Party Vibe

this is the case for all smaller closer-knit parties (even in London!). The larger ones around Bristol still have a “rougher” edge to them (as shown by the reports of people getting attacked, stuff being nicked etc).

it was a London/SE thing but has started to creep in to an extent everywhere, although East Anglia has just about avoided it (although their raves have had trouble in the 90s with right-wing infiltrators).

Its not even that much to do with internet forums but a street attitude today that conflict and violence is part of life even at supposedly fun activities.

There are lots of niggling little grudges like that amongst various people these days in some areas, (drugs are used to keep down the simmering tensions, so things can get gnarly when comedowns/sleep deprivation kicks in).

Lots of people don’t notice this because they use ketamine to block out the bad vibes

On NYE 2005 two of my oldest friends fought at a party over a 6 year old grudge.

It wasn’t a serious fight (i.e no one got badly hurt) and they made “friends” afterwards but the underlying issues remain unresolved, it could kick off again at any time and it changed the atmosphere of that party.

In fact it was one of the things that prompted me to give up involvment in free parties in that area and move elsewhere.

the worst of this is really more an inner city thing and its more organised gangs trying to take over than rig politics.

It and was combatted on one level by crews becoming a lot more exclusive and on the other side by Scotland Yard finally closing down a lot of events after tolerating the scene for years.

Crew politics is destructive in the long run as it means people won’t help one another and friendships are strained because of it – but it only occasionally results in sabotage of equipment. In the provinces, if a stack falls over thats usually only because of stackers/moshers pushing it over by accident.

true, but the experiment with “free for all” parties was tried for many years – it “worked” for a bit but eventually failed due to the actions of a small minority..

I wasn’t living in the area then but it was reported via our info networks (even back then we had certain ways of sharing this info via the net), its the incident I referred to in an earlier post.

I think others who were living in EA got caught up in this and some bravely defended the black guy..

it appeared to be part of a wider “plot” by right wing groups to fuck over the rave scene, they tried this in SE England as well (sometimes with the blatant collusion of the Police!).

They did this because the rave scene at the time was very “fluffy” and multicultural and they clearly saw it as a threat to their ideologies.

Sadly nowadays a lot of the anger comes from within. For instance at the recent Suffolk rave, why did the lad bring a cricket bat to the rave? If there wasn’t a cop car to attack, what else would he have been tempted to use it for? (I doubt it would have been practising to play for the county!)

I don’t want to imply that psy-trance is “cliquey” as a lot of my friends like it, but I’ve found that the psy-trance parties in SE England have always IMO set themselves apart from other bits of the free party scene, and perhaps keep out the trouble makers this way.

Even so, psy events in London have been targeted by gangs and problems have occured..

Thats merely opportunists taking advantage of people who have got themselves into k-holes and happens in Brizzle too.

The only place it doesn’t seem to happen (yet) is East Anglia, although k-holers are liable to get drawn on and/or have random stuff piled on them :laugh_at: