When it comes to actual free parties and illegal squats/raves (as opposed to licensed commercial festivals), the nature of the scene means that specific locations and lineups are kept strictly secret until the very last minute.
Organizers typically use locked social media groups, encrypted messaging apps, or temporary “party lines” that go live just a few hours before the sound systems start up to prevent authorities from catching wind of them.
However, looking at the current landscape of the UK free party scene right now, here is how things stand and how the police are responding:
Where Free Parties are Pop-Up Activity Right Now
Rural and Coastal Hotspots: Bank holiday weekends (like today’s Late May Bank Holiday) are prime time for rural free parties. Areas with vast open spaces or forestry—like the West Country (Devon, Somerset, Cornwall), the Welsh borders, and Dorset—traditionally see attempts by sound systems to set up. For instance, Dorset Police have been on high alert and heavily patrolling rural locations following a massive, 2,000-person “EggTek” free party in East Lulworth that drew major headlines.
Urban Squat Raves: In cities like London and Bristol, the focus is usually on abandoned commercial properties and warehouses. Just recently, police had to shut down a 100-person illegal rave operating out of an abandoned Argos store in Dalston, East London.
Are the Police Attending?
Yes, aggressively so. Under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, UK police forces have incredibly broad and severe powers specifically designed to tackle unlicensed music events (defined legally as gatherings playing amplified music with a “succession of repetitive beats”).
If the police catch wind of a free party, their response usually involves:
Intelligence & Prevention: Forces like Avon & Somerset and Dorset Police actively monitor social media and known “convoy” routes on bank holidays to block sound systems before they can even set up.
Intervention & Roadblocks: If a party has already started, police will often set up a strict perimeter cordon to stop more ravers or vehicles from entering, effectively starving the event of new attendees.
Equipment Seizure & Arrests: Police routinely use their powers to confiscate thousands of pounds worth of sound equipment, generators, and decks. Arrests are common, usually for public nuisance, drug offenses, driving under the influence, or squatting in commercial properties.
While the free party community heavily relies on self-policing and a “leave no trace” ethos to keep things peaceful, modern police responses to unpermitted raves are rapid and highly coordinated, frequently resulting in the events being shut down within a few hours of the first beat dropping.
Posted in.|Taggedfree, freeparty, party, police|Comments Off on Asked AI what free parties are happening this Bank Holiday
My YouTube feed is currently flooded with influencers praising the new £1,299 Lumix L10 as a “must-have.” But let’s look past the hype at how the camera industry’s marketing machine actually works:
The Junket: Brands fly creators to luxury destinations (like Osaka) with all expenses paid.
The Script: Creators get a few hours with the gear and a list of manufacturer talking points.
The Launch: The embargo lifts, and channels simultaneously drop “reviews” that are actually just synchronized sales pitches.
It feels like a losing battle. We’ve reached a point where camera innovation has plateaued. Between new inventory and the second-hand market, photographers already have everything they need. Brands are simply using influencers to manufacture a false sense of necessity—convincing you that a new purchase will automatically make you a better photographer.
We need uncompromised, honest journalism back in the photography space. But until reviewers grow a backbone and stop trading their integrity for free trips, don’t expect to hear the truth on YouTube.
Posted in.|TaggedPhotography|Comments Off on New Camera Hype :: The Problem with Modern Camera Reviews
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage gives a speech to supporters on Clacton Pier in Essex on 3 July 2024. Picture: PA Media/Ian West
Reform leader Nigel Farage has said being visited by a Guardian photographer underlined why he needed extra security.
The Guardian has issued a statement in defence of its photographer after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage shared an image of the photographer’s press card on social media.
The photographer was taking photos from a public path, according to The Guardian, while working on a story related to allegations that the Reform leader failed to disclose a £5m gift from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire.
Farage said, sharing a picture of the photographer’s press card on social media: “My security team just found this journalist from The Guardian at my property. This is exactly why I need security. Completely unacceptable.”
The Guardian said in a statement: “The Guardian is concerned by the recent publication on Nigel Farage’s social media pages of the professional credentials of a photographer working on behalf of the Guardian while he was working lawfully in a public space.
“Holding public figures to account is the role of a free press.
“As part of the Guardian’s journalism covering Nigel Farage’s purchase of a £1.4m property in cash shortly after receiving a £5m personal gift, a photographer took pictures from a public path and showed his press card when asked to identify himself.”
