Back in the late eighties, when acid house filtered its way into UK club culture, a group of like-minded friends, who were disenchanted by the lack of scene and the dominance of commercial nightclubs in their hometown, decided to put on their own events. They were mainly housed in old vacant warehouses and units around the industrial backdrop of Blackburn. These events are now part of the fabric of the emergence of rave culture in the UK.
Convoys
Initially, the events were promoted to people in the know via word of mouth – flyers were often given out with a contact number to be called for rendezvous points and further instructions, often meeting in distant towns and cities across the North and travelling en masse in convoys to the various industrial estates dotted around Blackburn. The parties rapidly ballooned from a couple of hundred locals to thousands of likeminded youths from all over the UK.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Live the dream
The early raves were a success and predominantly trouble-free. However, as the events grew larger in scale, so did the pressure on Lancashire Police to shut them down. One of the last major events was “Live The Dream” in Tockholes, an all-nighter that took place in September 1989, which saw over 10,000 people attend.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
The Blackburn raves took place during a magical and non-pretentious era of dance music and rave culture. This culture went on to inspire a generation of club promoters, musicians, and DJs.
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Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
Photo © The Lancashire Telegraph.
All the above images have been used by permission of the Lancashire Telegraph. The images were taken from the following article: Blackburn’s acid house raves remembered
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- Article first published
- December 21, 2017
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