Hi, I know of someone that is thinking about putting on a rave in the UK.
first off don't call it a rave, it's just an outdoor party - if the police hear the word rave it sets off their spidey senses, and they start getting their riot gear out.
Can anyone give me an idea of how the police can be expected to behave?
see above for best case scenario. The main thing is that if they have the numbers there on site already that they think they need to shut it down then they probably will - no point rounding up all the troops just to send them home again, then potentially have to deal with a bigger problem later is their view.
So if they're there with more than 4-6 of them, chances are that you're going to get shut down, and will only get nicked if you argue too much... If you refuse then they may not bust you immediately, but will likely draft in reinforcements / wait for the day shift to show up, then come down in force to teach you who's boss when you're too fucked to deal with it.
If it's over 100 people, I guess it's impossible that the police won't hear about it at some point. Do they always try to shut them down?
no, not always - we did a good 50 odd, had one shut down by 40 riot police (that we didn't get prosecuted for coz we'd done it properly), 1 where the police came down at the end after it had finished, and I ended up getting nicked for it and getting a caution in the end.
Other crews have had it much worse, with rigs impounded, big fines, etc. but IMO some of them have been very naive, others have just pushed it too far / there's been a pre-existing bad history between the police and ravers in the area.
The law has changed since we were first doing them though, and they've closed most of the loopholes we used to use (not actually loopholes as such, we just knew the law and knew how to throw parties inside the law without needing a license... was all a gret area mind)
If enough party goers turn up first is it impossible for them to shut down the rave?
Not exactly - all depends where you do it, if they know about it in advance, what police resources they have, and whether they're getting fuckloads of complaints or not... if does make it harder for them to shut it down if they've not got many police on duty, but then it also makes it much harder for them to ignore, and often if you've ignored them telling you to turn it off during hte night, they'll wait for the day shift to come on duty, keep the night shift on duty for an extra couple of hours so they've got double the number of bodies on duty, then turn up on mass - at which point turning the rig off and packing up immediately is you're only sensible course of action... but they will still probably want someone to take the fall for it (bollocks, forgot to point that out above... you always need to have someone who agrees in advance that if it comes to it, they will take the wrap for it - should be someone with no previous ideally, preferably on the dole - to minimise the size of any fine - and not the rig owner if poss).
What happens in the morning?
see above... always best to either finish totally and pack up around 6-7am, or at least start packing away and turn the rig down - be ready to knock it off at the first site of a fuckload of police on the horizon. It's best anyway to not go on too long as you'll need enoguh people with energy to get the kit packed away etc.
Will they always try to confiscate the rig?
no, not always, usually only if you're arseholes / don't turn it down / off when they say / take the piss... but not always.
If each person at the rave owns only a tiny part of the rig, is it impossible for them to go through all the paperwork?
If they're going to impound the rig, generally they'll just do it and worry about the technicalities later... see the above point about them impounding rigs and keeping them supposedly for evidence purposes.
There is a potential way round this, which we have used successfully, but it was while ago, and others have since had their rigs impounded anyway, so it's defo not a magic get out of jail free card, but still can be useful. Essentially if you hire the rig from a reputable hire company, and don't tell them what it's for - basically dry hire it, tell them it's for a party in a pub or something... and have a hire sheet for it with you, then technically while they would have the right to seize it on the night, they'd have to give it back to the hire company on the monday morning.
this only works if the hire companies van isn't seen at the venue, and their crew aren't there. The reason this should work is that the if the hire company hired the kit to you in good faith, and you then used it illegally, then they shouldn't lose out financially by having their kit impounded. I believe that in the 90's more than one police force got successfully sued for loss of earnings by legit hire companies for rigs that were impounded.
the problem is that this only really works if the police believe that either you or the hire company has the resources and willingness to actually pay for a solicitor to take them to court. It also doesn't work if the same rig's been photographed at several raves, which IMO is where the crews mentioned above have potentially fallen down.
The time we got busted by 40 riot police though this did save the rig, as when the head copper was threatening to impound the rig, I just looked at the rig (10-15k rig on a balcony up a load of rickety stairs), got the hire sheet out, looked at my mate and said 'fair enough, we'll leave you to it then and go to the pub. We'll come and pick it up monday morning' 'er what do you mean', 'well the rigs hired, the hire sheets legit, the company had no idea what we were using it for, so we'll be picking the kit up monday morning' 'erm, well no actually you may as well keep it then'
I've also walked into a police station after a reclaim the streets on the monday morning with a hire sheet and walked out with the rig that had been impounded... they actually gave me the scaffold tripod back as well 'because i keep tripping over it'.
to work though this blag has to be pulled properly with a proper legit hire sheet from a proper legit hire company.
What if alcohol is sold at the rave, does this change anything?
not as much as it used to, but yes it does make it likely any fine would be higher... if you're going to sell alcohol, do it subtly, with no more than a couple of crates behind the decks at any time, and no signs advertising the beers on sale... or just have someone going round selling alcohol from a crate every half hour or so.
Recent precedents? Info much appreciated, TIA.
well most of my experience is from 1998-2005 or so, but we still did a small beach party last year with no bother, and I know of others that have gone off no problem as well... there's also the norfolk experience which has seen several parties ending with full pitched battles with the riot police...
