Free party
A
free party is a party "
free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene. They are typically a
sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night (usually a Saturday) until the organisers decide to go home, which is usually a day or two later. The parties can be thought of as
autonomous zones where all the people present create and enforce the rules. This means that
drugs are readily available and noise levels are usually illegally high. The word
free is not used, in this context, to describe the entry fee but is used to describe the atmosphere, as in free from external laws and restrictions. Having said this, most parties do not ask for money but some (most often indoor events) ask for a
donation on the door to cover costs (e.g. fuel) but these are not
commercial ventures. Motivations for organisers range from
political protest, e.g. free parties were a big feature of the
M11 link road protest, to those that are run by people who just want to have fun. Typically organisers make little profit and even lose money putting them on. The term
free party is used more widely in Europe than in US, in Canada and some parts of Europe they are refereed to as
Freetekno parties.
|
May 2005, UK Tek a large outdoor free party in Wales |
A free party might have once been described as a
rave. The origins of the two are similar but since the birth of the
nightclub in town centres the use of the word rave has fallen out of fashion in Europe.
See also Rave historyAfter the emergence of the
Acid House parties in the late 1980s up to 4 000
[ Timeline and numbers ] people in a three-day period. Moreover, traditional rave paraphernalia, such as facemasks, pacifiers, and glow sticks long ceased to be popular. The term free party and squat party have become the predominant terms used to describe an illegal party.
The term "rave" is still often used to describe an unlicensed party in some parts of the
United Kingdom, particularly the South East - perhaps because larger licensed "rave" events have become less common due to anti-drugs enforcement causing venue owners to be wary of hosting them.Free parties tend to be on the boundaries of law and are strongly discouraged by government authorities, occasionally using aggressive police tactics
.
Free parties are much like other rave parties, their main distinction being that the venue is free to use. The result is that they are often held in isolated outdoor venues or abandoned buildings, where they are also known as squat parties. If the building has a power source that is used but if not then the organisers will use generators.
They often also involve a lot of (mostly illegal) dance
drug use. The music played at free parties is very bass heavy. It is for this reason that they are usually held in isolated venues or places where
police interference is unlikely, such as protected
squatting residences (particularly in the
UK, where police used not to be able to enter a squat easily
).
The types of
music played are usually various forms of dance music with fast repetitive beats, but, due to the lack of a commercial interest, the genre chosen is often far from popular main-stream tastes and is decided purely by the tastes of the
DJs who play for the
sound systems putting the event on. Each sound system has its own music policy, following and entourage. The current trend is towards
breakcore and
gabba or, in another musical direction,
psy-trance but many sound systems still play traditional
techno. Some parties in England now incorporate elements of performance art ("synthetic circus") as well as electronic dance music.
Due to the lack of licensing restrictions, these parties often start after midnight and continue through the night until morning, often longer. Parties lasting several days are not uncommon; some large
teknivals can go on for a week.
Missing laws regulating free parties outside the UK, see Talk:Free partyUK
Under the
Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 where the definition of music played at a rave was given as:
Sections 63, 64 & 65 of the Act targeted
electronic dance music played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered
police to stop a rave in the open air when a hundred or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave. Section 65 allows any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a five-mile radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; noncompliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the
standard scale (£1 000). The Act was ostensibly introduced because of the noise and disruption caused by all night parties to nearby residents, and to protect the countryside. It has also been claimed that it was introduced to kill a popular youth movement that was taking many drinkers out of town centres drinking on taxable alcohol and into fields to take untaxed
drugs.
The number of people attending and organising such an event for it to be deemed illegal were altered in the
Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 section 58 to cover indoor parties and outdoor parties of more than 20 people. It is also a crime if, within 24 hours of being told by a police officer to leave a rave, a person makes preparations to attend a rave.
More recently in the United Kingdom,
Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) have been used against unlicensed rave organisers if the
police receive repeated complaints about noise and littering from locals.
