Party Vibe

there are about 3 or 4 pieces of legislation that can be used by cops to “justify” seizing property. Incidentally the District council is also a landowner so they can complain but in England and Wales it is a civil matter.

TBH though most of the trigger points are when the locals have got pissed off and called 999 – enough of these calls and the cops move in.

When the cops turn up they can do whatever they feel like doing (anything from letting you get on with it to taking the stack/launching CS gas about the place) depending on their available resources / how often the place has been used before / how angry the locals are – bear in mind though that they will be increasingly made to work across force boundaries so a remote area may not necessarily be more lenient due to less cops.

Its not just about noise from the rigs, also extra traffic in small villages/access to farms being blocked etc. In a nutshell the fewer people you piss off (particularly if they are owners of local businesses),the less hassles you have with cops.

AFAIK no – street fines can normally only happen for a certain range of offences in defined areas such as drinking in no drinking zones / littering / cycling on the pavement / pissing/puking in the street etc – i.e minor but clear-cut anti-social/criminal behaviour where you are disobeying a clear warning sign stating the law aa you enter the area and there is evidence of this such as CCTV.

In the case of a rave its less clear cut as the cops have to prove that the locals were being alarmed or distressed by the music (usually done by getting statements from nimbys willing to give them and video evidence from police aircraft of how many people were there/any cars on farmland/road blockages).

keep on contacting the cops (this of course means someone having to give a name/address/prove ownership). In some cases the cops pass these details on to the landowners solicitors who try and launch civil claims against the person for financial losses; also as there is no “habeas corpus” law on property (fancy legal term for a protection against unjust detention of a person) the cops can often keep property in store and delay the court case for as long as possible to keep the rave equipment out of use. cops and locals are resorting to this as a way of “taking the losses back to the ravers” but it is legally questionable.

If you are worried than don’t risk your whole rig on one event; keep some bits back or use older stuff. Most of the time it is eventually returned unless you’ve picked a really on-top area which has caused lots of complaints

IMO confiscation of sound equipment it serves no purpose for anyone; its two wrongs trying to make a right and people who suffer massive losses like that can be and sometimes are tempted into more serious crime as a reprisal.