check out the vibe in my hometown, front page todays paper.. there is nothing to do but arrest drunken louts in our area, but the police wont deal with that because its buisness and tax, doesnt matter if my mate gets glassed for minding his own business in his local high st because ths town is so pent up with the prohibitive stench that hangs over dorking like the stench of death
glad i dont live there any more.. BUT THEY ARENT TAKIN AWAY THE BEST FREE PARTY SITES IN ENGLAND IT IS OUR RIGHT TO PARTY WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!!!!
PS The bloke, george is a mate of mine an i know he’ll read this NICE ONE GEORGE!! =)
Party’s over for ravers in police swoop
Apr 15 2004
By John Williams
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POLICE stopped the first Mole Valley rave of the season before it started in Coldharbour.
Officers were quickly on the scene after intelligence that a party was being set up near the village in the early hours of Monday.
Police found that a gate had been broken leading on to land owned by the Forestry Commission at about half past midnight.
They also discovered eight vehicles, some sound equipment and about 30 people gathering in the area.
The early intervention by ground units and supported by the Air Support Unit helicopter forced organisers to abandon attempts to hold a rave and move away.
“I hope it will reassure local people of our determination to make sure they are not disturbed by these late night gatherings,” said Superintendent Martin Parker, “It should also warn anyone who is thinking of setting up an event like this that we do have a good intelligence network and we have the resources to act on any information we receive.
“We will not tolerate raves in East Surrey.”
After widespread complaints throughout last summer, residents cried out for an increased police response this year.
Party-goers had asked critics of the raves to be understanding to the needs of young people in the district but police announced a zero-tolerance policy only last week.
Jenny Richards, chairman of Capel Parish council and Coldharbour resident, said that she was encouraged by the police response so far.
“They are really taking it seriously and this zero tolerance policy sounds hopeful as last year the police seemed to be turning a blind eye to the raves,” she said. “Admittedly once they have set up the sound systems there is not much they can do, and to stop it would mean taking too many officers off the job but they can get them before it starts.”
The ravers have stated that they feel the police approach is unnecessarily aggressive towards what they say are essentially peaceful events.
George Faulkner from Dorking, who attends the raves, said: “I have never heard of any weapons at a free party, or of violent crime of any sort.
“There is certainly a much less aggressive atmosphere than you would typically find in Dorking High Street after last orders on a Friday night.”
Mr Faulkner promoted the view, shared by many young people in Mole Valley, that the raves are an alternative to a lack of nightlife in the district.
He said: “Free parties provide one of the few alternatives for Mole Valley’s young people to yet another night of drunkenness.”
But police are determined to respond to criticism from residents and have announced their new approach for this summer.
This will include 4X4 vehicles that will allow easier access to rave sites, writing to the owners of vehicles who were spotted at raves last year and working more closely with residents.
A meeting was recently held with landowners in Mole Valley by the Rural Affairs Officer for the district PC Martin Savage.
He advised them of the support being offered by Surrey Police to those who took measures to stop people gaining illegal access to their land.
He also warned them that if they gave permission for or did not do enough to prevent this kind of party they could be held responsible.
Posters and stickers have been handed out across the district instructing landowners to secure gates and locks so that any break-in can be easily identified.
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Writing to the vehicle owners to tell them what exactly? Its not illegal to go to a party.
And this sort of attitude….
…makes me sick that such selfish ignorant people live in this country. All this zero tolerance nonsense is really starting to piss me off.
crumbs…and i thought we were living in a free country.
In the westcountry, police generally (but not always) have a more common sense approach: many of the free parties I have attended have had a police presence, but not an agressive one…a chat with the organisers about 1)how long for? 2)you won’t turn it up any louder will you? 3)you won’t be driving in that state will you? 4)are you selling drugs? cos if you are we’ll have you right away. You get the idea.
This Coldhabour mob (police and councillors) sound very heavy handed. zero tolerance? helicopters? new 4×4’s? Do something useful.
Good luck to all coldhabour partygoers this summer, looks like you’re going to have to fight for your right to party
The ob havent always been like this,in our first year of raves, they had the same response as you get- it was the local paper, stiiring up shit that raised their heckles..”police are powerless as ravers party on” was the headline that did it.
