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81-565: Spiral Tribe is an arts collective and free party sound system formed in 1990. It organised free parties , festivals and raves in the UK and later Europe in the 1990s. Spiral Tribe was involved in the Castlemorton Common Festival , and members have released music on labels such as Network 23 and Big Life Records . The sound system combined pagan beliefs with New Age traveller culture and rave to form teknivals . After

162-446: A crust punk . Sound systems gather on the site and play varied types of electronic music. Along with each sound system come friends and travellers so most teknivals have a multicultural atmosphere. The parties can last for several days or even weeks. Teknivals are organised by the sound system community using underground methods such as word of mouth , answerphone messages, flyer (pamphlet) and internet discussion boards . Normally

243-518: A rave , and the origins of the two are similar. Since the birth of nightclubs in town centres in Europe the use of the word rave had largely fallen out of fashion; however, in recent times it is increasingly being used again. The term squat party defines the free parties with secret indoor locations. The address is obtained on the day of the event personally from organizers as the buildings are squatted . The parties often last over 24 hours. After

324-444: A JCB through a wall to enter the party. In May 1992, the free party circuit moved up a gear and attendances increased heavily. At the beginning of the month, Spiral Tribe joined DiY Sound System and Circus Warp at Lechlade , Gloucestershire. This would reach its peak by the end of May with the Castlemorton Common Festival which became a huge party as an unintended consequence of the police preventing New Age travellers heading for

405-516: A drug found in the free party scene to one commonly found in mainstream clubs as well. 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

486-443: A hiatus, the collective reformed as SP23 in 2011 and continues to organise events. Spiral Tribe formed as a sound system in 1990, organising free parties in the UK. Between 1990 and 1992, the collective organised or were involved in over 30 free parties, raves, and festivals in indoor and outdoor locations. The three founding members of Spiral Tribe/SP23 were Mark Harrison, Debbie Griffith and Simone Feeney. According to Harrison,

567-441: A large scale party and protest in order to try to withstand the police or bailiffs . Drugs sale and use is long standing and accepted, 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 the fatigue resulting from dancing for many hours, as well as for

648-450: A number of ways. They can be small (with fewer than 100 people) and remote so that they are 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 to attempt to arrest people and seize equipment. The people at the rave would then have to leave without having time to tidy up and potentially still incapable of driving safely. The other way free parties continue

729-589: A rave at the then derelict Roundhouse venue in Camden, London, which lasted for a week. The building had previously been used for an All Night Rave in the 1960s. Spiral Tribe organised a warehouse rave in Acton Lane, west London on 19 April 1992 (Easter Sunday). The Metropolitan Police decided to shut down the party and since the doors were barricaded, the Territorial Support Group drove

810-653: A rave but prospective five venues were all shut down. It then organised a rave at Canada Square beside the then half-built Canary Wharf tower in June 1992, which was attended by 1,000 before being stopped. After participants were eventually acquitted of all charges relating to Castlemorton in March 1993, half of the group moved to Europe shortly afterwards, doing parties in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. In Berlin, Spiral Tribe made their base at Kunsthaus Tacheles with

891-662: A remote hillside near Brecon, Wales at an abandoned pub called The Drovers Arms, that is used by the MOD as a training location. In 2010 UK Tek was at Dale Aerodrome in Pembrokeshire, Wales again with approximately 2,500 attendees and police forced most people off site by the Sunday. In 2015 it took place in Lincolnshire at an old airfield that had been used in the past for raves. Police closed down soundsystems one by one, until

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972-721: A secret one". Creating temporary autonomous zones through squatting venues, the collective could set the volume as high as it wanted and drug use was not restricted. The DVD World Traveller Adventures (named after the Spiral Tribe track "World Traveller Adventurer") includes films about Spiral Tribe and other sound systems such as OQP, Desert Storm, Teknocrates and Sound Conspiracy, tracking how they organised parties in places such as Carcassonne, Oxford, Sarajevo, Sheffield and Tarnos. It also tracks overground journeys to Mali and Goa. In 2019, Seana Gavin put on an exhibition in Paris about

