In municipalities such as Sarral (Tarragona) with 1,544 inhabitants and Torà (Lleida) with 1,244 inhabitants, the celebrations lasted for several days last Friday. The two cities were invaded by individuals aboard vans and campers installed in the middle of fields, setting up loudspeakers and dancing for days in decibels in a so-called rave: an illegal outdoor party where electronic music is played accompanied by dances and peppered , and a lot, with drugs.
Catalonia has been a land of raves for decades. The last most famous was the one that took place in January 2021 – in the middle of the pandemic – in Llinars del Vallès (Barcelona). All raves are illegal – once they have a permit, it’s no longer a rave – but in addition, the one in Llinars took place amid a health emergency and dozens of restrictions. It brought together 300 people and the Mossos took 40 hours to evacuate.
Joaquim Boadas is the general secretary of nightclub Fecasarm. Boadas believes Catalonia hosts more raves than the rest of Spain because it borders with France. “Outside of Catalonia there is more bottle culture, where people drink before the disco without dancing,” says the secretary of Fecasarm. “In Europe, there’s more of a rave culture – drinks and music – it’s an alternative to disco. Since people couldn’t go to the disco during the pandemic, they organized more parties of this type, but in general, audiences don’t go to the disco, they are defenders of underground and alternative entertainment,” he concludes. Boadas believes that celebrating these celebrations damages his sector’s image by conveying an image of “secrecy and insecurity”.
The keys provided by Boadas match those of the rave attendees. EL PAÍS contacted several of them. Everyone wants to keep their identity. They report hearing about these parties when there are hours left before their celebration and thanks to certain social media groups. One of the 300 attendees of Llinars del Vallès Rave in 2021 – among many other illegal parties – asserts that the image given to raves is intentionally “criminal”. “After a rave there is a lot of preparation. We are not terrorists, we don’t want to bother anyone. We swarm because it goes squarely against the world we’ve been led to believe is mandatory. At our parties there are no bouncers, there are no fights… they are safe parties with a lot of respect,” says this young woman. “No one is convicted. We go because we like music, we want to dance…”. He does not want to talk about the presence of drugs, although he admits that there are. “We all know that the organizers of the rave have a lot of work behind them and that’s why we donate what we can into a fund that goes to the organizers,” he says. Many of these organizers cross half of Europe towards Catalonia to host these celebrations. For this reason, Italian, French, Belgian license plates are repeated in the improvised parking lots of the raves.
EL PAÍS asked the Mossos d’Esquadra for statistics on interventions in this type of parties. A spokesman assures that this type of data does not exist as these incidents are entered under such general headings as “neighborhood riots”. They claim that it is not a serious problem. “We leave whenever told to, but often as these are administrative offences, we can only see if the vehicles have passed ITV or breathalyzer tests,” they admit.
Albert Palacio is spokesman for the Mossos USPAC union. “Barcelona has always had a lot of squatters and anarchist movements and there’s also a lot of permissiveness, that’s why they come here. When a rave is spotted, dozens of agents are assigned to those locations. While the police are there, other places are neglected,” he denounces.
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The Sarral Rave started on Friday and ended last Tuesday. It is the first time residents remember an illegal party in the community. Mayor Victoria Cañís (ERC) remembers the unrest of last Friday: “At the rave, around 1,000 people were out and about in vans, which they took to the middle of the city because they used GPS. As soon as I saw them, I called the Mossos.” The abnormality of the situation prompted dozens of neighbors to attend the party over the weekend. “Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again. It seems they left it clean, but we need to check if they destroyed some of the paths,” he warns.
Torà’s rave lasted a day less than Sarral’s. For the mayor of this municipality of Lleida, Magí Coscollola (ERC), the illegal party was nothing new. “In September we repaired the access road to the uninhabited Ollers farmhouse. On November 26th and 27th, 300 people held a rave. On December 17th and 18th the second and on February 18th and 19th the third. We will block the road because it cannot go on like this,” he denounces.
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