The super at the time, sandy horvarth, got embarrased by this and decided to handle it personally…at one of my favorite raves ever, we after playing cat and mouse with a full nine car, national trust / police linkup opperation,hesded by the fat cheif, we snuck in round the back of our intended site, set up gathered bout 60 peeps an set the tunes ablazin…. this grew to about a ton by the time the authorities had decamped from the scout camp up the road they obvously thought it was gonna happen at…
Me and another crew member decided to have a word when we heard they were patrolling the local countryside and blockin our enerances, findin potential ravers tellin them the rave wasnt on..oh yea why are you still bothered about it then? anyway, we bowled up to them, tryin to explain that they couldnt possably shut us down, it wouldnt be in their inerests to anyway, unleashin several hundred mashheads into the surrey countryside, angry, energised and confused. we tried asking Sandy Gimpsquad why he actually wanted to stop us havin a bit of a dance. big surprise, we got no where, just made sandy angrier and angrier, till the poor chap was quite red in the race and aout of breath and dribbling. id given up talkin and was thinklin they might nick us, even tho we gave them the old “its communally owned, so no single person is reponible” line, but my fellow ravwer just stayed calme and pressed his piont. it was lush, properly.
Any way, the ob left shortly after that and ignored our next two raves… the powers that be in this conservative, corporately owned part of the country have decided they arent standing for it and has invested a lot of time and effort into shutting us down. the crap thing is that thayve thrown the the gauntlet down in public, theyve stated they are gonna do this, and if they don they willl be deemed to fail. which they hate.
while we arent givin up and leavin, we are not putting all our eggs in this dodgy basket, nb is up for raves anywhere in the south , and even sometimes north of Brum!Not just raves but clubnights, (esspecially charity nights), festivals etc. Weare up for helpin other crews in any respect- flyersw, decorations, banners, projections, DJs, tunes, soundsystem, organisational advice or anything else- were a pretty random bunch, quite a few different skillz. any free party crews- gettin touch!
peace to all the ravers
Thats a bit of a sad state of affairs for you lot mate. I feel sorry for you. And I cross my fingers that it never happens round this way. Generally we have a good relationship with the police, they know the score and don’t really go in hard unless we have pissed off residents etc. Which most rigs round here rarely do.
Just recently they have stepped it up a little though. Hope its not a hint of things to come. It wont be good for anyone.
Oh, and if you ever fancy making the trip to the East Coast then we will sort out a link up or something mate.
Yeah! Sounds like the beginnings of a multi-rigger!!!
Heavy stuff seems to be going down all over the place. What with the recent bust at B&tech, which btw was the most beauty of a system I’ve ever seen, and the complete cock up of the Tek; looks like we are in for a bit more trouble this summer.
Maybe a bit of OB response is not a bad thing. For a start it shows us who is really dedicated to our party scene. Another point is that there are loads of systems setting up all over the place. This is a good thing….. loads of parties on the same nite spreads resources; but far too many crews are not respecting the system enough. They think they can set up anywhere, ignore section 63’s, piss off any locals, and leave the site looking like a dump.
This is not the point. We don’t want to be noticed, just left to party. Seems to be a new generation of ravers who need educating. Something along the P.L.U.R section of this site, or the ‘raver’s manifesto’ on the Biotech site.
We just need to get smarter and wiser, educate your punters. CLEAR UP THE LITTER! Basic stuff.
I think the main difference between us and the OB, and our own advantage, is that we love what we do. They are only doing a job, and they get paid whatever…. but most people I know are truely dedicated to the scene.
Strengh in numbers; unity. They have great trouble stopping a party once its going. All the parties recently busted have not had the numbers. Convoy’s are the way forward; instant party cru!
There we go people. Good luck for the summer ahead.
And can people start playing more Old Skool and Jungle Tekno at parties, cause its fucking wicked. Oh…. psy-trance and Acid Teknos’s good too.
Peaceout.
Binge.
what do you mean, ignnore section 63s? of course we are gonna ignore them, its a shitty law…
as for pissing of locals, admitedly a couple o sites got overused, but the only thing that pissed off the locals was a police presence which meant they couldnt drive their cars home pissed in time honoured tradition….
we leave our sites IMMACULATE and always have done…. dont get preachy with me just because you were settin up backinthe day……
freeparty crews do seemto be on the increase, and i can hear what ur sayin…one or two in our area have no clue, just set up without puuting the word out, i think thats the main failing round here, but thats all changing…do you really think we set up without a convoy? how? one geezer setting up on his tod? no, mate, its coz the suurey pigs can afford fifty officers for a hundred and fifty people, which doesnt create a great mood , especially when all the pigs are shinin their headlights at our rave, killin the vibe….
appreciate the advice, but im way ahead of you dude, where did you get so condescending?
Easy USE mate!
I think you are getting the wrong end of the stick with what Binge is saying. He is just expressing his thoughts in generel. I can’t see anywhere in his post that his comments are directed at you mate. A bit of miss-understanding I think.