Despite these laws, free parties continue to exist. They do so in a number of ways. They can be small (with fewer than 100 people) and remote so that it is unlikely to cause distress to the local residents. If the police find out about the party and turn up it is rarely worth the use of resources and time to attempt to arrest people and seize equipment. It would cause all the people at the rave to leave without giving them time to tidy up and potentially still incapable of driving safely. The other way free parties continue is to be large enough to make breaking them up difficult. When there are more than 500 or so people then there is a potential for a riot.
A typical police response to why a rave was not stopped,"officers had decided not to stop the rave because they had only received one complaint about noise and the amount of resources needed to stop it would not be justified."
A
squat party is a
party that takes place either in a disused building (broken into and secured for the party) or in an already existing
squat.
Squat parties are usually advertised either by
word of mouth, postings on internet
bulletin boards,
flyers handed out at other similar events and through
phone lines set up by the
sound system(s) organising the event. This is for
security reasons, since the organisers do not want the authorities finding out about them and trying to stop them. Other events might be much smaller acoustic nights run more like a cafe. Squatted buildings are often used as social centres and creative spaces for people to use.
Most squat parties usually run for 12 to 24 hours, finishing when the organisers have had enough or if they are shut down by
police. Most large cities in the UK have a squat party scene but London and Bristol are the most active cities by some extent. The majority of London squat parties occur in mainly industrial sectors e.g. East London, as abandoned warehouses make ideal venues and a smaller chance of residential noise complaints. The London squat party scene of recent years has seen an influx of European travellers, largely from the East, where there is also a large rave culture, for example events such as
Czechtek.
Squat parties are typically either free or charge a small
donation on the door. Typically the organisers also try to make additional money through selling
alcohol inside.
Squat '
eviction' parties occur when the squatters residing in a building have been given a final date for their
eviction, and as a final act of resistance organise a large scale party and protest in order to try and withstand the
police or
bailiffs.
Drugs sale and use is long standing and accepted, especially
ecstasy,
cannabis,
LSD and
ketamine. Drugs are available at almost all free parties and people find that using them and dancing to bass heavy music all night long to go hand in hand. Most of the party goers take the drugs to be free from their day to day grind and to have a good time. This leads to parties being filled with people all looking to have fun so serious problems are rare compared to alcohol fuelled town centres.
In early years 'uppers' such as
MDMA were the most common drugs taken at parties, however over the last fifteen years there has been a steady increase in the popularity of
ketamine as the drug of choice for party-goers, most noticeably in the London
acid techno scene, where ketamine has a massive presence and has been said by some
to have spoiled the atmosphere found at earlier parties. Since 2000 ketamine has crossed over from being almost entirely a drug found in the free party scene to one commonly found in mainstream clubs as well
.
Note: There are people involved in the rave scene who are
straight edge, though they're rare
.
Due to the drug culture and unregulated environment, security has become a problem for many party organisers. Some free party sound systems hire private security at events but security is only an issue in squat parties or very urban outdoor events. Outdoor parties have very little trouble.
Parties become autonomous zones, with self policing and control being established by all attendance. If people make trouble calling the police is not an option so sometimes the music is stopped and the trouble makers are simply told by all the party goers to leave.
Typical parties in the London scene range from small parties with a couple of hundred people up to huge multi-riggers involving a thousand or more people. The number of sound systems involved also varies - small parties may have just one or two sound systems, larger parties may have anything up to 20 or more, including several "link-ups" where two or more sound systems will combine their rigs into a single large system.
Although London is the central location for squat parties they exist outside the capital. Outdoor parties are popular all over Wales and can attract up to a thousand people. Outdoor parties must be organised so that
noise pollution is not a factor. If the local residents complain then the party is much more at risk at being stopped. In most big cities there is a underground
counterculture centred around free parties which are predominantly outdoor parties in the summer and squat parties when it is too cold.
*
Freetekno*
Czechtek*
Rave party*
Teknival*
List of free party sound systems*
Partyvibe Free party resource.
*
Fantazia Free Party information - Reveiws of Castlemorten etc.
*
Squatjuice online bulletin board about the free party/ squatting culture.
