In eco news as in fashion, it has all gone a bit early 90s. Illegal outdoor raves are returning. Remember them? Recent police crackdowns include Operation Enigma in Hampshire, which sounds like a rave itself. Oddly, it is wildlife crime police who are charged with shutting down these events.
In truth, it’s hard to stop a multi-sound-system outdoor rave in the dark once it gets going, so the police often have to sit it out. When dawn comes the extent of the damage is revealed. According to police, landowners and many conservationists, illegal raves trash habitats.
Certainly this can happen. Debris, including gas canisters and broken glass, from an illegal rave held on important heathland in Lincolnshire last year derailed a regeneration project. Tucker Gumber, who runs thefestivalguy.com, says electronic dance music events “tend to be the dirtiest”, but this is anecdotal. The CLA (representing landowners) says raves cause damage.
Clearly nobody has any business attending an event held near a vulnerable habitat, or where livestock is kept. But to focus purely on rave damage is to ignore the green roots of the movement. The original outdoor ravers were expected to defend the environment.
As Naomi Klein puts it, the common demand of such groups, ranging from Twyford Down anti-road protestors to permaculture groups and the anti-capitalists who originated communities like Marsh Farm in Luton, was to do with “the right to uncolonised space – for homes, for trees, for gathering, for dancing”.
It’s been a while since I hung up my own glow sticks. But I hope the new ravers care about this green heritage. The outdoor rave that leaves no trace would be truly subversive.
The big picture: RSPB big garden birdwatch results
The RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch represents turbo-charged citizen science. In January more than half a million people recorded the birds that appeared in their local areas. The results are in. I’m not one to cheer global warming, but the mild winter has been a boon for small birds, including long-tailed tits (see picture): numbers are up by 44% on last year. But starlings and song thrushes experienced marked declines.
Well dressed: Slow Fashion by Safia Minney
Continuing in my ambition to slim down your wardrobe by including as many books, apps and swapping opportunities as new stuff to buy, here’s another library addition: Slow Fashion, written by Safia Minney. She is the founder of much-loved fairtrade fashion brand People Tree, well known in the UK and Japan. She’s also a stalwart of fair trade who has spent years forging supply chains with overseas producers. Yes, her new book advocates slow fashion in the face of the onslaught of near-disposable fast fashion – but it is really a book about relationships between consumers and producers. There’s also a chapter on the most exciting sustainable-fashion stores. It makes you want to buy new stuff, but at least it’ll be ethical.
Slow Fashion is pubished by New Internationalist, at £14.99. To buy a copy for £11.99 go to bookshop.theguardian.com
Email Lucy at lucy.siegle@observer.co.uk or follow her on Twitter @lucysiegle
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