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NYE summary...

Rather than posting loads of different reports, I thought I'd gather together a few bits and pieces about the various parties I know happened over the NYE celebrations.

First up. I went to the Junktion 14/Survival party near Aylesbury. First location was raided early by a police taskforce arresting several people in the process, the second location, a series of huts in the middle of nowhere was looking good. A convoy of about 60 cars arrived, but unfortunately the system hadn't been setup.

Half an hour or so later, and the police turn up in force. Riot van, plus 8 or so cars. They weren't going to let the party happen. Using heavy handed force, outside of the law, they STOLE a set of decks. No public orders were served on Junktion 14 or Survival.

After hanging around for a while, it was looking like the police were not going to go away. We decided to head over to Reading, for a party happening near the festival site. A large warehouse was used and after finding the place around 11.30pm we entered the building via the kitchens. Junction 10 were doing the Drum and Bass room, Freestate had a large system setup in the next room playing old skool tunes, and in the main room, Engineering had another large system playing techno. A chill out room had been done up quite well, with comfy seats, bar and a laid back set of tunes. We had a good night here, but things might have been very different if the very first J14 venue had not been busted.

Other parties happening around the South were all over the place. To mention a few, the main three London parties were all packed out. Shoreditch had 6 floors of systems and lots of people - may'be too many. In Uxbridge, Underground Sounds/United Systems did their thing in a huge abandoned sports hall type place. Over in New Cross, Headfuk, Damage Control held a party in a disused Bingo Hall - combining all of their systems to fill up the main room. Exodus had a large attendance of 4000 people, using the same building they used for their Xmas Day party. Down in Bournemouth a large Squat Party was raided and even in Norwich a large party was stopped from happening in a disused factory.

As all police leave had been cancelled over the New Year nationwide, it was obvious that the police were up for stopping all the illegal gatherings up and down the country. Obviously pissed off that they had to work, they made sure that quite a lot of people, like them, were not going to be having fun. A once in a lifetime opportunity to see in a new century and have some genuine, uncommercial, fun and freedom - and the police were determined to stop everything.






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