Teknival Tolworth

1-3 September 2000

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

Not many parties happening this weekend.....may'be this is due to the all weekend Teknival planned for London. Nothing this large has been done for a while in this country - and it certainly made headline news around the capital! Unfortunately the media has painted a rather dark picture of the event. We know the truth though!
Setting off in a small convoy, along the M3, M25 and then on the A3, we arrive within an hour of driving. Tolworth, SW London is the chosen site for the gathering. As we pull off the main road, and down an industrial estate road, cars ahead of us are full of blatant party people. Parking up outside a factory, we abandon the car, and head towards the thumping basslines down the road. Climbing over a huge mound of mud, and down the other steep side, we walk into a wasteland meadow.

Rigs-a-plenty. 15 at one count. Loads of soundsytems, so many that I didn't know the names of, but I managed to catch a few .....Colossus soundsystem in one corner. Huge rig, with a large marquee and large speakers....kicking out techno - with Nightstorm keeping 'em company. AKA with another huge white marquee, with video projections on the side of the tent - heavy gabba came out of the tent for most of the night. Evolution Soundsystem next to them had live trance PA's for part of the night. Headfuk, Panik and loads of other London squat party systems were dotted around the field as well. Near the main entrance into the field, the dub 'stage' had a live band playing out the side of a truck.

Unlike the Dutch Tek, heavy techno did not dominate the site. A variety of music emits from all corners of the field....dub, gabba, trance, techno, drum & bass and old skool....something for everyone. Plenty of people turn up to fuel the party.....2000-3000 people reports the paper....probably the only thing they reported accurately! I brought my car in for comfort - not many London clubs let you bring your cars up to the dancefloor!

The night soon passes into day.... the masses came and went. The site was still rocking when we left in the morning and the Teknival came to a final close on Monday. The police tried to disperse the site as soon as they heard about it on Friday night... but lack of manpower provided to be the problem for them. The media coverage has been quite widespread - front page of the Evening Standard. The Times had a column on it. Local TV news showed pictures of Sunday daytime dancing. The papers were reporting thousands of new age travellers turning up, when really the majority of the people attending were typical ravers. The papers also tried to use the litter factor to blacken the name of the party....knowing the way free parties work, I knew the site would be clear by the time the last people had left. Proof on the TV as well. The Evening Standard also mentioned a car being set alight - I didn't see or hear anything about this...

An interesting night, in deepest darkest London....don't believe everything you read in the papers...

Bugs

Read what the media had to say about the event!....

Evening Standard newspaper article - 04/09/00
Main article - 04/09/00 - from the Times
Follow up story - 05/09/00 - also from the Times
Teknival History from the Times! - 05/09/00
ITN news - 05/09/00