The photo shared to Farage’s social media of the photographer’s Press Card. Credentials omitted by Press Gazette. Picture: Nigel Farage Instagram
Journalists ‘increasingly targets of shocking abuse’
The NUJ has also pushed back against Farage’s social media posts, claiming he is putting journalists at risk.
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said: “The NUJ has seen the posting on Nigel Farage’s social media pages of an NUJ Press Card, deliberately sharing the credentials of a professional press photographer. No journalist should be subject to actions that target them or expose them to potential risk in the course of their legitimate work. This flies in the face of press freedom.
“Our recent Journalists’ Safety Tracker report revealed that journalists are increasingly becoming targets of shocking abuse and harassment online and in-person, restricting their ability to do their work, and the union reiterates the need for urgent action to tackle this scourge.”
Farage blames ‘computer hacking’ for exposure of gift
In response to the initial reporting of the alleged gift, Farage said a “serious computer-hacking case” was behind the disclosure and claimed the story was an “operation” against him.
Farage has also said the gift was for his personal security.
Reform UK has provided no evidence to support claims that the story was obtained through computer hacking but is exploring its legal options, according to The Times.
A Guardian source said: “Mr Farage should be answering the questions raised by legitimate, public interest journalism, rather than attacking the media with baseless claims.”
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 finally became law on 29 April and, like previous criminal justice legislation, it is vast. It includes several new police powers and new offences related to protests in Part 10 of the Act. The main four are:
powers for the police to consider the ‘cumulative impact’ of repeated protests to justify restrictions on protests
a new offence of concealing your identity during a protest
protesting outside the home of a politician or ‘public officer-holder’
restrictions outside of places of worship
Together, the Act grants the police sweeping powers to justify increased and severe restrictions and solidifies in law the idea that protests are little more than disruption, rather than expressions of democratic rights.
There are also new offences for possessing smoke flares or ‘pyro’ at a demonstration, while climbing on a war memorial without a valid reason is now a crime, prompted by this incident at a Palestine solidarity march in 2023. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 had previously created a specific offence of criminal damage to memorials, but not for climbing on one.
Cumulative impact
The new Act amends sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, adding a requirement on a senior police officer to “take into account any relevant cumulative disruption” when deciding on imposing restrictions or limits on a march (section 12) or a rally (section 14).
Cumulative impact is defined as any repeated or concurrent protest in the same area, regardless of subject, motivation or connection. This means any other demonstrations that have taken place in an area, or that are held at the same time, or are planned for the future, that “may result in serious disruption to the life of the community”. This does not have to mean the same campaign, or the same protesters.
By giving senior officers the ability to ‘ration’ the exercise of rights to freedom of assembly that they believe are used ‘too often’ (both by repeat protests like the regular Palestine solidarity marches in London, which are the main target, or because of protests by other causes or campaigns), this change in the law effectively gives the police the ability, which they notionally did not previously have, to grant permission for holding a protest.
There is no time limit on how far back any consideration of cumulative impact might think is ‘relevant’. The onus appears to fall on protest organisers to challenge restrictions in the courts if, as we suspect, these powers are used stringently.
As our recent State of Protest report highlighted, the police – specifically, the Metropolitan Police – have not waited on the passage of the Act to impose restrictions justified by claims of repeat disruption. In May 2025, for example, it blocked International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) protests, citing the ‘cumulative impact’ of weekly protests. Similarly, in November 2025, the Met forced the Palestine Coalition to change the route of its planned march, against citing the “cumulative effect of protests’.
Concealing your identity
Previously it was an offence to refuse to remove a face covering when instructed to after an order had been imposed by a senior officer, under Section 60AA of the Criminal Justice Act 1994. This power remains, but a new power sits alongside it: police can designate an area a ‘mask-free zone’ for up to 24 hours if a protest is planned and it is deemed “expedient, in order to prevent or limit the commission of offences”. This means that wearing a mask becomes an offence.
Concealment is defined very broadly: It includes “wearing or otherwise using an item that conceals their identity or another person’s identity” and not just a face mask. It is unclear, for example, whether using a banner or other objects to restrict the police from filming protesters might result in arrests.
In theory, police officers require “reasonable suspicion” that a face covering at a protest is intended to conceal involvement in criminal activity, but past practice suggest the police are likely to intervene against protesters as soon as an order has been imposed.