1053-419: A shaved head (or a combination of the above). Body piercings and tattoos are common. People often buy large vehicles second-hand such as decommissioned buses , coaches or trucks. The vehicles are often primarily homes, lived in permanently or for a few months while travelling. They are also used to transport sound equipment. The tekno traveller is generally known as a mix between a New Age traveller and

1134-571: A single large system. Although London is the central location for squat parties , they exist outside the capital and places such as Three Counties Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire & Cambridgeshire also Buckinghamshire 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

1215-654: A sustainable environment of community relations. In themselves such events can be seen as a political statement of self-organisation at a distance from the State. Clashes with the police have mobilised some people to action against laws which would prohibit self-organisation and gathering to enjoy teknivals. These clashes date back to the 1980s (when teknivals were arguably indistinguishable from UK Orbital raves, summer acid house parties, UK traveller gatherings, Stonehenge pagan events, early tribal gatherings, trance parties in Goa, India and

1296-559: A teknival at Marigny-le-Grand in Marne in 2005, one from a cocktail of alcohol and drugs, the other from an allergic reaction to a caterpillar. In France teknivals began in 1993. The May Day teknival at Fontainebleau near Paris was attracting 60-80,000 people by the late 1990s and in 2004 over 110,000 with over 200 sound systems. Eventual amendments to the public safety laws, the Loi sur la Securité Quotidienne, were passed in 2002 (known as

1377-400: 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 also to avoid being discovered by the authorities. The following is an incomplete list of notable free parties: "VIKE MINDED" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vike_minded Teknival Teknivals are a larger scale version of free parties and emerged in

1458-401: 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

1539-415: 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

1620-478: Is important to differentiate the techno played in clubs and that is nowadays mainstream, from the tekno with a ´´K´´played in freeparties. Some parties in England, but also across Europe such as in the Netherlands, 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

1701-591: 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 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

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1782-669: 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. Each sound system has its own music policy, following and entourage. The breakcore , gabba , psy-trance , freetekno , Acid Tekno, Hard Trance and Electro House/Techno, Drum & Bass/Jungle, Hardtek, Tribe, Tribecore, Tekstep genres are all played. It

1863-518: The free party movement in France. 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 does not have a power source, the organisers use generators. Often free parties involve a lot of (mostly illegal) dance drug use. The music played at free parties

1944-673: 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

2025-551: The Mutoid Waste Company . Over the next few years, the collective organised parties and teknivals throughout Europe, then it slowly dispersed with some members taking up residence in Germany and the Netherlands and releasing work on Labworks and many other techno labels. Individual members of the collective joined other sound systems such as Facom Unit, Sound Conspiracy and Total Resistance. Spiral Tribe also toured

2106-508: The concepts of raves and free festivals combined to create a new cultural entity: 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 who had travelled to attend

2187-584: The "Mariani Law" named after politician Thierry Mariani ) in which free parties became linked with terrorism. Like the UK’s Criminal Justice Act, this effectively criminalized large free festivals and increased police powers to prevent these events. Legitimate teknivals, now dubbed "Sarkovals" after Nicolas Sarkozy (formerly the Minister of the Interior and President) would require permission from

2268-542: The 21 hour duration of the party. In the Czech Republic, Czechtek was held annually from 1994. In 2005, police and 5,000 party-goers clashed resulting in 30 injured ravers and 50 injured police officers. There is also Czarotek (held annually in spring). When Czechtek has been discontinued after the event at Hradiště Military Area in 2006, more smaller open free parties are held through all the year. Czech travellers like Circus Alien, Strahov or Vosa continued to spread

2349-496: 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 during any period of time, day or night 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

2430-556: The Ministry of Interior, not the Ministry of Culture (with whom the commercial ventures seeking official status must deal) indicating that they are largely not cultural but security concerns. In May 2019, unexpectedly cold weather affected a teknival attended by 10,000 people in the Creuse department in central France. Thirty people were treated for hypothermia as the temperature dropped to −3 °C (27 °F; 270 K). In 2002,

