session a few of them would go on this big cleaning mission. It was that clean you could eat your tea off the floor on there – you wouldn’t even have thought it was a squat..

if you haven’t been to that many free parties recently you may not have noticed how things have changed in the last 3-5 years. Of course no one likes winding down the party and clearing up but it has to be done, and to a standard acceptable to the locals. Its clearly a different situation at a house party, unless you invite the local dog walkers, a councillor and and a bobby or two round for tea every Sunday evening to judge how clean your house is.. 😉

A recent trend here (for some ravers ) seems to be to take increasing amounts of ketamine towards the end of the party. it does actually mean that a significant number of people are then virtually incapable of moving for a few hours let alone clearing up rubbish – the drug can also sap the remaining energy and enthusiasm and make people quite selfish, further diminishing any desire to assist with clearing up.

This I have seen with my own eyes over the last few years – whilst what used to happen on Sunday afternoon was that people would take their last bit of whatever stimulants they had and use that last burst of energy to help with the clear up. it unsurprisingly took a bit of persuasion but it did get done. in recent times it has got a bit more slack. Even certain crews I know who once would always clear up left all the rubbish in a warehouse a while back….

perhaps I should have put a smiley after the ketamine comment as I accept there are some other factors, such as that raves often go on until Sunday evening these days so people can’t see the rubbish! – but I think its a serious issue – the “K culture” is the biggest change in recent times, and it has had a seriously negative effect on organisation/logistics within free parties as a whole.

The councils aren’t daft – they accept that clear up is being done but its not being done well enough. If/when the councils don’t properly collect your trash everyone complains to the media, why shouldn’t the councils do the same when ravers (who are technically there without permission) leave excessive rubbish behind?

true, but this is why (at least in my area) access to parks is now controlled after dark, there are various wardens , CCTV and a big squad of people who go around cleaning all the parks and streets of Ipswich, we pay for it in our council taxes and any event held in these parks requires a ton of paperwork including details on how the site will be cleaned.

A lot of people who don’t attend raves (and even some who do) certainly don’t agree with the concept of paying for extra work caused by other people who don’t even have a license to hold an event that may lead to extra rubbish disposal problems.

I still think drugs do have an effect as well, as well as making people loved up and happy they can make people a bit selfish and impulsive. The pills/MDMA comedown can be harsh for some people (and they often just want to leave the party when it kicks in) and some people do ketamine (either on its own or in conjuection with other drugs) to “avoid” this and it has defo changed the atmosphere in recent times (and I mean only since 2001 or so)

I’ve seen this at an East Anglian party before and it worked quite well (the proof was that this party didn’t make any of the local press, as it wasn’t that obvious by Monday that the party had actually happened!

this is true on a wider perspective of peoples environmental awareness, but if people don’t have that awareness in the first place and are on a drugs comedown they are going to care even less for what happens to the environment. it shouldn’t be an excuse but it isn’t an ideal world or people wouldn’t trash the planet in the first place.

perhaps though another factor is the timescales of raves these days, in previous years a lot of them shut down around Sunday afternoon leaving the crowd “wanting more” and whilst they still had some energy (and thus could be encouraged more to assist with clear up) – nowadays they carry on until many people are absolutely fucking exhausted and also starting to get worried about having enough sleep for work/college the next day etc so less and less people are willing to stay until the end and assist with clear up.