Free party

After the emergence of Acid House parties in the late 1980s, raves of up to 4,000 attendees were known. These events happened almost every weekend. The noise and disturbance of thousands of people appearing at parties in rural locations, such as Genesis '88, caused outrage in the national media. The British government made the fine for holding an illegal party £20,000 and six months in prison. The Wiltshire Constabulary closed the site to public access the following weekend. The People From Pepperbox went on to organise three subsequent events in 1990, at Barton Stacey airfield in Hampshire, a disused RAF airbase at Sopley in Dorset, and a squatted former pub in Salisbury, deploying guerilla tactics to stay ahead of police and ensure parties remained undetected until they were too large for authorities to stop. On 13 April 1991 one further PFP party was held at a new age travellers' site at Pitton, near Salisbury. The party ended in violence, and led to parliamentary debate discussing new age traveller sites. The Pepperbox free parties are regarded as being the first to combine raves and free festivals, creating the free party. DJs at these pioneering events included Pepperbox organisers DJ Oli and DJ ETC, Bournemouth DJs Justin Harris and Nigel Casey (known as North and South), and latterly, Simon DK and DJ Jack from Nottingham's DiY soundsystem. In the 1990s legal raves began to expand into a global phenomenon. Around 1989-1992 people in a three-day period. The terms free party and squat party have become the predominant terms used to describe an illegal party. Free parties tend to be on the boundaries of law and are discouraged by government authorities, occasionally using aggressive police tactics. Liza 'N' Eliaz was considered a "spiritual leader" in the free party movement in France. ==Typical party==

Free parties are much like other rave parties, with distinctions of free expression, no restrictions, and often free of charge. These events are often held in isolated outdoor venues or abandoned buildings. These locations are away from authorities' attention and avoid public disturbance. Often free parties and squat parties involve (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). Dance music with fast repetitive beats is typical. Each sound system has its own music policy, following and entourage. Popular genres include breakcore, gabba, psy-trance, freetekno, Acid Tekno, Hard Trance and Electro House/Techno, Drum & Bass/Jungle, Hardtek, Tribe, Tribecore and Tekstep. Some parties, now incorporate elements of performance art ("synthetic circus") as well as electronic dance music. Ignoring licensing restrictions, these parties often start after midnight and continue until morning, often longer. Some parties last several days and large teknivals may last a week. Squat parties may have an overt or implied radical left-wing stance. The squat party community embraces autonomous, anarchistic principles, refusing to recognize the right of outside authorities to decide when and how people should congregate. Squat party organizers often eschew capitalistic values by putting on parties which benefit the community and its artists instead of profit. Occasionally, squat parties act as ad-hoc information points where political pamphlets are distributed or petitions signed to raise awareness about (usually left-wing) causes. London's Reclaim the Streets movement brought traffic and commerce to a standstill once a year to draw public attention to inner city problems, and was a highly visible and politicized affiliate of the U.K. squat party scene. Squat parties are events held in squatted venues/occupied properties usually without restrictions allowing people to express themselves freely, just like a free party with the difference that a squat parties are held in unused/abandoned buildings mostly happening in the winter and autumn, when its mostly cold to hold parties outdoors. ==Law and police==

2004 UK Under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 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 an open-air rave during any period of time when a hundred or more people are attending, or where two or more preparing a rave. Section 65 allows any uniformed constable within five miles of a rave and believing a person is on their way to a rave to stop them and direct them away; non-compliant citizens may receive a maximum fine up to level 3 on the standard scale (£1000). The Act was ostensibly introduced because of noise and disruption night parties cause to nearby residents, and to protect the countryside. It has also been claimed A typical justification for allowing a rave to continue is: "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." In August 2006, an unlicensed party organised by united sounds – Aztek, LowKey, One Love, Mission, Illicit, Monolith & Brains-Kan Sound Systems in Essex, England was broken up after 24 hours resulting in approx. 60 injuries from both sides and over 50 arrests. This was one of the largest confrontations between police and unlicensed ravers for many years. The Chief Superintendent in charge of the operation said "These sorts of raves are quite unheard of in this county - I have not seen this sort of violence since the old days of acid house." ==Squat party==

A squat party is a party that takes place either in a disused building (where entry is obtained and the building secured for the party) or in an already existing squat / occupied building. Squat parties are usually advertised either by word of mouth, internet bulletin boards, WhatsApp, Telegram, flyers handed out at other similar events, and through phone lines set up by organizers or the sound system(s) planning the event. This is for security reasons, since organizers 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 café. Squatted buildings are often used as social centres and creative spaces. Most squat parties run for 12 to 24 hours, finishing when the organizers have had enough or when shut down by police. Most large cities in the UK have a squat party scene, with London considered the most active location in the country. Most London squat parties occur in industrial estates or disused warehouses which make ideal venues and a smaller chance of residential noise complaints. The London squat party scene of has recently seen an influx of foreigners, becoming events with attendees from all around the planet. Usually regular attendees bring new attendees, spreading the word. Squat parties have grown in recent decades after the closure of many London night clubs. These closures have been forced by laws and restrictions since 2007. These events often feature police presence, usually on the event and people's safety. Despite most of free parties being unlicensed, they are often allowed to continue while people are safe. Closing these events can risk the safety of party goers and the general public, but they will usually be closed if people are in danger. Squat 'eviction' parties occur when the squatters residing in a building have been given a final date for their eviction, and organize a large party and protest to resist eviction. ==Drugs==

Drugs sale and use is long standing, most commonly MDMA (ecstasy), amphetamine, cocaine, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, cannabis, nitrous oxide, and ketamine. Drugs are easily available at almost all free parties and people often use stimulants to reduce fatigue from hours of dancing, and for the recreational effects. Psychedelics are often used to achieve altered states, especially in psytrance festivals. In early years MDMA was the most common party drug; however ketamine had been increasingly popular in Europe, most noticeably in the London scene, where ketamine has a massive presence. In 2000 ketamine use was mostly isolated to free parties but by 2005 was commonly found in mainstream clubs. In many free-parties, the organisers will have some sort of risk-reduction in place. Often offering earplugs, nose and eye drops, condoms and paper straws for sniffing. This mitigates the damage of risky behaviours, reducing issues like Hepatitis or deafness. Some events have a crisis tent for people in need, who may have overdosed or are tired from dancing for extended periods of time. ==Security==

Due to the drug culture and unregulated environment, security is a problem for many party organisers. Some free party sound systems hire private security at events to keep the crowd safe, but they are not always present. ==Locations==

Typical parties in the London scene range from small parties of a few 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 in places such as the Three Counties, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire & Cambridgeshire as well asBuckinghamshire; all have popular scenes dating pre 1995. Modern parties are usually hosted in Bedford, Norfolk, or London; but Cambridgeshire, Northampton and Suffolk still have a contemporary underground scene, along with Derbyshire, South Yorkshire and South Wales. Outdoor parties are popular all over Wales and the South West and can attract up to a thousand people. Outdoor parties are organised so that noise pollution is not a factor. If the local residents complain then the party is much more at risk of being stopped. In most big cities there is an underground counterculture centred around free parties which are predominantly outdoor parties in the summer and squat parties when it is too cold. Most organisers will try to secure a warehouse, if not they will look for a wooded area to hide themselves and try and soften the music and enjoy the outdoor environment as well as to avoid being discovered by the authorities. ==List of free parties==

The following is an incomplete list of notable free parties: • Castlemorton Common Festival • CzechTek • KaZantip • Love Parade • Street Parade • Fuckparade ==See also==