This will have the greatest impact on anyone seeking to protect their anonymity (with particular implications for racialised communities, migrants and criminalised groups), those with disabilities (such as protesters wearing face coverings due to vulnerabilities or immuno-compromising conditions), and those wearing face coverings for religious reasons.
The Act does allow a defence for a person charged with a concealment offence to prove that they wore or used an item health reasons, religious observance, or related to their work. This is, however, long after their rights to protest have already been violated.
Protesting outside the home of a ‘public officer-holder’
Last month, Netpol wrote about the moral panic that led to this new offence, which applies to anyone who “carries on a protest outside, or in the vicinity of, premises that are used by a public office-holder as a dwelling”.
If you try to persuade an elected official (from a parish councillor to a government minister), near to their home, to alter decisions made in the course of their duties, or to condemn the decisions they have taken (or failed to take), then you face the risk of arrest and prosecution.
Restricting protests at places of worship
The new Act further amends sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, adding “the vicinity of a place of worship” and actions that may deter people from accessing their synagogue, mosque or church, as justifications for imposing restrictions on protests.
When the government raised this proposal in 2025, it alluded to members of the Jewish community too afraid “about travelling to their places of worship during large-scale demonstrations, especially in central London”. This was due to the intention, in January 2025, of the Palestine Coalition to start a march at the BBC near Oxford Circus, which had previously been a regular marshalling point for a variety of demonstrations. The implication is that these marches deliberately target synagogues. This is a lie recently repeated again by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley and was condemned as “dishonest and reckless” by protest organisers, who have made a formal complaint about his comments.
The potential impact of this new grounds for restricting protests is that police are unlikely to grant permission for a demonstration that supports Palestinian human rights or is critical of the Israeli government – political views held by thousands of Jewish people – if this passes close to a synagogue and takes place on Shabbat. This is also likely if protesters seek to rally outside a synagogue that is promoting Zionist recruitment of settlers to occupy Palestinian land. This is because, in the police’s view, this may “intimidate persons of reasonable firmness”. Potentially, this could also apply too, for example, to planning a protest against an anti-LGBTQ church.
Implementation
Not all of the Act’s provisions come into force immediately on Royal Assent. Many require secondary legislation — regulations made by ministers to set out the detail of implementation — or a formal ministerial commencement order.
Since having mobility issues [crutches], I have engaged in a few projects more locally based. Including the ‘Nottingham Trent University B&W’ set. :: https://tinyurl.com/22mvwvm7 a work in progress.
Have just visited the NTU Observatory, and Dr D Brown was kind enough to show me the facilities there. I have made an edit of this afternoons work and have now added to the main project page at :: https://tinyurl.com/22mvwvm7
The image ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ is a striking exercise in perspective, texture, and character. Through the use of a wide-angle lens—likely a fisheye—the photographer has created an intimate, almost intrusive portrait that challenges the traditional boundaries between the subject and the viewer.
Captured in monochrome, ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ leans heavily into the strengths of black-and-white photography: the play of light, the deep definition of shadows, and the exaggeration of physical form.
The Distortion of Intimacy
The most immediate characteristic of ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ is the extreme barrel distortion caused by the wide-angle lens. This choice has several profound effects on the composition:
Proximity: The subject is physically very close to the lens. This creates a sense of forced intimacy, as if the viewer is leaning in to share a secret or a quiet moment with the man.
Facial Architecture: The distortion enlarges the central features—the nose, the spectacles, and the mustache—while the sides of the face and the surrounding environment appear to pull away. This gives the portrait a whimsical, almost caricatured feel, yet it remains deeply grounded in reality.
The Curvature of the World: On the right side of ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’, the background foliage and trees bend inward. This framing creates a “globe” effect, making the subject appear as if he is the centre of his own small, private universe.
Texture and Light
In ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ , the lack of colour forces the eye to focus on the tactile qualities of the scene. The image is a masterclass in texture:
Human Texture: The fine lines around the eyes, the coarse hair of the mustache, and the subtle stubble on the chin are highlighted by the high-contrast lighting. Each wrinkle tells a story of age and experience.
Organic Texture: To the left, the rough, craggy bark of the tree trunk provides a hard, vertical anchor for the man’s head. To the right, the delicate, translucent leaves of the ivy catch the sunlight, providing a soft counterpoint to the man’s rugged features.
Light and Shadow: The light source appears to be coming from the upper right, casting a dramatic shadow of the man’s nose and glasses across his cheek. The shadow of the tree limb also falls across his temple, further integrating him into the natural environment.
