I spent the best part of saturday evening and well into sunday morning having a great time throwing shapes and having a bloody good time and all for nothing. Free parties are not a new thing but they play such an important role not just for having a good time but showing how people can go out and take control of there own entertainment. They also give you back the right to enjoy yourself where you like and how you like, within reason.
Dancing and partying in the trees is a great experience but it’s also a shame that they need to be so discreet. The last thing we want to do is upset the middle class eh!! What I get annoyed at is the fact that many are stopped or never take place due to the location being not suitable for no other reason than somebody will complain. But what is the complaint? noise? or is it the fact that a group of people are having a good time but nobody is making any money out of it?
People also object to a lack of control and order even though there is hardly ever any bad feeling at these events. Also there can be no objection to lack of care for the environment or litter as mostly the people who put on these events are normally a lot more concerned with the environment than your local night club owner. I have yet to see a night club manager cleaning up puke and kebabs from the streets outside their club.
Having a good time should never cost you a penny.
The Kale Yard 
That sounds reasonable, but surely it’s not as simple as that? Not everyone is as careful of the environment as you say. In the first 23 weekends of this year, there were 19 raves in Norfolk, and some of them attracted 1000 or so people. At one National Trust property, a nature trail was set alight and a load of rubbish, including drug paraphernalia and human shit, was left behind. The good time being had by the partygoers may not have cost them anything, but it cost the landowner for the clearup.
True there are always people who will not care about their environment, this happens all over, in the wild and in the city.
Walking in the Lake district there is often a lot of rubbish left by those who claim to be there to experience the beauty.
thanks for the honest comment though.
And thanks for your reply. I love your blog and respect what you do – glad you didn’t take the comment personally.
I don’t like free parties. I don’t like anything to do with parties as they just insult my intelligence. I’m from a lower class up bringing and feel that most people seem to think that I was born to party, but i wasn’t. I hate parties and feel that most people who go to them are irresponsible socialites who have no care for this world.
So whens the next one Antont??
I’d love a free party and I reckon that Bolts having one at his house very soon….. 🙂
I have this vivid image of being in East Berlin on a Summer’s night. They’d hauled the sofa and some chairs out into the street and they were just sitting there, drinking, laughing, one guy playing his guitar in the background. I wished I could join in, but we kept on walking.
this is probably too old for anyone to still be reading, but still…
@z – i think people’s attitudes towards the party scene have a massive impact on it. norfolk has, as far as i can tell, some of the harshest police policies towards free parties – i’ve seen some frankly brutal footage of parties being broken up there. so the prevailing attitude is that free parties are populated by selfish, antisocial wankers, and hey presto that’s who turns up and sets nature trails on fire.
in sheffield and around the peak district generally, on the other hand, in my experience the police have a very relaxed attitude towards parties, often responding to complaints by coming to the party and essentially asking us to turn it down a bit… (haven’t been to a party round there for a couple of years though so don’t know if this has changed!) and the parties are without exception extremely safe, friendly and responsible places to be, with no mess left afterwards.
all around the country the ugliness of the free party scene seems to me to be directly proportional to the ugliness of the police policy towards them. i don’t believe that people are so different in norfolk to those in sheffield. i think the fact is, if you treat people like responsible adults they will behave as such.
@rob burns – you can always join in in berlin!