‘Very authoritarian, very brutal’: three decades after the UK’s anti-rave crackdown, why is France doing the same?

With tear gas, grenades and a new law, French authorities are targeting unlicensed music gatherings.

Those in the rave scene explore the parallels with the UK in the 90s When Spiral Tribe fled England in 1992, they left behind an indelible mark on rave history.

The itinerant sound system collective are best known for their involvement with Castlemorton Common festival, an unlicensed free party drawing more than 30,000 people and lasting nearly a week.

After a drawn-out and notoriously expensive trial for public order offences, Spiral Tribe were acquitted of all charges. They decided to drive their repurposed military caravans out of the UK and never look back.

Their documented history often stops there.

But little known is the fact that they then kicked off “the biggest illegal underground movement that Europe had ever seen”, says Spiral Tribe associate Sebastian Vaughan, AKA electronic musician 69db.

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