Visitors illegal rave in Belgium came for ‘the feeling that you are free’

• North de Kort

  editor online

“The best freeparty ever given in Belgium”, that was last weekend’s illegal rave in Sint-Truiden, according to one of the visitors. He wants to remain anonymous “because this is not always well received in the scene”.

The illegal party on the former military site of Brustem with thousands of visitors started Friday evening and ended yesterday. The police did not intervene all weekend. “Given the size and the number of people present, it is impossible for the security services to evacuate the zone in a safe manner,” mayor Ingrid Kempeneers told VRT.

Meanwhile, local residents complained all weekend about loud music and revelers pooping and urinating in the gardens. Afterwards, the police arrested nine people, including seven Dutch people. They are suspected of organizing the illegal party.

What attracts visitors to illegal raves? And how are they organized? “On a freeparty do you feel that you are free,” says the visitor to the party in Sint-Truiden. “Almost everything is allowed and possible.”

The illegal rave in Sint-Truiden was a ‘technival’. These large-scale, free, unlicensed tekno music festivals are held across Europe in remote places, such as an abandoned military site.

“Freedom: that’s the whole idea,” says DJ David Vunk. He played at parties like this between 1995 and 2010. “Going off your plate, no bouncers, no finish times.” There are also no noise standards, and a lot of drugs are used at the festivals.

Partying ravers at the illegal party in Sint-Truiden:

Belgian village goes crazy from days of rave: ‘Shaking glass and banging’

A former organizer of teknivals, who also wishes to remain anonymous “because of work”, says that the music at these types of parties is “much better” than at regular festivals. “And the drinks are also much cheaper than, for example, in a club.” With the income from this, the organizers pay for the sound system, says Vunk.

The promotion of illegal raves goes through social media, says the visitor to the party in Sint-Truiden. To prevent a party from being discovered, the organization first only reports the region it will take place, and when everything is ready, the exact location is announced.

According to Vunk, it is now much more difficult in the Netherlands than in the late 1990s and early 2000s to organize an illegal party. “Now enforcement is much stricter.” Moreover, a party like the one in Sint-Truiden in the Netherlands “would have stopped right away”, Vunk thinks.

But according to the visitor, it was not too bad with the nuisance for local residents of the rave in Sint-Truiden. “I spoke to several neighbors there who didn’t even mind. Some even thought it was great that things got a bit lively.”