I’ve noticed a fair amount of Midlands based crews on here over the years, so keep checking the party boards and calendar.

http://www.dirtytechno.org also has info on more northern parties

Originally posted by Fuzzy
i would have thought there would have been more of squat scene in birmingham than there is. far too many old dilapidated factories knocking around. maybe they are being used for parties but its not the easiest place to get inot the loop.

NB: This comes from a Southerners perspective and I am trying not to be too sterotypical here. Much of what I say has come from anecdotes from other raves and the impression of the Midlands/North given by the media (notably Central/Carlton TV and the Guardian)- I haven’t spent too much time in the Midlands so I may be painting a bleaker picture of the place!

The impression I get of the Midlands is that there is not as much spare resources/cash needed to fund free party crews, and a rougher gangs / guns / crime / fighting culture; and the cops/dibble respond to this in kind by going in a lot heavier – often dealing out “street law” (i.e batter the scally with truncheons) rather than “doo-gooders book law” (put the scally in young offenders and make him do education and training).

All the violence breeds more violence (was reading a big article in the grauniad about Nottingham and all the gang culture/revenge killings) and this is of course not a good atmosphere for holding unlicensed parties with more “liberal” security procedures!

To be fair London is just as bad though for the shooters and violence on the estates; but in the SE and Home Counties we are a bit lucky that even with the recession there are still jobs to be found and often slack time and resources that can be diverted to the party scene; plus this extra “bling” makes people a bit happier and less desparate to get involved with gangs and crime.

A disused factory/warehouse is valuable to lots of other crews apart from party crews (safehouse / crack lab / place for fenced goods / shooting gallery etc) and perhaps these crews are prepared to defend their territory a bit harder? Here in the SE its normally only homeless squatters who want a warehouse and they like a party as much as anyone else!

Hello, and welcome 🙂