
When a 20-year-old punk put on a series of illegal shows in the desert - kikitee
https://www.huckmag.com/?p=414909
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adriand
Reminds me of an idea I had a few years ago when the northeast states and
provinces like Quebec and Ontario were in the grip of an intense cold snap as
a result of a "polar vortex". I live near Lake Ontario and the surface of the
entire lake froze over to a thickness that would support a transport truck.

You probably see where I'm going with this: throw a big party/rave in the
middle of the frozen lake. The goal would be to keep it on the Canadian side
(where I live) but far enough out into the lake that local police have no
jurisdiction - IANAL but my primitive thinking was to see if you could situate
it where it would require federal intervention, which seems to me unlikely to
materialize in time to stop a party.

In any case, we would be in the middle of a very large lake, and I'm not sure
that there are any laws preventing throwing a party there in the first place.

Naturally, to be a welcoming environment, a party like this would greatly
benefit from a huge bonfire, raising concerns about risks that are less likely
when you party on dry land, but I thought it was a fun idea...

~~~
dalbasal
In the late 90s, there were a few "no man's land" raves in places where
jurisdiction was ambiguous between Israel and the (then brand new) Palestinian
Authority's west bank territories. Neither the israeli army, police or
palestinian police wanted to mess with a huge, internationally negotiated
agreement for the sake of a party.

Around 1999-2000 the "Oslo Process" which created those jurisdictional grey
areas collapsed into it's current state, things got violent and the raves
ended.

Funny how "what's normal" depends on where you're from. Middle Eastern no-
mans-land seemed like a cool place for a party, to 16 yo me. Frozen lake in
winter seems way to dangerous to even consider. What sort of a lune would go
to a frozen lake party?!!

~~~
Jackim
Lots of people in freezing areas of the world do all sorts of things on frozen
lakes/water bodies. There are ice roads in Canada's North that are only open
when it's cold enough for the water to freeze. Heavy transport trucks use them
all the time! And of course there's the hockey/skating and ice fishing.

~~~
dalbasal
Madmen. You can run from or fight violence. Can't outrun cold.

In my mind, if a lake is _that_ frozen, we're in a war against nature.

~~~
germinalphrase
I know you’re joking, but you can - you know - literally outrun the feeling of
cold in most situations.

You’re really cold? Eat. Run. Increase your insulation.

------
sjburt
Not that this isn't an interesting story, but the headline is dubious. The
origins of Burning Man had far more to do with the SF Suicide Club and the
Cacaphony Society than what was going on in LA. The first burns were arguably
Cacophony society events, and there were Cacophony Society trips to Black Rock
prior to Burning Man moving there.

~~~
jmspring
Seems more relevant to Coachella than Burning Man. Concert away from people,
not novel, just interesting.

Pre-real BMan organization - definitely cacophony society, but also those with
extended interest like shooting galleries, etc were there.

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bsenftner
During the early-mid 80's there was a strong illegal party atmosphere in youth
culture. It was promoted by the punk rock fanzines and people were throwing
illegal shows everywhere. I was an Iowa punker, and my buddy and I (who I
later formed software companies with) used to rent out apartment club houses,
church basements, various small venues and then overwhelm the situation with
2-3x the allowed occupancy, 3-6 unannounced local punk rock bands, a school
bus with literally 60-80 kegs of beer inside, and every local drug dealer had
a little private space to do business. These would be "1 night" events that
would last 2 days, the situation would be so out of control the police would
just try to manage the crowd. We simply took over with a mob of degenerate
youth. I remember one major blowout the cops tried to shut the party down and
gave up as the crowd simply ignored them. They even tried billy club force,
until surrounded by skinheads shaking their heads. Christian Iowa had no idea
how to handle this, and we had a blast.

~~~
madengr
Sounds similar:

[https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-
world/article17873589...](https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-
world/article178735891.html)

~~~
bsenftner
We never managed to have a persistent venue in Iowa, as far as I know. The
scene centered around a wonderful college radio show called "No Commercial
Potential Radio" from some little community college. Gawd, those were the
daze.

------
hackermailman
Illegal shows and music fests were common here on native reservations, in
forests and abandoned buildings until overdoses happened so much the scene was
killed. At the time Nicholas Sand was hiding from the FBI and flooding the
local market with high purity lsd/mdma ect.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sand](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sand)
When his lab was busted fake drugs started being peddled at these events
causing enough problems the police and reserve police took zero tolerance of
any unlicensed shows/raves.

I've also noticed in the beginning, when it's just people involved in that
scene, there's no problems. It's when popularity of your illegal festival
spreads and outsiders show up who have no connection to anybody involved that
problems begin, such as meatheads who eventually turned up on a regular basis
to these parties to throw punches, set fires and sell piperazine derived
pills.

~~~
uoaei
Just goes to show -- the drug providers making quality product are keeping
people safe! People will still seek their escape/bliss, but if they can find
something with predictable effects it's way better than allowing free market
forces to take over in the vacuum left behind when you bust a drug provider.

~~~
digi_owl
As i recall, most heroin overdoses happen when someone tries to get clean,
slips, and ends up injecting a dose based on unknown purity and fails to
account for their loss of tolerance.

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tomc1985
Pssh, ravers have been doing this in the deserts of socal since the early
nineties (if not earlier)

Surely deserts anywhere have a rich history of people secretly partying there,
just like forests and whatnot.

A lot of that scene has died down but the burner contingent is still going
strong. If you know the right names and the right people to talk to its fairly
easy to find.

~~~
glenneroo
Are you referring to full-moon parties? I was hoping for a mention in the
article. I would guess their origin also took inspiration from these parties,
considering they started in 1983/4 i.e. a few years before the raves of the
"early nineties".

~~~
tomc1985
Yeah, full moon stuff is going strong here. I'm not entirely sure when the
socal rave scene started, but those guys are also still active (at least
according to the folks I know who roll with that crowd) if a bit diminished

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bergtatt
This reminds me of the generator parties Kyuss used to play at in the early
90s. So wish I could have gone.

