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Choosing A Location For An Outdoor Party
By Brian B.
This article is brought to you courtesy of Hyperreal.com
I'm going to present here the guidelines that I've been
following in deciding if sites make a particularly good site for an
outdoor unpermitted party. Why am I telling you this? Because this
should motivate you to go out and look for sites around where you
live, maybe spark a memory of a location you hung out at in high
school, etc. This summer is set to be the summer of renegade parties
ALL OVER North America, and see this if you will as a primer, a guide
to finding a good location.
The info presented here is the result of 10 months of location
hunting, for both SFRaves events and the Full Moon parties in SF, and
for the most part the locations have worked fantastically . The FMR
last month in Palo Alto had 285 cars ~= 800-1000 people, and the cops
didn't show up until 9am, and even then said to just be gone by 11am.
But more on that later.
THE DANCE SPACE
anticipate how many people you are gonna have, and
make sure there's enough room where you're setting u the speakers and
such for these people - also make sure there's room for people to rest
and relax without harming the environment or others. Grass is the
best surface, as it bounces back and doesn't make you tired as quickly
as sand does. Sand, especially rocky sand, is hard to dance in, but
if you find a space where it's hard, and try and clear away any large
rocks from the center, you should be okay. Aim to provide a surface
on which people can dance barefoot. Try and avoid dancing on concrete
whenever possible, but also avoid having the dancefloor be a bed of
plants, because 10 hours of pounding Doc Martens are gonna kill
anything but the hardiest grass. For this reason, avoid using the
same grassy space more than onces every two months or so, to give the
grass a chance to grow back. Also, dry grass can be VERY dangerous,
particularly for people who smoke and unconciously drop cigarrette
ashes on the ground.
THE SOUND SYSTEM
- Geoff White is coming up with some specs on what
outdoor sound systems should sound like, but in general terms, two
speaker stacks and about 1.5kw of amp power should be enough for any
gathering of less than 1000 people. Aim the system towards the
waterif you're on a beach, or in general away from civilization as
best as possible. Remember that cold air can carry sound well, and so
can water surfaces and canyons. As for the generator, take your total
wattage needed and multiply by two - most renegades get 5kw generators
which cost maybe $50 per night to rent - make sure you get enough
gasolin. If the location is far away from civilization, you may want
to consider bringing extra needles (we found this out the hard way at
C2) and other small but vital parts, maybe so much as extra turntables
or mixer. If you have trouble finding a sound system or any other
vital piece of equipment, check the YELLOW PAGES. You'd be amazed
what you can find there. The best categories are "PA Sound Systems"
and "Construction Equipment" (for the generator).
ACCESS TO THE SITE
You want to have your system somewhat removed
from the road, as you want to be INVISIBLE to the casual driver
passing by if possible. But, you also don't want to make the sound
crew carry their heavy equipment a mile and a half, so try and find a
reasonable spot. The flip side, of course, is that the farther away
from the road, the less likely cops are going to confiscate equipment
(more on that later).
PARKING
This is usually the weakest link in any site. There are
HUNDREDS of gorgeous sites around the Bay Area, I kid you not, which
are hampered by the fact that they couldn't support more than maybe 5
cars :) Anyways, you want to get the cars as far off the main road as
possible, parking them down a side street, or in a big parking lot.
Parking attendents are mandatory if you expect more than say 30 cars.
If you have to park on the side of the road, try your best to obey
traffic laws, park outside the lines, and make sure there is enough
room for emergency vehicles to access the dance floor if the need ever
arose. You want to be as invisible as possible. Also, have the
parking attendents hand out flyers to arriving cars saying, "Welcome
to *blah*. Please leave your alcohol in the car. Please be careful
and aware of your environment and each other. Thank you, and a
donation of $*blah* would be appreciated."
LEGALITIES -
The ideal site is unincorporated land, or Bureau of Land
Management land, or simply property which has a history of being used
by the public at large for parties (high school hangouts in the woods
are good sources believe it or not). Failing this, city parks, then
county, then on up the list - the higher the authorities whose toes
you step on, the more likely they are to be mean.
When they show up,
as you should fully expect them to, there is only one option - be
completely upfront, honest, call a spade a spade and say it's simply a
group of kids who want to get together and dance under the stars, and
you didn't want to do it in a place where you'd be bothering anyone.
Pledge to clean up after yourselves and DO LEAVE your name and
address. In every case I've dealt with, being upfront with the cops
shows them you're not trying to be sneaky, and they will appreciate
that. If they give you a line about drug use, tell them they can go
around and confiscate any drug use they see: for the most part this'll
prolly mean dumping out people's beers, but people shouldn't be
bringing beer to an outdoor party anyways.
Anyways, do your best to
work WITH the cops - don't see this as an US vs. THEM situation,
because that'll land you in trouble faster than you can say "lawyer".
If the cops insist on not letting the party continue, then politley
comply, tear down the system, and move the party either by having
pre-printed directions to the next site or a phone # to call for
further directions. Also, if you do a little research into the laws
of the area you throw trhe party in, you may find a few loopholes that
at least would give the officers pause - if they try and shut you down
and you say, "Sorry, ordnance 123-45 requires you to receive a
complaint before shutting down a party" they will think twice...
DRUGS
as noted above, avoiding the obvious drugs is a definite plus.
The worst offender is alcohol, as not only will it piss the cops off,
it's also likely to harm the vibe and create potential "flash points"
of violence. Nitrous is alo far too obvious, and it should be
discouraged, particularly if someone tries to sell it.
THE MORNING -
as the sun is rising, you should anticipate stopping it
if the location is used by the public during the day. You should also
DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY clean up after yourselves - bring trash bags
and LEAVE THE PLACE CLEANER THAN YOU FOUND IT. Make sure others are
in a state to drive home, especially if "home" is more than 20 minutes
drive away. Carry Epheadra or Vivarin or coffee if you can to help
people make it home.
Other assorted info:
if the area is sensetive ecologically, try and
maintain a vigil around the sensetive areas to prevent too much
damage; keep in mind in every gatheing there are Stupid peope who do
Stupid Things, so be prepared to educate them as to what's really
going on... try and maintain a database, if just in your head, of
which cops are usually meaner than hich others; and if you have a
relative or friend or other sympathetic ear in the police force,
perhaps letting them know ahead of time, or getting tacit permission,
would be a very GOOD thing.
Okay, my machine's about to shut down, so I better go for now. If I
think of more I'll post. But print this out and keep it around all
summer and beyond. And I hope we can get it together this week. Good
luck all :)
Brian
About Hyperreal.com
Hyperreal.com is a resource and a home on the Internet for information and activies surrounding the memes of music, dance,
art, altered states of consciousness, and experimental ways of expressing those memes over the wires. Information like this
doesn't want to be free, it NEEDS to be free, and it needs a place to be expressed independent of any overriding
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