One of them was Adam Tinley, 22, better known as Adamski.
Weaving through the London crowd were two young men who had nipped down to soak up the vibe. Later that night, revelers would break into a warehouse in the village of Radlett, near the M25 orbital-the motorway that had funneled so many convoys full of party people into the English countryside over the previous year-and there, despite skirmishes with police, the party would run until 9 the following morning. People danced in empty fountains and clambered atop the bronze lions sternly guarding Nelson’s Column. Pirate station Obsession FM broadcasted live from the event. There were boomboxes, a bullhorn, a beach ball. The stakes were high: “IF YOU DONT STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS THERE WON’T BE ANY MORE ‘SUMMER OF LOVE’, THERE WONT EVEN BE ANY MORE RAVES,” warned an all-caps flyer for the event, apostrophes breathlessly optional.ĭespite the cold January rain, the mood was jovial. Demonstrators at this 1990 Freedom to Party Rally were protesting legislation aimed at kneecapping the acid-house bacchanals that had recently revolutionized UK youth culture. Brightly colored tracksuits and baggy denim rippled in waves, as far as the eye could see. In London’s Trafalgar Square, thousands of young people gathered to fight for their right to rave.
