2 weeks Ago By The Telegraph
A large illegal rave in a disused warehouse blasted music until 10am before it was shut down by 70 police officers. The unlicensed event at a former Wickes store on Winterstoke Road in Ashton Gate, Bristol, was attended by up to 1,000 people and lasted from Saturday night until Sunday morning. Two people were arrested and two van loads of sound equipment were seized, police said.
Local people were furious the event was allowed to continue for so long. One resident told BBC News: “It was just thump, thump, thump the whole night long. People around here had no sleep at all.
” Another man said: “It was a lot of very loud music and very deep bass, almost to the point of shaking the house.” Darren Stone, a lorry driver, said he had no problem with young people having fun, but urged them not to do so in a residential area. “Do it somewhere outside, you can have as much fun as you want then,” he added.
On social media, one person said the police ought to “shut down the illegal rave that’s been going on for four hours ...
remind me, what are we paying council tax for?” Avon and Somerset police said it had not had enough officers to break up the event sooner. It added that police were pelted with stones and bottles when they first arrived. Insp Gareth Pike said: “We understand the frustration of the public around us not being able to respond immediately to close it off.
“It was due to officer numbers and it being a very busy Saturday night for us on the force.” Around 70 officers were eventually dispatched to shut down the event, Mr Pike said, adding that the two arrests were on suspicion of causing a public nuisance. The disused building is just a few hundred feet away from streets of semi-detached houses.
One attendee told the BBC that she was surprised at the location: “Normally when they have these types of parties they are a bit more tucked away. Maybe it was a bad location but it was a great party.” When the attendee was asked what she would say to residents who had been kept awake, she replied: “I had a great time.
” A man who had travelled from Wales for the rave said it was really important “we let the young people represent themselves”. Police said that no officers had been injured and that none of the attendees had been injured either. Mr Pike said: “There is no safe unlicensed music event and we will continue to take robust action towards them.
” Unlicensed raves were popular in the late 80s and early 90s across Britain, but declined following legislation enacted in 1994 that gave police powers to remove persons attending or preparing an event with music that “includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”..