2511-499: The Ministry. However, while regulatory interventions have inaugurated the institutionalization and commercialization of a scene rooted in an autonomous vibe, the parties continued. A legal party near Chambéry drew 80,000 ravers. Sound systems were occasionally seized at illegal parties, for example at Bouafles in 2009 and Saint-Martin-de-Crau in 2011. Currently French law permits free parties with 500 people or under (subject to no noise complaints), and while Prefets generally refuse

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2592-477: The Peace , an album Tekno Terra , as well as a compilation. The track "Breach the Peace" included samples of police officers talking about Castlemorton. Members of Spiral Tribe also released records on their own label Network 23 . In 1997, Techno Import, a French commercial distributor, compiled a CD entitled Spiral Tribe: The Sound of Teknival . The CD was released without any consent from members of Spiral Tribe,

2673-612: The Salisbury area. They used different pseudonyms , including Inner Temple, The Fools On The Hill and The Leyline Lunatics, but ultimately became known as the People From Pepperbox or PFP. Initially small scale affairs, the parties grew in size during August as word spread to clubbers in Bournemouth and Southampton . By the end of August, people were attending from across the UK. The final party on Pepperbox Hill

2754-490: 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

2835-598: The Streets and Carnivals Against Capital of the 1990s that led up to and beyond the Seattle WTO protests (and subsequent "anti-globalization" events) drew from teknival and rave organisation and culture, often involving many of the same organisers and cross-section of the population. As occurs with many subcultures, a dress code has developed. This 'underground look' involves dark, baggy clothing (often ex-military) and extreme haircuts, such as dyed hair, dreadlocks or

2916-607: The UK after the Castlemorton rave. Fleeing the numerous fines they were facing from the English government, they went to France, where they organized the first major festival outside the United Kingdom ;: Frenchtek, which is still held illegally every year. By the early 2000s, the term "rave" had fallen out of favour among some people in the electronic dance music community, particularly in Europe. Although

2997-459: The UK have a squat party scene with London considered the most active location in the country. 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

3078-662: The UK party was held in London in April 2013 at Village Underground club; the lineup was Crystal Distortion, 69DB, Ixindamix, Jeff23, Meltdown Mickey, the Bad Girlz and Sirius. Since then, SP23 have hosted across Europe. Members of SP23 are Mark (a.k.a. Stray Wayward), Debbie (a.k.a. Feenix13), David (a.k.a. Dave808), Simone (a.k.a. Sim Simmer), Meltdown Mickey, Simon (a.k.a. Crystal Distortion), Sebastian (a.k.a. 69db), Ixindamix, Jeff 23, Max Volume and Charlie Kane. Jeff 23 and Simone formed

3159-759: The USA in the late 1990s. Spiral Tribe became an influential pioneer of the teknival and free party scene in western Europe and north America. It forged a new techno-punk identity out of rave and New Age traveller culture, which brought in pagan influences. Members of the collective promoted the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin . The music of Spiral Tribe inspired other sound systems such as Desert Storm, Teknocrates, Nomades, OQP and Psychiatrik. Low and Barnett opine in Spaces of Democracy that "Spiral Tribe, with their free and inclusive parties, succeeded in constituting an alternative public space, rather than just

3240-459: The aim is not to make profit. However, at some (most often indoor) events it is requested at the door to make a donation to cover costs. Typically organisers make little profit or make a loss setting them up. The term free party is used more widely in Europe than in the US. In Canada and some parts of Europe they are also referred to as Freetekno parties. A free party might have once been described as

3321-531: The annual Avon Free Festival. Thirteen members of Spiral Tribe were arrested immediately after the event and subsequently charged with public order offences. Their trial became one of the longest-running and most expensive cases in British legal history, lasting four months and costing the UK £4 million. Spiral Tribe first use the slogan "Make some fucking noise" on t-shirts which they wore in the court room. The judge ordered them to remove these garments. However, when

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3402-971: The applications now required for free parties with over 500 people, through constant negotiations with the Ministry of Interior since the August 2002 teknival on the French/Italian frontier at Col de l’Arches where sound crews set up rigs inside the Italian border facing the party goers in France, the French Government have reluctantly allowed up to three large teknivals each year, even though they are technically unauthorized events. Teknivals also take place outside legal festivals such as Printemps de Bourges , Transmusicales in Rennes or Borealis in Montpellier. Teknival negotiators deal directly with