The Subject’s Presence
Despite the technical distortion in ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’, the subject’s humanity remains the focal point. There is a gentle kindness in his expression. His eyes, framed by thin-rimmed glasses, carry a hint of a smile that is mirrored in the slight upturn of his mouth beneath the mustache.
The man wears a cap and a hoodie, suggesting a casual, outdoor setting. He isn’t posing for a formal portrait; he seems to be simply existing in the woods, comfortable in his skin and his surroundings. This authenticity is what saves the image from being merely a technical experiment with a wide lens; it is a genuine character study.
Narrative Implications
When viewing ‘Tash in Wide-Angle’, one cannot help but wonder about the man’s story. Is he a gardener, a hiker, or perhaps the photographer himself playing with a self-portrait? The choice of black and white strips away the distractions of the modern world, lending the image a timeless quality. It could have been taken yesterday or forty years ago.
The proximity of the tree to his head suggests a literal and metaphorical connection to nature. He isn’t just standing in front of the woods; he is tucked into them, framed by the ivy and supported by the bark.
Technical Execution
The choice of the Nikon D300s (as suggested by the filename 131201_D300s_080 BW.jpg) is notable. Even as older digital technology, the sensor captures a surprising amount of detail in the highlights and shadows. The “BW” designation in the file name emphasizes that the monochromatic transition was a deliberate artistic choice to focus on form over hue.
Conclusion
‘Tash in Wide-Angle’ is an evocative photograph that turns a simple moment into a complex visual narrative. By using distortion to pull the viewer in rather than push them away, the photographer creates a rare sense of closeness. It celebrates the “imperfections” of the human face—the lines, the hairs, the unevenness—and elevates them through a lens that sees the world with both curiosity and warmth.
It is a reminder that even when the world is bent and distorted, there is a steady, smiling humanity at its centre.
Throughout the ’90s, the DiY Sound System put on countless free events, ran a recording studio and two record labels, and took their hedonistic parties around the world. Here, Harold Heath speaks to co-founder Harry Harrison about his new book, Dreaming in Yellow: The Story of the DiY Sound System, and the collective’s trailblazing legacy in the free party movement
The origins of DiY Sound System date back to a mid-‘80s England that was a very different place to how it is in 2022. In many ways it was an England that was freer than today: you could still squat properties, still claim the dole while learning to play an instrument or put on parties, and the country was still host to a teeming underground of free festivals.
However, the Conservative government had also brutally smashed the miners’ strike, embarked on a post-colonial war in the Falklands and overseen record unemployment levels, while Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared that “there’s no such thing as society”. It was into this harsh political context that DiY was born: a high-impact collision between the British radical, anti-establishment culture of squatters, anarcho-punks, travellers and free-partiers and the birth of UK acid house.
As we chat over Zoom, DiY co-founder Harry Harrison, now a genial, laidback father of two living in Wales, is full of brilliant stories and joie de vivre as he happily recalls his role in some of the most revolutionary events in recent British cultural history. “We were in the right place at the right time,” he says. “It was the end of the free festival scene, that last gasp of Stonehenge and anarcho-punk, when Glastonbury was lawless — the world was very different then. And I think we saw ourselves as promoting that lawlessness but using acid house as the perfect weapon.”
The free festival scene Harrison refers to has largely disappeared, but throughout the ‘80s there was a calendar of outdoor free events, mainly attended by so-called ‘new age’ travellers, hippies, punks, post-punks, ‘crusties’, squatters and others on the fringes of society. It was a fiercely anti-establishment subculture and one that Harrison and co. soon came into contact with via the Nottingham squat and house party scene.
“We hung out with a load of anarcho-punks and they were hardcore, serious poly-drug users,” he recalls. “They were messy as fuck, but they also organised loads of benefits for the miners. And we were into animal rights too, so we smashed a few butcher shop windows, went hunt-sabbing for a few years, all those kinds of anarcho-politics. Then we went to free festivals at 16, 17 and it just blew my mind.”
That punk ethos would feed directly into the character of DiY, creating a unique take on the rave template that put community, freedom and non-profit at the heart of what they did. “That’s why we were called DiY,” continues Harrison, “it’s a punk thing: it’s don’t listen, don’t vote, don’t take any shit, do it yourself, learn three chords and form a band, but instead of learn three chords it was buy some decks, get a soundsystem.”
