Free Party (NI Premiere)
Schedule
Fri, 03 Oct, 2025 at 08:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
Black Box | Belfast, NI
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The epic Free Party: A Folk History tells the previously untold story of the free party movement, Castlemorton Common Festival and the Criminal Justice Act that followed.The film begins with the birth of the free party movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and how its impact sparked a revolution around the world, from raves and festivals to politics and protest. The film follows the inception of the movement, a meeting between ravers and the new-age travellers during Margaret Thatcher’s last days in power, and the explosive years that followed, leading up the infamous Castlemorton Common Festival in 1992 – the largest ever illegal rave, which provoked the drastic change of the laws of trespass with the notorious introduction of the Criminal Justice Act in 1994.
The themes of the movement as depicted in Free Party are relevant once again, as new laws on trespassing and protesting are being introduced to a new generation of young people.
Trinder the director says “This film is a unique look at a much underrepresented moment in cultural history, the last great unifying youth movement, before digital cameras and the internet, which really challenged the authorities, connected environmental awareness with music and questioned laws on land rights and trespass. Thematically it’s incredibly prescient to today, with new laws on trespass and protest being introduced, raving being huge amongst young people and exactly 30 years since the Criminal Justice Bill was introduced (in 1994). I’ve got incredible access to unseen archive and grass-roots stories very seldom heard from the people who lived it”
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Where is it happening?
Black Box, 18-22 Hill Street, Belfast, BT1 2, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
