Our greatest rivals in rave culture, the Brits, have managed to host an illegal three-day bender in an abandoned airfield, right in the middle of a model aircraft exhibition.
The coinciding contrasting events took place at Davidstow Airfield in Cornwall, right at the southern tip of the UK.
The rave was a celebration of the 30th anniversary of ‘Castlemorton’ one of - if not the - biggest free party ever held in the UK, and an awesome story to boot.
The 1992 festival hosted 20,000 to 40,000 party animals, went on for 7 days, and ended up in a 4 million pound lawsuit that ended with the decision to make listening to “a succession of repetitive beats” in a “gathering on land in the open air” illegal. Plenty to celebrate then.
Anyway, back to the model aircraft exhibition.
Police had to cordon off the rave to allow model aircraft enthusiasts through to the exhibition, which was taking place on the same airfield.
An employee working at the exhibition took to Facebook to alert how his fellow aeroplane aficionados could avoid the party.
Police were patrolling the rave, which seemed to go off without any issues. However, they did refuse to let anyone new into the place, seeing as it was illegal and all.
“In the interest of public safety, we are asking anyone thinking about attending the event not to do so. [We] would like to reassure the local communities and wider public that we are taking this matter seriously,” they said.
Those that managed to make it into the rave were only invited via a ‘secret text’ which was pretty cryptic.
It told possible partygoers that “free festival culture is back”, that the “sound will stay on as long as you guys are there” and asked the ravers to “be respectful to the locals and the authorities … [and] not give them a reason to become hostile towards us".
One farmer whose land neighboured the celebration said that party-goers were respectful of the land, and did not leave until they had picked up their rubbish.
“For all the locals saying the rave at Davidstow have left all the rubbish behind, I've got livestock in the vicinity and have had no problems at all and there refusing to leave until they have picked all the litter up, and I've found them all good people,” he told his community on Facebook.
On the other hand, some neighbours complained about the cars, noise, and remnants of the rave that the thousands attended left behind.
One small business owner even had to shut down for the weekend, as he did not want people to see the ruins of the rave.
"I've personally had to close for the weekend ... I don't want our local community to see the mess left behind from this party, so I'll be up there on Monday with quad and trailer to collect rubbish," he said.
Ahh, the age-old war between party people and the general public carries on.