As for ignoring section 63’s I don’t think its a good idea either. Stupid law yes. But when they issue them and we ignore then thats when they start to do the equipment nicking stuff and you get in the press getting a bad name for parties. Plus the police remember the rigs that give them a lot of hassle and you will probably end up feeling the heat after you do it a few times.
I know what you are saying mate. But through communication you can normally avoid a sec63.
I’m not preaching at you mate. Just expressing my opinion on the matter and the way we like to do things. Please don’t shout at me. 🙂
Yeah, sorry dude! Did not mean to have a go!
None of those comments were directed at you. I just think that these things need to be broadcasted more. If you check out sites like Squatjuice, the general vibe seems to be ‘fuck the police’. Which is not what we need.
The convoy idea is actually directed at systems in the Anglian area, most of which just broadcast party locations on the partyline, which makes it much easier for the OB to turn up and bust it before it gets going.
Section 63’s are bad news. I aggree that its bullshit, but it gives them the power to nick your system! Which means you either get in a lot of shit, or the system gets crushed. This has happened for both the Vision, and Exodus systems in the last few years, and is probably gonna happen to Brains Kan now.
Seems like you guys living in a hot spot of bacon crack-down, there’s another article on this site about surry police getting hardcore. Its gonna be a tough summer.
I did not mean to be condesending, and in fact I have only been raving for 3 years mate, so I’m probably newer than you are!
Anyway, like Biotech says, just saying what I think, which is one of the few freedoms any of us has these days. Lets stick together, and protect the scene we choose.
P.L.U.R
On the subject of convoys:
Yes they are good because they get all the people together quickly.
But I don’t really like them because.
1) They draw a lot of attention. The party may go all weekend without anyone knowing about it. With a convoy there is no chance.
2) When people arrive they just wait about in their cars usually so not really a lot of use against resisting the police pressure.
3) With a big rig it takes 2hours+ to set it up. Could well piss people off waiting for the system to be turned on.
We did one once and it was quite fun though 🙂
remember the UK is now full of CCTV cameras liked to Police control rooms; and that British people are quite nosey. Any large movement of vehicles which is out of character will be noticed either by CCTV operators or locals calling the Police – especially rural areas where people are paranoid of travellers.
whilst convoys may be fun they now have more security risks than ever before.
This zero tolerance thing is serious stuff – it now appears to be UK-wide and is a direct fallout from the growth of the party scene since the late 1990s; there are more parties, more crews and they go on well into Sunday evening or beyond in some places.
This naturally causd a backlash from Middle Englanders who are not only kept awake but thoroughly resent the amount of “free time” we seem to have to put on these events (particularly if by Sunday afternoon the presence of extra vehicles in an area is starting to impede their movements).
The amount of damage to urban venues that has been happening recently and stuff like crop trampling doesn’t help matters either – nor the flashy new digital radios that many British police forces now use which make it a lot easier to locate asd deploy TSG (riot) squads and other units such as dogs to rave sites.
It is not going to be an easy summer; although I expect some parties will happen. I wonder though if the time factor is one major aspect ; the riot cops only seem to get there by Sunday afternoon.
Sorry Binge, didnt mean to snap, just well stressed recently… just found police signs on fences and posts yeaterday, near fp sites in the area tellin every one to be aware and that Anti Social Behavior Orders are waiting for the ravers… dont think theyre there now, but it always saddens me to hear us bein described as anti social, couldnt be further from the truth… any way, you guys are the lastpeople i should be venting my frustration on, unity’s what we need to last and defend our rights…this whole situation is well tricky, and its just we (NB) seemed to be doing so well, dont like to think that maybe we fucked up and attracted too much heat and were too bait.
i recon/hope its the nature of the area, lots of loudmouth kids with busybody paents, plus a well affluent area with lowest national crimerate, so lots of spare rozzaz. still its not like we’re the only ones under threat… hope you guys have a fruitfull summer, and avoid the bads. im not a prick realy, i hope you understand…we are well up for a east coast link up, wil eme u after our club based may, we well enjoy the clubnights, but i really hope freeparties future is as bright as it should be. convoys are well bait, but having a mass of people to set up quick and diffuse potential police attention is essential irecon, its just a question of balance.. need folks, just not too many. we try and pick sites with numerous entrances to spread the stream of folks and make it harder for the fuzz. are runnin out of sites tho…peace out party people, hope to hear from u sooon…
If your posts are anything to go by then I know your’e not a prick mate. No worries, everyone understands.
Look forward to sorting something out with you in the future then 🙂
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