Harrison became an enthusiastic attendee of the free party scene. “We went to a festival near Blackburn in probably ’83 and there was a chalk board that said ‘Line of speed 50p, Line of coke a quid, Mushrooms £2.50! We were like, ‘Wow, when does the music stop?’ and they were like, ‘It never stops, it goes from Friday to Tuesday’. Unfortunately, the music was a bit shit, it was Hawkwind and stuff, God bless them and all that but it wasn’t happening. But then acid house crossed with the free festival movement, that was where we were at and we were instrumental in it.”
“Everyone at our gigs got 75 quid with a 20 quid ‘nipper bonus’ if you had kids. Everyone got the same, the lighting guy, the sound guy, the DJs, and if they didn’t like it they could fuck off and go and DJ somewhere else. We had our major DJs but they all lugged the gear at the end of the night”
By the time Harrison, along with Pete ‘Woosh’ Birch (who sadly passed away in 2020), Richard ‘Digs’ Down and Simon DK formed the DiY collective in 1989, they’d already been into house music for a few years. “The one thing we had in Nottingham was DJ Graeme Park,” says Harrison, “who was playing house at the Garage from ‘87 onwards. We started going there every Saturday, that was my first experience of house music.” The DiY collective included engineers and sound crew as well as DJs, and they put together their own custom-built soundsystem and began putting on free parties.
DiY’s anti-establishment stance remained solid for as long as they functioned as a unit. While the mid-‘90s saw the rise of the superclub and the gradual encroachment of capital into dance music, DiY remained resolutely underground, alternative, and committed to an egalitarian vision of the disco, one that was reflected in how they dealt with money. “What I’m most proud of is that we were a collective,” says Harrison. “Everyone at our gigs got 75 quid with a 20 quid ‘nipper bonus’ if you had kids. Everyone got the same, the lighting guy, the sound guy, the DJs, and if they didn’t like it they could fuck off and go and DJ somewhere else. We had our major DJs but they all lugged the gear at the end of the night.”
DiY’s free parties began in summer 1990. They were mostly small affairs at first because, as Harrison recalls, most people on the free festival/ traveller scene still weren’t into house music at this point. Every weekend over winter 1990 the DiY crew were in the south-west of England, where the travellers were, putting on their free house music parties. Harrison remembers a particular event in the free festival calendar at Chipping Sodbury at the end of May 1991 as a major turning point. Up until then, soundsystems playing dance music were looked down upon by many of the traveller and crusty crew, but for the first time, the festival was all sound systems and no bands.
“It was getting bigger and bigger, you could feel it growing,” continues Harrison, “and instead of sound systems getting shit, being told to fuck off into the corner because ‘that’s not proper music’, suddenly there was this force of numbers, suddenly there were thousands of young people there.”
“The government were already a bit pissed off about raves, but Castlemorton really blew the gaff”
Momentum continued to grow over the winter of ’91 and then came the first big event of 1992: the Avon Free Festival at Castlemorton common. It’s difficult to imagine now, a five-day-long completely free festival/rave, attended by tens of thousands of party-goers, with the authorities powerless to act against it. An estimated 20-50,000 attendees — nobody seems able to agree on the numbers — turned up to the biggest illegal rave in UK history in the shadows of the Malvern Hills and partied over a very long weekend.
“The sun shone for the entire five days,” remembers Harrison, “I’ve never seen British weather like it. God was definitely on our side… And no one really organised it. There we no flyers, mobile phones, it just came together organically. You could never recreate it now, it was just unique, it was our generation’s Woodstock. We set up on the Thursday night and we didn’t finish till Tuesday.”
Castlemorton is an event that has since gone down in history, its ripples felt for years afterwards. It marked the beginning of the end of the ‘new age’ traveller lifestyle and of illegal outdoor raves via the Tories’ Criminal Justice Bill a couple of years later. As Harrison says, “The government were already a bit pissed off about raves, but Castlemorton really blew the gaff. That was May 1992 and at the Tory party conference in September, [senior Conservative] Michael Howard said he planned to introduce legislation to make things like raves illegal — and the Criminal Justice Act was made law in November ’94.”
