a vicious circle maybe?

I understand “older” crews have tried to offer advice but people are stubborn and want to do their own things (and this is not confined only to the East Anglia region!)

people “stand up” to the cops even if they are in a questionable venue and of course the enforcement gets harsher…

and the risks increase for everyone attending them, so people with jobs/relationships etc who have more to lose from hassles with the criminal justice system don’t attend as much

When I lived in Reading I did notice there were less younger ravers in some areas (although a fair amount of college age)

OTOH I reckon this may actually be because at least some teens are learning from mistakes made by the previous generation – there are also way more pressures on youths today and they get less chances in life – school seems to have many more exams/assements than when I was there and everyone seems to have to go to college/uni today whether they want to or not

So a lot of people seem to cane it for a few years and then just drop back in to the system…

Fixxy – I see what you mean but a lot of the entertainment choices now involve simply eventually accepting the wider societies finish times, preffered locations and monitoring/enforcement strategies. Or just staying at home and gawping at the idiot box or the Internet.

Is this really the future?

bump….

thanks for the replies but it still seems strange here…

I’ve got relatives across the river in Essex (Tiptree/Basildon) area and have spent a fair bit of time in Suffolk and Essex over the years, usually around summer. In previous years I’ve seen things such as flyposters on walls, headshops, record shops etc…

but all these things have disappeared and it seems 100% townies here (not even chavs who might go to a rave).

Also although a few of the younger lot from Bury have posted here I’ve not seen anybody from the Ipswich area on here or SJ or any of the other rave boards (OK a few from Suffolk villages on the outskirts) – for a town of this size (almost as big as Reading) with a relatively young population this does not make any sense; unless this is genuinely a rave free zone here.

Same seems to go for North Essex and places like Colchester etc, Walton on the Naze (mind you its all grannies there mostly).

And before anyone says “why don’t you go out in town and meet new people?” well it doesn’t look too friendly (although safer than Reading) and TBH the days of me going to townie places on my own and talking to randoms are long gone. You could get away with that when the rave scene was in its early days but nowadays you are just at risk of getting robbed or into fights – unless you go to somewhere like a real ale pub where people are more welcoming but I’m too young for that and I’d only start drinking loads of beer and put on weight…

So where is everybody? Or is Ipswich where people go to when they have ended up with 4 kids in their mid 20s and (understandably) can’t party any more, so perhaps they are the ones asking the cops to lock everything down to avoid their kids being kept awake?

what is worse is both areas were once full of legal (and a few free) raves as well as quite a few crews. Ditto some bits of Essex…

I know the cops are harsh and like a lot of the East of England there’s a problem with a townie/fighting culture (a mate of mine tried to do raves in Essex but gave up as people just fought at them –

but I still don’t believe people get partied out that quickly round in Suffolk?

Or maybe its just me and people actually do just rave from age 18-21 now and I am just in denial of the fact that I have to grow up some day.. At least I got 15 years of raving in though …raaa

yeah, but the heddlu don’t really care round your way – and your country has a culture of music and song.

in England is “shut the fuck up” or the cops will be on their way if people are up past their bedtimes. Suffolk never liked the late night economy; Essex seems to have tried it and realised that people ended up getting pissed and battering each other.

Here if you want to do that sort of thing you have to do it quietly and in your own house (Suffolk has one of the highest rates of domestics/disputes between former friends – many of which result in serious injury or murder).

Anyway raves in valleys/quarries are usually hardly gonna annoy anybody; and the sheep seem to enjoy the music sometimes. They loved a certain hardstyle/techno rig in 2004 🙂 I’m sure they gained a few extra rig groupies that way..