Event Review - Landscape 5 – Kent – 25th June 1994

Once again it was time to start the great Landscape machine working.

This time, the event was planned with military precision – sending flyers to select people weeks in advance, reserving equipment with hire shops, visiting the venue checking for problems etc etc. Now the day had come. We arrived at the barn at about 2pm to find the storm the night before had flooded the place, thick mud too. So, armed with shovels and brooms, we got stuck in.

Eventually by about 5pm things were looking good and we made a start setting up the expensive stuff. We were lucky enough to have a contact with fluorescent backdrops and smart lighting and used them to full effect. When all was done, the venue had been transformed like never before. It actually felt quite cosy!! People arrived in dribs and drabs up to about 8pm, then suddenly the place started filling. Although I only recognised 25% of the faces, they seemed pleasant enough, so I thought what the hell.

As time wore on, I noticed that only a few of the regulars had arrived. Reports of the police driving past the barn grew more and more, but none had stopped. By this time, around 200 nutters were seemingly oblivious to anything going on outside, content on giving it their all. DJ’s with allocated time slots hadn’t showed and my suspicions grew. At about 12.30am two of the family arrived with tales of roadblocks, meat wagons and fuck-off-heavy police presence.

They had had to leave their car half a mile up the road and were told if they were too long in returning, it would be impounded and towed away. “Hmm…. This has the smell of an imminent bust”, I thought to myself, and headed off up the hill to see what the matter was.

As I got closer to the roadblock, torches were shone at me and I was requested to identify myself. When I announced that I was one of the organisers, the questions started. “Do you have permission?”. “Are you charging for admission?”. How many people do you have down there?” etc, etc.

The local inspector was summoned to the scene immediately, with the councils Environmental health Officer hot on his tail, and I was placed under caution on their arrival. The charges being, ‘Holding an event without a Public Entertainment License’, and an additional charge of, ‘Criminal Trespass’. Seeing no way out and after being told I must stop the event, I faced facts and accepted that the night was over. At least they weren’t confiscating anything. All that planning, all that happiness, shot to fuck by the long arm and some jumped up prat telling me it wasn’t hygienic to urinate in the bushes, without adequate fire escapes… (But it seems perfectly acceptable in this part of the world to pump neat shit into the sea…).

Eventually, we arrived back at the barn where a ‘Tactical Operations Unit’ van had pulled into the driveway, kitted out with riot shields and big black sticks. I asked the officer I was with why such a heavy handed approach was needed for such a relatively small gathering. He explained to me that it was just a precaution, seeing as how they didn’t know what sort of reception they would get. Fairy nuff! Once inside, I took the mike and broke the news to my fellow law breakers, saying that we could probably get away with one last tune before having to call it a night. Everyone was disappointed, still charged to the max, but expressed their anger in it’s purest form – DANCE. In a touching show of support, a whip-round was organised by persons unknown produced a contribution to any fines imposed as a result. Enormous thanks to everyone for that.

The party over, the crowd dispersed peacefully and without incident. The following evening we made a slot on the local TV news, on local radio and in the following week, the front page of the local papers. Not bad for a nights work.

So, there you have it. The good old C.J.B. does it again. Quite amazing when you consider it hasn’t even gone through yet…. I feel a letter to my MP coming on. We were told on the night that we would be hearing in the following couple of days what, if any action would be taken. It’s now over two months since that date and I’m still waiting.