DiY were unique among the soundsystems at Castlemorton in that they played deep house rather than the hard techno that was adopted by many other UK travelling sounds like Spiral Tribe. “Castlemorton was nine soundsystems and I went to all of them and the music was just a nightmare!” says Harrison. “It was just appalling, nosebleed techno, 160 beats per minute! As well as house, we played John Coltrane, Grandmaster Flash, Public Enemy. People came to our tent and stayed for two days, it saved their sanity. Because we really believed in the music. I guess we really believed in the ecstasy as well but you can’t really say that anymore… But there’s something sacred that happens when you get the right people, the right music, the right drugs in the right place — it just doesn’t get any better than that.”
“We did some properly mad shit that makes me shudder when I look back, it was so reckless and lawless… I look back now in my mid-fifties and just think, ‘Wow’”
Harrison’s role in the collective, after an aborted attempt at DJing (“I couldn’t be arsed: too difficult, too expensive, too serious!”) was as organiser, galvaniser and promoter. It’s an essential job in the success of every UK underground party: the facilitator, that one mate with a big personality who by default ends up putting on events, the larger-than-life member of your crew who makes things happen.
“I was the brains!” he laughs. “The gobshite! At the height of our fame around ’93, ’94 we had 13 or 14 DJs and my job was to herd the cats. I was the organiser. We were a collective but I also thought in a Stalinist way that if I don’t DJ I can kind of control things. I guess I was the strategist, the organiser, promoter, gobshite and money launderer!”
Because of their music policy, DiY were uniquely placed to take their free party ethos outside the traditional UK free festival circuit. As Harrison says, “We played Cafe Del Mar in Ibiza six weeks after Castlemorton, that was the unique thing about us. We were part of the Balearic scene, the crusty scene, the club scene, the soundsystem scene. There’s no way Spiral Tribe are going to play at Cafe Del Mar and there’s no way that Brandon Block is going to play at Castlemorton, so that was our unique selling point I guess.”
DiY also ran their successful club night Bounce for five years till the late ‘90s. They toured the country and built a network of Bounce events in major UK cities, their legal endeavours partly subsidising the illegal parties. They also took their events to places like Paris, Ibiza and Amsterdam, to Atlanta, San Francisco and Dallas in the US and to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
And then there were the record labels. DiY put out a strong album in ’93 on Warp Records called ‘Strictly 4 Groovers’ before launching their Strictly 4 Groovers label in the same year. It ran till ’98 when it was replaced by DiY Discs. The Strictly 4 Groovers label featured beautiful mid-‘90s deep house like Crime’s ‘Rhythm Graffiti’ EP, To-Ka’s ‘Keep Pushing’ and ‘Good Together’ by Charles Webster and Pippa Jones as South Central, as well as music from members of DiY. DiY Discs continued in a similar vein with a series of deep releases from artists including Plej, Atjazz, Rhythm Plate, Stacey Kidd and Digs, Woosh and Mr Ski, building a reputation for high-quality underground house music.
However, nothing is static, certainly not in the wild world of clubbing, DJing and promoting. Over the last few years, the crew have met up and put on occasional events, making it all the way to their 25th and then 30th anniversary celebrations, but by the late ‘90s, Harrison says the DiY collective was “Fluctuating — there was quite a lot of addiction, quite a lot of mess, quite a lot of people moving, raising kids and so on…” Perhaps inevitably, real life had begun to infiltrate the dream world of the idealistic DiY. Gradually, parts of the collective moved on and went their separate ways.
Harrison originally wrote the first chapter of what became Dreaming in Yellow 20 years ago and was offered a publishing deal, but abandoned the project. “I’ve been waiting 20 years to write this,” he says. “I started it in ’98 when I had loads of time and no discipline. Then I had two kids and I had loads of discipline and no time.” He eventually finished it, fitting the writing around his job and family and it was speedily snapped up by Velocity Press.
“I just think it’s a fantastic story. We had some right scrapes, some outrageous behaviour, some truly moving moments: it’s just a fucking great story. DiY just never said no. It’s in the book but the core four of us, Digs and Woosh, Simon DK and myself, we did some properly mad shit that makes me shudder when I look back, it was so reckless and lawless. We smashed some police Range Rovers out of the way at a free festival in 1991… I look back now in my mid-fifties and just think, ‘Wow’.
It’s also a historically important story. I get emails every few months from sociology students who want to write about parties and protest in the ‘90s and need a quote. And I’ve not read anything yet that’s properly documented the sheer hedonism of the ‘90s.”
