Ten people were arrested after Suffolk police broke up an illegal rave of roughly 300 people in Rendlesham Forest near Capel St Andrew over the weekend, Mixmag reported. Officers were called out in the early hours after reports of a gathering that had grown from an estimated 50 people to around 300 by the time they arrived.
Police found sound equipment and music playing on site and moved to block entrances before shutting the event down before 9:30pm. A "significant amount" of equipment, including music decks and speakers, was seized along with two vans. Of the ten arrested, one was held on suspicion of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, two on suspicion of drug-driving, and the remaining seven on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.
"Suffolk Constabulary takes seriously criminality associated with unlicensed music events and we take robust steps to close them down," said T/DCC Alice Scott in a statement announcing the arrests.
Reaction split online once the statement circulated. "Dancing is not a crime," one commenter wrote, while another argued there was "nothing else for them to do" locally. A third described the gathering itself as good-natured, recalling "lovely vibes" and saying officers who passed ravers coming and going never intervened.
Locals were split more broadly in their reaction to the police statement, with some defending the gathering online as harmless fun and others echoing the force's concerns about the disruption it caused nearby.
The facts
- 10 arrested, soundsystems seized at the unlicensed event
- Crowd grew from an estimated 50 to around 300 people
- Local reaction online split between defending the party and echoing police concerns
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