Wednesday 29 March 2000

Mushroom Hampshire


Mushroom Hampshire

24/4/99

http://www.partyvibe.org/free-parties/fpreporti.html

We head off down the motorway from Southampton towards the venue, an abandoned tunnel which is apparently a mile and a half long. Sounds cool. Unfortunately, we see the first convoy coming back, having been hassled by the police - apparently some spanner's put the tunnel on a flyer for a club. DOH !
After a quick debate a picnic site is decided upon in Forestry Commission land. We set the system up with a plane circling above. It's midnight - surely the fuzz hasn't hired a plane to track us down ? The change in site obviously affects the numbers, but by two o'clock there's about a hundred people dancing, chatting and sitting by the fire. There were going to be two systems, but it all gets rolled into one. The music is well-mixed bubbly trance, until some dark drum n bass welcomes in the dawn. Everyone seems happy to be hearing decent music in the great outdoors, so there's a good vibe. It all gets a bit hazy around this point but I do remember seeing some fire breathing.

Soon afterwards, the coppers turn up citing thirty complaints from nearby residents which seems unlikely because we're in a forest. Two guys have turned up from their houses, to be fair, but they both seem more interested than pissed off at people having fun under their own steam. The fact that the party was going to be miles away from anything in tunnel before it was busted doosn't seem to be taken into consideration.We video the police videoing us and get the dbs tested for free.

The system gets packed away and the site is left just as clean as when we arrived. All in all this was a good little party. A couple extra degrees of temperature would have been nice, but they'll come. Nice one Mushroom.

Ed