Looking back, now that the dust has well and truly settled on what Harrison refers to as “the intense battleground of the early ‘90s”, DiY’s legacy is perhaps clearer to see. They were a vital link between the traveller/‘crustie’ free parties and the wave of acid house hedonism that swept the country in the late ‘80s. DiY championed collectivism, celebrating the centrality of the group over the individual, pioneering a radically egalitarian approach to parties, where the power of music could change lives.
They set a standard, in terms of their music policy and the quality of their soundsystem but also in their not-for-profit approach — an approach that totally epitomised the very best of the UK house scene. “I meet people now and they say, ‘I came to one of your parties; it changed my life’. Still to this day. I think that’s our legacy,” says Harrison. “The music was vitally important; we thought we could change the world through house music and ecstasy. Maybe we did.”
New footage has been added for the 2026 screening of the film
Photo credit: Michelle Miles, Free Party: A Folk History
The ’90s rave documentary, Free Party: A Folk History, will be available to stream very soon.
The film, which premiered online last May, will be available to watch for 30 days from 21st May through the Eventive platform, and is expected to land on mainstream streaming platforms later this year. New footage has been added for this 2026 version.
Pre-order a stream of Free Party: A Folk History here. A portion of proceeds from the streaming release will be donated to Refugee Community Kitchen, as well to contributors who helped with compiling the archive footage. Remaining profits will go toward future projects.
As well as featuring trailblazing free party collectives such as Spiral Tribe, Circus Warp, and Nottingham’s DiY Sound System, the film packs in never-before-seen footage and socio-political history.
Read our Q&A with Free Party: A Folk History filmmaker Aaron Trinder here.
IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!! After 7½ years in the making — Free Party: A Folk History is going out into the world. 🌍 On May 21st — timed to begin around the 34th anniversary of Castlemorton — we’re launching a 30-day pre-release streaming event via Eventive, running through to the Summer Solstice on June 21st. Pre-sales are open NOW 👉 link in bio We’ve screened 150+ times at festivals worldwide, picked up multiple awards, had incredible support from the Observer, Mixmag, DJ Mag, BBC 6 Music and Irvine Welsh calling it “one of the most important films ever made” — and we’ve done all of it with zero industry backing. Part of any profits from streaming will go to Refugee Community Kitchen and the archive contributors who made this film what it is. Other profits will go towards our next independent film projects. Independent films such as ours are increasingly under threat, as the industry is only interested in commercial documentaries these days, so every share, every recommendation, every conversation is what keeps independent film alive — so please, spread the word 🙏 Thank you for being part of this, your support has meant so much over the years and, well.. It’s been a very long old journey.
Tonight :: Friday 8th May, I am contributing to the Questions and Answers about the film and scene, after the showing …. please come if you can.
Bonington theatre Arnold Leisure Centre High Street Arnold Nottingham NG5 7EE
7.00pm on Friday 8th May
Free Party: A Folk Historyis a major new, independently made, feature documentary following the birth of the free party movement in the late 80s and early 90s and the impact it’s had on our present times. The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new age travellers during Thatcher’s last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton free festival in 1992 – the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.
An ongoing diary of stuff, allsorts, and things wot happen ……
I am a photographer with a special interest to document the lives of travelling people and those attending Festivals, Stonehenge etc, what the press often describe as ‘New Age Travellers’ and many social concerns.
With my photography, I have tried to say something of the wide variety of people engaged in ‘Alternatives’, and youths’ many sub-cultures and to present a more positive view.
I have photographed many free and commercial events and have, in recent years, extended my work to include dance parties (’rave culture’), gay-rights events, environmental direct actions, and protest against the Criminal Justice Act and more recently, issues surrounding the Global Capitalism.
Further, police surveillance has recently become a very important subject for me!
In recognition of this work, received a ‘Winston’ from Privacy International, at the 1998 ‘Big Brother’ Awards. The citation reads: “Alan Lodge is a photographer who has spent more than a decade raising awareness of front-line police surveillance activities, particularly the endemic practice of photographing demonstrators and activists”.
I am based in Nottingham, UK.
Quotes & Thoughts
“Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But, conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance.
In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock!!”
Harry Lime [Orsen Wells] The Third Man 1949
“Civilization will not attain to its perfection, until the last stone from the last church, falls on the last priest.”
Emile Zola
“….I have an important message to deliver to all the cute people all over the world.
If you’re out there and you’re not cute, maybe you’re beautiful, I just want to tell you somethin’- there’s more of us ugly mother-fuckers than you are, hey-y, so watch out now…”
Frank Zappa