3483-575: The area; non-compliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1000). 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 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

3564-610: The centre of London Docklands in April 2010 outside and inside with 23 rigs in attendance. 2006 saw a teknival occur in Camelford, Cornwall at Davidstow abandoned airfield. Approximately 2,500 people attended and it was eventually clamped down on by the police three days after it began. UK Tek 2008 took place in a moorland quarry above Rochdale in north Manchester resulting in a significant police response, including attacking ravers with batons. Dog units, mounted police, and police in full riot gear attended. The UK Tek in 2009 took place on

3645-436: The community and its artists instead of to turn a profit. Occasionally, squat parties act as ad-hoc information points where political pamphlets are distributed or petitions signed in order to raise awareness about a variety of causes, usually of a left-wing nature. London's Reclaim the Streets movement, which brought traffic and commerce to a standstill once a year in an attempt to draw public attention to inner city problems,

3726-540: The early 1990s, when acid house parties and travellers in Great Britain became the target of political repression, culminating in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 . Section 63 of the Act gave the police new powers to close down illegal parties. Sound systems then started travelling to countries in Europe where laws were less restrictive and the authorities were uncertain how to stop

3807-536: The early nineties to a more anarchist version of a party. Some communities preferred the term "festival", while others simply referred to "parties". With less constrictive laws allowing raves to continue long after the United Kingdom tried to ban them, more anarchic raves continue to occur in Central Europe and France, where the law says there can be only 4 teknivals per year (2 in the south, 2 in

3888-523: The emergence of the Acid House parties in the late 1980s up to 4,000 people were known to attend a rave. 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 . Police crackdowns on these often-illegal parties drove

3969-480: The female defendants revealed that they wore nothing underneath their T-shirts, the judge reversed his instructions, something quite rare in UK courts. Regarding Castlemorton, Nigel South states that "the adverse publicity attending the event laid the groundwork for the Criminal Justice Act 1994 ". Police pressure on the collective was increasing. The week after Castlemorton, Spiral Tribe tried to put on

4050-567: The festivals. One of the most famous of these sound systems was Spiral Tribe , which was at the forefront of the free party movement in Europe. Other systems were called Bedlam, Circus Normal, Circus Warp and Vox Populi. Desert Storm sound system organised teknivals in France and Spain and brought raves to war-torn Sarajevo , Bosnia, in 1996. At one party the front-line was 10 kilometres away and they were asked to turn off their lights in case they attracted enemy fire. While some teknivals are one-off events, most take place every year on or around

4131-465: The first raves began setting up promotion companies in each region to organize their own parties. This happened on a grassroots basis. By the mid-1990s, major corporations were sponsoring events and adopting the scene's music and fashion for their advertising. After sensational coverage in the tabloids, culminating in a particularly large rave (near Castlemorton ) in May 1992, the government acted on what

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4212-414: The flyer states that the party is an open invitation, thus any artist who turns up can play music. The emphasis is on a DIY ethic . As well as local sound systems, who might act as the hosts, larger sound systems can spend the summer travelling from one teknival to the next before returning to their home country for the winter. Despite public perceptions, drug deaths at parties are rare. Two people died at

4293-615: The group Artists in Action in order to raise money to support refugees by releasing compilation albums. In 1992, some members of the collective signed to the major label Big Life Records , as a result of the publicity generated from their involvement in the organisation of the Castlemorton Common Festival. Three EPs were released with them enjoying short crossover success with Forward the Revolution and Breach

4374-535: The implementation of the TAZ. However this has not stopped various groups from claiming the teknival and rave culture in general as the implementation of the TAZ. French ravers reached out to José Bové to make a political alliance but were rebuffed. At the teknival site one finds a mixed group of young people which may include students, tekno travellers, squatters and hippies, bonded together by their love for listening to free tekno 'sous les etoiles' (translation: 'under

4455-407: The legacy of Spiral Tribe and then released a book called Spiralled . A documentary entitled Free Party: A Folk History was announced in 2021 which included interviews with members of Spiral Tribe. In 2011, several of the original members of Spiral Tribe reformed as SP23, a creative collective involved in a number of grassroots and community projects as well as still organising parties. A return to

