Party Vibe

you’re a pig ain’tcha bio… gonna have you with eggs mon

this story will come out today in the amsterdam weekly, this is a free magazine for arts and entertainment in and arround amsterdam

I think this is a well balanced story and grasps the excitment of doing free(illegal) party’s

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Where’s the party at?

There are various charms one could distinguish regarding an illegal outdoor house party. Finding out where the party is, for example. It usually starts with an announcement on a well hidden internet site. Further details about ‘where exactly’ and ‘how to get there’ you’ll receive only just before the party is ready for take off. Then, when you know where to go by mail or 06 number, you are overwhelmed by this mystic feeling of belonging to a group most of the people don’t know about. You share a little secret that will unfold itself during the night. So forget your lipstick and expensive night clothes. All you need is a backpack, filled with beer, good spirit and some xtc-pills if you like, cause we’re going on a trip.

This story begins with the well hidden illegal party site of Zirk. ‘Drive towards the Academic Medic Centrum and then keep going straight’ were the instructions. I got of at Metro station Holendrecht and cycle through an office park. The place is as deserted as well, an office park after 5 o’ clock, but the day has been beautiful and the sun just started setting giving even the ugliest high buildings a golden glow. There’s a party to go underneath the A9 Highway. The place looks over the Ouderkerker lake and I can only imagine how surrealistic the sight must be: people dancing on psychedelic beats with a concrete tunnel behind their backs and the endlessly flat Dutch landscape stretching out front of them while the sky is changing from orange to pink. Annoying thing, or maybe just another charm, about illegal house parties is they are always hard to find. Time is wasted while cycling in the opposite direction of the party and back. It’s almost dark when I get there but the view still is surrealistic. About hundred fifty people are jumping up and down underneath a bridge in nowhere land while cars above their heads are heading for Amstelveen or further. There’s a concrete ramp you can clime, up to the ceiling of the bridge. People sit on it overviewing the party or just lay down, being up with the ferries with their eyes closed. From the top of the ramp red and yellow lights shine into the audience of psychedelic lovers dominated by dreadlocks, batiks, fluorescing rainbow kids and a guy with black wings on his back. At the opposite side of the ramp a dj sends his mystical trance beats out in the open. A big piece of plastic attached to the side of the bridge waives in the wind.
“This is gooood,” sighs a guy next to me. What is? I ask. “Parties in the open. It gives you the feeling of freedom. And everybody is just nice to each other,” he says. He is Robert (25). Together with his friend Sasha (24) he is a regular visitor of Zirk’s parties although they both don’t look like it in their average jeans and T-shirts. “That’s the good thing says Robert. “It doesn’t matter. I have a job in sales and go to parties like Sensation too. Normally I would never run into a neo-hippie kind of crowd but here we talk and have a good time.” Sasha: “Looks are not important, no security guys that spoil your fun and cheep drinks.” They assure me it has nothing to do with the pill they dropped earlier on. “Hey, it helps but it’s just the whole atmosphere.”

The scenery
Ever since the dawn of human nation, people have been partying out in the open. It’s probably only the last fifteen years of mankind they do so with a sound system. In Amsterdam there about five party organisations with names from outer space like: Psyon, Alienmeeting, Psychedelic Sceneries, Empathy and 9 Lives of Hofmann that are active in the open. Most of them play psychedelic trance or psy-trance on their parties. “A couple of years ago there were also a lot of outdoor techno parties but since techno became less popular, that scene died a little,” says Dirk (39), the man behind Zirk. At the moment Dirk is the most active organiser in the illegal party scene. On the very regular basis of once every three weeks (or two in the summer) you can visit one of his feasts in and around Amsterdam. Locations vary from old cargo boats to tunnels to bridges and surrealistic industrial zone’s like the Westelijk Havengebied.

There he stands, Dirk, enjoying the people having a good time on his party. With his
xxx ft tall, red Hally Hansen jacket and thick glasses he for sure stands out in the crowd of dancing hippies. “I like to cheer up the everyday grey places in and around Amsterdam,” he says about his motivation to turn bridges and tunnels into a better place for one night. “It’s such a kick to throw illegal parties. Finding the right location, getting people over and just have a good time in the middle of nowhere. The entrance is free and the little money I make I put in the next one right away.”
All of a sudden the police is knocking at the door. I follow Dirk as he walks towards the officers, just a little away from the party. “The neighbours have been complaining about the music,” says one officer. “Not possible,” answers Dirk friendly. I went to all the farms in the region, telling them to call my number in case they were disturbed. The officer for a moment doesn’t know what to say and starts calling his superiors. Why not party with us,” asks a guy to the female officer. “Not my kind of music,” she mutters. “I prefer more mainstream artists.”
When the officer hangs up, more discussion follows. Dirk obviously has done this before. But so did the officer. It’s ‘we have the right to party in the open’ versus ‘I understand but if other people are bothered by it, we have to stop it.’ Eventually even the mayor of Ouderkerk is called out of bed. He decides party time is over. The music goes down and Dirk explains the situation. The police are cursed all along the party scene but no-one makes a big fuss. It’s around 22:45 and people hurry to try and catch the last metro back to the city or stay help cleaning up the spot. I choose the first.

