Thousands attend illegal rave at former airfield in Cornwall

Thousands of people travelled from all over the UK last weekend for an illegal rave in an old airfield that lasted three days.

According to Cornwall Live, the event, which was held at the former RAF Davidstow Moor site near Camelford in north Cornwall, had been organised to mark the 30th anniversary of the infamous Castlemorton rave — a week-long, 20,000-person free party that is arguably the most significant of its kind held in the UK.

Attendees were able to unscramble the details of the party via a secret text message that asked partygoers to “leave the site as we find it” and “be respectful to the locals and the authorities”.

There is said to have been reports of loud noise and music being played on Friday with Devon and Cornwall Police police reportedly turning up later and road-blocking the site around 10pm that night. 

According to one reveller, Robin Wealleans, there “was a good mix of people, mostly youngsters but plenty of us slightly older ones represented too.” The music comprised “an eclectic range of underground genres, everything from jungle and hardtek to tribe and breakcore but also funky electronica, quirky remixes, reggae and comedy tunes.

“Partygate meant that everyone felt it was extra important to have our Castlemorton moment,” he said. “Overall production was also spectacular with the sound systems like Odyssey, Irritant and IRD now much bigger and properly tuned.”

Wealleans said several thousand people braved the “epic mudslides” and were still at the site on Sunday, although police had reportedly shut down the soundsystems. Attendees began cleaning up the site on Monday. 

One local farmer described the ravers as “all good people” in a Facebook post, pointing out that they “picked all the litter up” and that he has “livestock in the vicinity and have had no problems at all.”

“I have never seen a rave site so clean and as a countryside lad myself I was really pleased to hear that the site is now spotless and the local farmers happy,” added Wealleans. 

Aerial footage, which you can see below, shows a number of tents and vehicles scattered about the airfield. Police said around 10 arrests for drink/drug and driving offences were made over the weekend. Wealleans pointed out that ravers helped to “jumpstart the onsite police van which had a flat battery from listening to their radio all weekend.”

A model aircraft exhibition organised by the Cornwall War Museum was also taking place on the airfield at the weekend and had to be cordoned off by police to allow visitors through to the museum. Wealleans said “a busload of OAPs  mysteriously showed up at one point and looked horrified!”

In other illegal rave news, back in April a man out on a solo camping trip on the Yorkshire Moors accidentally joined an illegal rave. Oliver Broome from Leeds had ventured out for a quiet camping trip on Oxenhope Stoop Hill in Bradford before he began encountering unusual noises beyond his tent.

Revisit Castlemorton, the free party that changed UK dance music forever with photographer Alan Lodge in Simon Doherty’s feature for DJ Mag.

Image via Robin Wealleans/Facebook