4536-532: The like) and have continued to be part of teknival life. In April 2006 there was a march followed by a small teknival in Strasbourg, France to protest against police repression generally and more specifically against the closure of Czechtek in 2005. During the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act in the UK, various large-scale protests took place during daylight and in public. The Reclaim

4617-486: The music can be characterised by being more underground than the music heard in clubs and at commercial parties, although some sound systems might specialise in a certain subgenre. The music is played by DJs playing vinyl records and Mp3 files on a computer . Livesets are also frequently played using a variety of equipment: keyboards , drum machines , guitar effects pedals , MIDI controller and computers . At early teknivals, sound systems would play until either no-one

4698-440: The name Spiral Tribe came to him when he was at work, staring at a poster of the interconnecting spirals in an ammonite shell. The number 23, which is associated with Spiral Tribe, was introduced by Harrison. Despite allusions to the number having been used by Psychic TV and Robert Anton Wilson , he stated that it "had nothing to do with any pre-existing individual, group or subculture". On New Year's Eve 1991, Spiral Tribe held

4779-475: The night until morning, often longer. Parties lasting several days are not uncommon; some large teknivals can go on for a week. Squat parties have an overt or implied radical left-wing stance. The squat party community embraces autonomous, anarchistic principles by refusing to recognize the right of any third-party authority to decide when and how people should congregate. Squat party organizers also eschew capitalistic values by putting on parties which benefit

4860-408: The north). In France the larger teknivals can attract up to 30 000 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

4941-416: 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

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5022-502: The organisers will have some sort of risk-reduction in place. Often offering earplugs, nose and eye drops, condoms and paper straws for sniffing. They will do this knowing that people will consume drugs anyways, so they decide to prevent issues like Hepatitis or deafness. In some cases they will also have a tent to tend to people in need, who have either consumed too many drugs or are tired from dancing for extended periods of time. Since 2000 ketamine has crossed over from being almost entirely

5103-413: The parties remained undetected until they were too large to be stopped by the authorities. 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 of their kind, as they represented the first time that

5184-472: The party becomes a festival, it becomes a teknival . The word free in this context is used both to describe the entry fee and the lack of restrictions and law enforcement. Motivations for organisers range from political protest to simply wanting to have fun. An example of free parties as political protest was their prominence during the M11 link road protest . At most parties no money is asked for entrance since

5265-537: 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

5346-520: The rave, but did not have the resources available to disperse such a large crowd of people. A police helicopter was used throughout the bank holiday weekend to monitor the actions on the ground. Late on Tuesday evening, rave attendees were still seen at the location cleaning up the majority of litter left behind. In April 2022, an Easter Teknival took place in East Lulworth, Dorset. News sources claim that over 1000 revellers were in attendance over

5427-419: The recreational effects. While psychedelics are often used to achieve altered states of consciousness, especially in psy trance festivals. In early years MDMA was the most common drug taken at parties; however, over the last ten years there has been a steady increase in the popularity of ketamine in Europe, most noticeably in the London scene, where ketamine has a massive presence. In many free-parties,

5508-616: The remaining system had the majority of ravers around it, and resisted Police lines and forced them to back down. 2017 UK Tek took place in Wales near Sennybridge, Brecon. In May 2018, a UK Tek was organised near to the Welsh town of Brechfa in Carmarthenshire . The rave started at midnight on Saturday with the music not finishing until late Monday evening. Approximately 4,000 people were in attendance. South Wales Police were aware of

5589-755: The same date; the biggest, such as the ones in France or Czech Republic , can attract up to 100,000 visitors (2003, France). Just as the word 'teknival' was formed by merging the words 'tekno' and 'festival', teknivals in different countries are referred to by abbreviated names, such as the aforementioned Czechtek , Frenchtek (North France) and also Poltek (Poland), Slovtek (Slovakia), Southtek (South Germany), Bulgariatek (Bulgaria), Rotek (Romania) Helltek (Greece, Hellas in Greek), AlbaniaTek (Albania), Dutchtek (Netherlands), Easttek (East Germany), U-Tek (Ukraine), Northtek (Canada) and Occitek ( Occitania , South France). NorthTek

