Last weekend, the hottest of the year, saw the party posse out in full
effect with the Hardcore Conspiracy Teknival. Late last summer there was a
massive Teknival involving 6000 people in Kingston, Surrey, leaving the
cops none too chuffed, so they didn’t want to get caught with their pants
down again.
Panik, United Systems, Underground Sound, Skirmish, Random Sound, Headfuk,
Negusa Negast and other assorted rigs were out entertaining the kids all
over the South East. Unfortunately our old sparring partners, the cops,
were also out, trying as ever, to spoil the fun. The wacky races started
on the Friday night near the Hampshire/Surrey border with an attempted
party on old M.O.D. land. This was evicted under the Criminal Justice Act
on Saturday morning but the sound system was allowed to leave and the free
party people moved onto Guildford, where they tried to set up but again
the forces of darkness put a stop to it. The next place people went to was
a few miles up the road, near Cobham where about 500 danced until about
midnight. This time about 150 tooled up riot cops complete with
helicopters and dog units gatecrashed, with one woman beaten unconscious
and needing hospital treatment. On the way out all of the systems were
confiscated and so people headed towards the coast. But as ever the sound
crews are still up for it telling SchNEWS “The struggle continues. They
will never kill the music. Expect us back soon.”
Meanwhile down in sunny Brighton two big parties were also taking place
put on by local sound systems. One was on a legal traveller site and
because of the numbers living there already, ie. the travellers, the
cops left it alone and the party continued for two nights. The other was
at Woodingdean, where up to 1000 people were enjoying a pleasant night on
the South Downs. The cops, who didn’t even hear about the party till about
4am left two cars on the track leading up to the site. However, they
hadn’t been paying attention to their own adverts telling people to lock
up their valuables and left their car doors unlocked. Unfortunately one of
the hand brakes mysteriously released itself and the car slid down into a
ditch, while theother flipped itself over and ended up on its roof in the
same ditch. The cops weren’t best pleased with this and came on to site at
about 10am when most people had left and nicked the sound system, the
owner, his van and his records.
* Were you at Cobham when the cops steamed on? Witnesses are
needed to bring a prosecution against the police for their violent
behaviour. Contact Emma on 07774 405368
Originally printed on SchNEWS: http://www.schnews.org.uk/
