High club prices and contempt for star DJs bring new era of ‘free parties’
Patrick Barkham
Saturday July 16, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1529653,00.html
It is a scene straight out of the early 90s: the whispered word goes out, DJs arrive with generators and speakers, cars queue along muddy tracks in woods, and hundreds of people dance in the fields until dawn.
They used to be called raves and were killed off by superclubs, drug scares and the Criminal Justice Act 1994. But a new breed of free parties is making a comeback this summer, attracting older ravers and a younger generation of clubbers turned off by superstar DJs and soaring club prices.
Those who attend the secretive parties in the countryside say they are relaxed, safe and well-organised. But for local people disturbed by the free parties, they are still illegal raves.
Short-staffed rural police seem unable to stop them and residents complain they have been kept awake or had property damaged by the parties.
The forests and fields of East Anglia are an unlikely hotspot for free parties, with several taking place in the region most weekends. Norfolk police have logged 15 “unlicensed music events” since March 1.
The free party scene is built around rigs, self-contained groups who provide DJs, diesel generators, sound and lighting systems, and even marquees. Organisers bring rigs together, spreading the word via frequently changed mobile phone numbers to evade police detection.
Up to 2,000 people gather at the hurriedly arranged site, usually after 11pm. DJs from different rigs play hard house and trance music into the following afternoon.
Paul Wilkerson, 28, the owner of Red Pill Records in Kings Lynn and a hard house DJ with club residencies across East Anglia, plays the free party scene. He believes it is more popular than ever this year because of relatively few underground club nights outside London and exorbitant prices at commercial clubs.
“Most of the underground music has gone back to London,” he says. “A lot of people don’t want to travel to London and pay club prices to get in. When they can pay a £2 donation towards the cost of a rig it’s much better.
Daniel Price, a student from Kings Lynn, regularly goes to free parties in Norfolk. “It’s more like a group of friends,” he says. “When you turn up you probably know 50% of the people there – that’s why you feel relaxed. There’s a lot of respect. I’m only 19 but you see people there who are 40 and they respect who you are.
“You think it would be quite heavy but it’s mellow and chilled. You don’t see people passed out on the floor. You don’t get stupid young girls who drink too much that you get in commercial clubs. They cause the trouble, they cause the fights. You get that in Lynn way too much.”
Free party organisers claim they often have farmers’ permission, or use land with no agricultural use. According to Mr Wilkerson, there is a strict code whereby revellers help clear up rubbish before they leave.
“The organisers clear up and everyone chips in because they want it to happen again. At dawn you’ll see everyone with a beer can in one hand and a bin bag in the other.”
But local people disturbed by the unlicensed parties are rarely complimentary about them. Last month villagers in Tivetshall, Norfolk, called the police at 3am when they were woken by a free party. To their distress, officers did nothing to close it down and it did not finish until 2pm.
Richard Bacon, the MP for South Norfolk, and Martin Wilby, a local councillor, met Carole Howlett, Norfolk’s chief constable, yesterday to discuss how to stop the parties. Mr Wilby said the Tivetshall rave organisers had committed criminal damage, breaking a gate to enter a wildlife area, but had left the fields “surprisingly tidy”, apart from a couple of bottles and human excrement.
“There were five or six police on duty in south Norfolk that night,” he said. “They talked to people at the rave and decided they didn’t want any confrontation and let it run its course. What I’d like to see is the organisers being arrested or their equipment confiscated so they can’t do it again. If the police don’t want confrontation, fair enough, but why not confiscate it at the end of the rave?”
According to Superintendent Bob Scully of Norfolk police, officers have “strong” powers under the 1994 act, including the power to confiscate equipment, but it is sometimes difficult to prove that an event breaks that particular law.
Supt Scully said he did not believe there was an increase in illegal raves – with police recording 50 in Norfolk last year – but said officers had “increased their interest” in the events.
“We recognise the distress that it causes to people who wish to have peaceful pursuits in the countryside and we recognise the distress it causes landowners and local people,” he said.
Norfolk police are investigating a number of free party organisers with a view to prosecuting them. Supt Scully dismissed claims the organisers acted responsibly. “If you get 300 cars and 600 people gathering in a site of special scientific interest, how can you say you are being responsible?,” he asked. “It’s insulting to the local local communities to suggest that.”