5670-597: The scene into the countryside. These weekend parties occurred at various locations outside the M25 Orbital motorway and attracted up to 25 000. Sound systems from this time include Spiral Tribe and DiY . In August and September 1990 a series of unlicensed free parties took place on Pepperbox Hill , just outside Salisbury , in South Wiltshire . The parties were organised by a loose collective of new age travellers , squatters and anarchists based in

5751-422: The stars') - as an early flyer proclaimed. It is usually the perception that there is no "coherent" politics or philosophical stance represented by the teknival subculture, mainly due to the fact that emphasis is placed on individual freedom. Many young teknival goers are disillusioned with mainstream politics. Nevertheless, the parties themselves require complex collective organisation and, in order to be successful,

5832-527: The tenth anniversary of the legendary Castlemorton rave was celebrated at Steart Beach, where around 16,000 people turned up over the course of the weekend. In 2005, there was a UK Tek in Wales and also a teknival known as Scumtek that happened twice in London. The first Scumtek was stopped by the police. However a further four events have taken place under the Scumtek name, three of which were squats with teknival rig numbers, and Scumtek 3 which took place in

5913-559: The terme "rave" is still used quite a bit in North America to describe EDM events. The Freetekno movement is not nearly as present in North America, except some parts of Quebec. Many Europeans identify themselves as "clubbers" rather than ravers. The term 'free party' has been used for sometime and can be seen on the Spiral Tribe video 'Forward the Revolution' in 1992. It tried to disconnect raves from big commercial events of

5994-533: The vibe to various countries across Europe such as Bulgaria (from 2003), Romania, Spain, Poland or Ukraine (from 2006). Bulgariatek began in 2003 and takes place annually in early August, usually somewhere on the Black Sea coast. The first noise complaint occurred in 2017 in Shkoprilovtsi and made the local authorities surprisingly notice that a teknival had been taking place on the beach every year for

6075-418: Was advertised on television and sold an estimated 30,000 copies. Free party A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the free festival movement . It typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one system or of many and if

6156-438: 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 ravers that had occurred at an unlicensed event for many years. The Chief Superintendent in charge of the police 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." A squat party

6237-406: Was depicted as a growing menace. In 1994, the United Kingdom 's Criminal Justice Bill passed as the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 which contained several sections designed to suppress the growing free party and anti-road protest movements (sometimes embodied by ravers and travellers ). This led to the expansion of the movement mainly due to the collective named Spiral Tribe, who fled

6318-691: Was held on Crown Land in Ontario . Since a teknival can last a week or longer, many musical styles will be represented. The music which grew in tandem with teknivals was free tekno , which is characterised by heavy, repetitive kick drums and is normally about 180 bpm . The DJs and party goers are unconcerned by musical boundaries, so a lot of different, mostly electronic, music is played and performed. Most sound systems play styles such as acid techno , hardcore , frenchcore , electro , techno , jungle music , raggacore , skullstep , neurofunk , breakcore , schranz and speedcore . Instead of focusing on genre,

6399-518: Was held on 1 September 1990. with Wiltshire Constabulary closing the site off from public access the following weekend. The People From Pepperbox then went on to organise three subsequent events in 1990, at Barton Stacey airfield in Hampshire, a disused RAF airbase at Sopley in Dorset, and at a squatted former pub in Salisbury , deploying guerilla tactics to stay ahead of the police and ensure

6480-454: Was itself a highly visible and politicized affiliate of the U.K. squat party scene. Squat parties are occasionally held for the sole purpose of fund-raising, usually for humanitarian causes. Under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 the definition of music played at a rave was given as: "music" includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats. Sections 63, 64 & 65 of

6561-593: Was left dancing or the diesel ran out in the generator . Anyone is welcome to enter the site, there is no ticket or fee. Normally any artist who turns up is encouraged to participate. Over the course of a few days, the site can grow into a village of sound systems, cafes, tents and vehicles. The teknival is often regarded as an example of what Hakim Bey has termed the Temporary Autonomous Zone , though in interviews Bey has professed that rave culture's interest in technology remains problematic for

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