Illegal rave showed ‘contempt’ for residents, says lead officer
A senior police figure says organisers of an illegal rave near Bath “treated residents with contempt” adding that it was “impossible to prevent it escalating.”
More than 3,000 people gathered at the former RAF Charmy Down airfield at Upper Swainswick on Saturday as music could be heard as far away as Keynsham, Paulton, Longwell Green and Bristol.
Police officers were first called to the event at 11.21pm on Saturday night but felt it was unsafe to close the event and instead attempted to control it.
People were still raving at 1pm on Sunday afternoon as 50 to 60 revellers were moved to a new location to continue the party.
Chief Superintendent Ian Wylie, who led the response, said the former airfield was cleared on Sunday afternoon and police have launched a full investigation into the unlicensed event.
He explained that officers were aware of plans to host a rave somewhere in Somerset but did not know the exact location.
Anti-rave patrols were carried out in “some of the more likely locations”.
Chief Superintendent Wylie said: “We do believe we thwarted a rave being attempted to be set up in Frome earlier in the evening.
“They’ve gone on to then set up, unbeknown to us, another rave just north of Bath.
“Upwards of six were locations identified by the organisers – we understand they had six back-ups in case any fell through.”
Chief Superintendent Wylie was coordinating the response from the control room, with commanders on the ground feeding him information. Police officers descended on the area after receiving a call soon after the music started. Officers discovered the stages and sound systems “were already established.”
Initial investigations by officers made it clear that they could not simply pull the plug on the event.
Chief Superintendent Wylie added: “I know many residents would have liked us to unplug it. But with only a small number of officers there, it wasn’t safe to do so.”
He believed there was “no doubt” there was a risk of violence towards officers because of the lack of safety checks and drunken revellers.
He said: We know many of them (ravers) were drinking heavily.
“The likelihood of violence against officers was significant. These sites aren’t safety checked, and we didn’t know what we were stepping in to.
“I don’t have a number of officers to give you, but we didn’t have a standing army. We dealt with another 120 999 calls overnight, which took away from our resources.
“We found the event was already up and running when we got there, with many many hundreds of people, and many more people arriving.
“In spite of closing local access routes, people were just leaving their cars in local lanes and walking to the site because it wasn’t subject to a perimeter fence.”
He added that attendees came from as far as Sheffield.
He said: “We had no cooperation last night because we didn’t have the numbers to safely make the organisers do what we asked. There was an outright refusal to engage.
“There weren’t any arrests on Saturday night but there have been on Sunday afternoon. We’ve seized five vehicles with sound equipment and a generator.
“I am aware of one arrest this afternoon under Section 63 legislation for refusing to leave.”
He said the ambulance service had “several calls” in relation to incidents at the airfield, such as injuries sustained by individuals who attended.
An air ambulance landed near the rave at around 10.15am on Sunday morning to deal with an incident.
He added: “It illustrates the organisers are not interested in the safety of revellers, and it illustrates why we couldn’t go on the site.”
When asked if there are any regrets over the handling of the event, he said: “I think we were unlucky last night. Having identified a number of possible sites and spread resources appropriately, we were unlucky.
“Our intelligence was good and our response was good, but unfortunately we live in a very large area, which is a big challenge.
“The learning is that we need to get the public on board with us and ensure we are notified of any gatherings as soon as possible.
“We know the noise was intolerable last night for many people. The organisers have treated local residents with contempt.
“They don’t really care about the people attending either.”
An investigation has now been launched into the illegal rave by police as they appeal for any witnesses to come forward.
Get in touch online or call 101 and quote reference 1414 of July 18.
The likelihood of violence against officers was significant