Dirk’s Domain
“Bad luck,” says Dirk about the party couple of days later. “But the police are also part of the fun. As long as they don’t come too early, that is. Best thing is when you can convince them the party should go on.” We’re sitting in Dirk’s house at Borneo Island in the east of Amsterdam. The whole house buries signs of his activities in the weekend. Piles of left over beer are stapled in the kitchen. In various cupboards you find alien heads made of rubber mattresses. On the balcony lies a plastic tube construction, forming the molecule of the MDMA crystal when put together properly.
Dirk is a fulltime website developer by profession but Zirk needs a lot of attention too. Luckily for Dirk, he’s the kind of guy that can spin more Chinese saucers on various sticks that the average man. Besides that he has a steady crew of four people to run the Zirk show with him. “Arranging dj’s and finding equipment isn’t the hardest thing. People will come to you automatically. Most important is a good sound system, a good spot and no police to ruin the party. A place has to be outside of town where no-one can hear you and you have to be careful with water because it can transport sound for miles away,” says Bart, the Belgian sound technician. “Another rule is you never throw a party on the same place twice. People want to be surprised. That’s a big part of the fun.”
On Zirk’s website you can win a price of 25 Euro’s if you can find a good spot. There is more information. A behaviour code for example, starting with ‘leave your attitude at the door’ and ending with: ‘keep the place as clean as possible’. “We always leave the place cleaner than we found it,” says Hylke, the person involved with the bar and cleaning up after the party. Even cigarette buns are picked up from the ground. Hylke: “A lot of people only use the tobacco to roll a joint. All the filters we collect to use it for mattress filling.”
There are also instructions on how to deal with the police. Dirk: “I always try to let them feel they are in charge. Telling them up forehand I will stop when they say so. It will give us the highest chance of being able to continue and they won’t fine me if we can’t. I don’t have a political message. The only message I got is a good night doesn’t need to be expensive.”
It’s hard to imagine Dirk only started operating in the partyscene two years ago. “I used to live in Nieuwegein with a wife and two kids. After my divorce, I attended my first house party, Sensation, at the age of 38. I was impressed by the house party organisation. The logistics, logo’s and the reaction of the crowd. It all seemed very mystical to me. That’s what I want to do, I decided. Thing is, if you’ve never worked within the organised party scene, you don’t get hired so I began organising them myself.”
Zirk’s next party will be the party after the Legalise street rave, an annual Dutch demonstration for the legalisation of drugs. Soundsystems from all over Holland come together and will make a tour trough the city, ending at a big field at the Papaverweg where the party will go on until 11 at night. “The cops will be very sharp because they know all the soundsystems will go and search a good spot around Amsterdam to continue their party. So we have to be very careful we’re not followed.” The deal with Dirk is I go with him while searching for a new spot after the legalise party. Excellent!

The past of illegal parties
Dirk’s favourite party is the one he gave in a side tunnel of the Piet Hein tunnel underneath the A 10. “Workers came there in the morning and couldn’t believe what they saw,” laughs Dirk. However he wasn’t the first to do so. “We squatted that tunnel for the first time in ’91,” says Ilja xxx, one of the founders of party-organisation Multigroove. The now legal party organisation was one of the pioneers in the first illegal house parties ever. “Illegal parties were hot back then,” Ilja recalls. “House just started to be known and didn’t have a steady place in society jet. Television stations like VPRO and Vara were making documentaries of the scene. In the beginning there weren’t any differences in house styles but our music was known to be pretty rough. Gabbers,we were called, coming from the people in the scene calling each other Gappies, which means buddies in Dutch. The Gabbers became known for their bald heads and trainer suits later but back then they still had long hair and just dressed weird.”
According to Ilja the police didn’t do much about illegal parties back then. “They just didn’t know what this whole bleep bleep music was about,” he grins. “At a certain point we squatted a building in Sloterdijk and threw a party every Saturday. For 13 months the police let it happen until one night in May ’93 they did an inval with the military police. We all got thrown in jail. I did three weeks.” The police used Multigroove as a clear signal: no more illegal house parties. What made them so severe? “I think they formed a policy how to deal with the parties and were also shocked by the amount of drugs used in the scene,” says Ilja. “The use of drugs wasn’t that common yet in everyday nightlife, so I guess they had the feeling to do something about it.”
Afterwards house became more mainstream and accepted in the regular nightlife. With the coming up of well-organised parties the need for illegal ones became less. Well, at least in the gabber, hardcore and techno scene. Ilja: “My customers aren’t interested in illegal houseparties anymore. They want to be well taken care of. Clean toilets, cold beer. If I don’t take care of a good wardrobe they slaughter my party on the internet.”
For Psy-trance, it’s a bit different. “Reason why the Psy-trance scene still likes to throw they parties outdoor might have to do with the music,” says Dr. Vinni of 9 Lives of Hofmann, one of the pioneers in organising psy-trance parties. “Psychedelic trance calls up the ancient ritual of people dancing together into other realities. Best environment to reach a certain atmosphere is outdoors. The music also attracts the kind of crowd that enjoys the primitive way and doesn’t want to spend lots of money. Instead of the Multigroove parties, the psy-parties in general are not commercial at all.”
In the 6 years he’s been organising parties, he has seen a lot of them. “One of the best parties is the annual F of Kali party, organised by Doof records. The music, the soundsystem, black drops – black cloths painted with fluorescent paint – It’s all good. Only thing lacking maybe is a proper chill-out room and a Chai-shop with nice bites and tea.” According to Vinni a lot of outdoor psy-parties nowadays lack the psy-trance essentials. “I might sound like an old man but psy-trance parties used to be a very visual and spiritual happening in the past. I have the feeling people are less interested in decoration and good music. Most of them just want the freedom to use drugs. Now I like my drugs too but people also use more speed instead of psychedelics. That’s not necessarily bad, but it changes the vibe of a party.”

