{"id":36068,"date":"2025-04-20T16:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/36068\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T16:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T16:51:09","slug":"police-criticised-for-asking-concerned-residents-to-report-illegal-raves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/36068\/","title":{"rendered":"Police criticised for asking concerned residents to report illegal raves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police were called to several illegal raves in October, December and JanuaryNews<\/a><\/p>\n

Olivier Vergnault<\/strong> Senior Reporter <\/p>\n

16:07, 20 Apr 2025Updated 16:11, 20 Apr 2025<\/p>\n

\"AvonAvon and Somerset Police were called by villagers to halt an illegal rave near Shipham in December last year (Image: Mid Somerset Series)<\/p>\n

Avon and Somerset Police have taken a battering after asking concerned members of the public to report any illegal raves to them. While calling on people to call 101 and report any unlicensed music events taking place in the force area, a post on Facebook<\/a> has attracted dozens of comments mocking the police.<\/p>\n

In their post on their official Facebook page, Avon and Somerset Police<\/a> said: “Unlicensed music events are unlawful. They cause distress and disruption to local residents and often don\u2019t have plans in place to keep everyone attending them safe. The earlier we know about them, the easier it is to take steps to prevent them and limit disruption.<\/p>\n

“Do you know the signs of an unlicensed music event? These include: advertising on social media, vans unloading sound equipment, large groups gathering.” They added: “If you see anything suspicious call 101 straight away with as much information as you can about the people and vehicles involved.”<\/p>\n

However the post has led to a deluge of derision and criticism from people saying the police should focus on “real crime” instead of stopping people having fun.<\/p>\n

Ethan Hart wrote: “Acting like you\u2019re going to stop the thousands that turn out to Castle Park for a smoke and a party. Yeah, good luck with that. There\u2019s never any trouble. Maybe focus on the issues with county lines rather then worrying about people having fun.”<\/p>\n

Another poster using the pseudonym No Example, agreed: “Why prevent them? Why not try and work with people to help them be safe and less disruptive? In all fairness it\u2019s usually due to the attendance of the \u2018so called authorities\u2019 that causes the disruption in the first place.”<\/p>\n

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Eliza Bee also saw the fun of it. She wrote: “Ahh yes the harm of people socially gathering to have a good time.”<\/p>\n

Yasmine Kabbara-Dolby thought the signs of an illegal rave looked strangely like those associated with a legal one. She said: “Social media? crowds? unloading equipment? Sounds the same as licensed music events to me???”<\/p>\n

Joel Fernandez agreed: “If hundreds of people want to put on an event. As the British public, they should have every right to do so. I get that the capitalist government wants everything to be paid for and taxable, because they think the world revolves around money. Thousands, if not millions of us disagree.<\/p>\n

“Free events are how culture is created. You are aiding and abetting the criminalisation of culture. People should be free to enjoy themselves, provided they aren\u2019t causing harm to others. If an \u201cunlicensed\u201d, as you so put it, event started near me, I wouldn\u2019t report it, I would join them and have a good time. You only get 80ish years on this planet, go enjoy yourself with other people.”<\/p>\n

In October last year police were called to the Ashton Gate area of Bristol<\/a> after reports of an illegal rave and two months later thousands of revellers turned up to the village of Shipham in Somerset for a rave in the fog<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In January an illegal rave in the St Philips area<\/a> of the city was also shut down following complaints by local residents.<\/p>\n

However, not all comments on the police’s post were about bashing them or making fun of what people perceived as authoritarian scrooge-like behaviour preventing people from enjoying themselves.<\/p>\n

Ruth Valerie said: “Being kept awake all night can cause harm to many people. Those of us with health conditions, people who need decent sleep to focus on complex jobs, people with health issues such as PTSD are impacted by noise. Free events can be held that build communities, but don’t disturb the peace. If you want to make loads of noise, go out to the middle of nowhere, not built up urban neighbourhoods.”<\/p>\n

Ann Jones agreed: “It’s fine having fun, just do not interfere with anyone else’s peace who may not appreciate your choice of music. Try having a silent rave.”<\/p>\n

Click here to join our WhatsApp group<\/a>Privacy Notice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police were called to several illegal raves in October, December and JanuaryNews Olivier Vergnault Senior Reporter 16:07, 20…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[9312,381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-36068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-avon-and-somerset-constabulary","9":"tag-bristol","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114371328991619825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}