Where’s the party at, part II
If it comes to the use of drugs, it got more common for sure. About 2000 people from all over Holland came to Amsterdam to participate in the Legalise street Rave. That a lot of drugs, including alcohol, are abused is also a fact that becomes painfully clear when the Legalise party at the Papaverweg stops around 18:00 because people got into fights, ruining the party for the others. Dirk calls me up. Did I hear the bad news? I’m telling him I’m looking at some military policeman with sticks and helmets on, entering the partyzone as we speak. He already moved over to plan B and started building up the after party a little sooner.
I bike home, get myself some new instructions through the internet and find it right away this time. The party takes place underneath a railroad near the Sloterplas. There are two bridges next to each other. One for Dirk’s soundsystem and one for the Back-a-wall soundsystem from Medenblik that spins reggae tunes. Two girls in Indian dresses sell candles from their van and there is a fruit cocktail bar this time too. “No, No, it’s really easy to find,” a guy next to me says trough the telephone. A train passes over our heads as the night falls and the crowd starts to party again. “I’d rather am between people that use drugs instead of alcohol,” says Heidi who came with the Back-a-wall soundsystem when I ask her about what she thinks about people taking drugs. “Alcohol makes people more aggressive. Drugs can do that to but the people here know how to use it well,” is her opinion. “Hey, weren’t you also at the last party,” a guy with slightly curled hair asks. It’s Robert again. “The only bad thing about drugs is it costs so much time,” he ads to the discussion. “I’m probably going to skip a night but I have to work on Monday again. I guess I should stop using it at a certain point though. I don’t want to end up like some of those wasted people you see walking around here too.”
Around one thirty the police arrives again. The same procedure as last one unfolds itself. Dirk has a plan C though. He arranged a nice spot for the third party that night in the Westelijk havengebied. Whoever has got a car is more than welcome to party on. Me and the photographer decide to go home to get some sleep and catch up with the crowd at the after after party five hours later.

It’s hard to get out of bed but it’s worth it. When we arrive at eight in the morning, about seventy people are still jumping up and down in front of Zirk’s sound system. The place in the middle of an industrial zone looks out over the water with huge windmills in the distance. People are sitting at a little campfire, letting their socks dry on some wooden sticks while others clime on an old boat that lies in the water. Dirk is getting a massage in a tent from his Columbian girlfriend. “Ah, this is all I need,” he says. “I guess I’m in my second youth. Or maybe it’s my first.” Robert comes by to thank him for the great party before he bounces off again. Little white envelopes with substances that keep you awake go from hand to hand while the sun is shining and the weather is sweet. This time the police stay away and people continue partying as if there is no tomorrow.

Sound of the police
“When you are selling drinks and you ask for entrance at the door, there is a commercial purpose served. If you don’t have a licence to do so, you could say there is an illegal party going on. Even if you don’t make a profit,” says Remco Gerritsen spokesman of the Amsterdam police force. That doesn’t mean a party always have to end. “It depends on the circumstances,” Gerritsen says. “When it’s raining complaints of people in the neighbourhood or when there is a danger in the form of a campfire or people taking to much alcohol and drugs we close the party as well.” According to the illegal party-organisations the police close more parties compared to few years ago. “Quite possible,” is Gerritsen’s comment. “We are more severe in general when it comes to telling civilians what their responsibilities are. Policies became more strict but I’m sure there are parties taking place the police will never know about.”

I say keep mum

Even if a prog went out as unbiased as u like, the headlines the next day would be screaming about rugs/breaking + entering/youths disturbing tax payers etc.

There’s no point. Best policy is to keep quiet, keep to ourselves, we will never be understood…fact.