A rave is thought to have scared off one of the largest squirrel colonies in Wales

Free parties seem to be popping up all over the place recently. Nowhere near on the same scale as the late '80s and early '90s, but they're certainly kicking off and getting the better of police.

As is usually the case, though, when there's a swing, there's a roundabout. The swing in this case is that ravers are getting one-up on the authorities and the roundabout being that wildlife isn't having the best of times when there's a cranking soundsystem planted in the middle of a field.

A 2000-person rave in Ceredigion, Wales on the May Bank Holiday weekend could have had a detrimental affect on one of the country's largest red squirrel colonies, with experts claiming the rare influx of people would've been damaging.

Dr Lizzie Wilberforce , of the Welsh Wildlife Trust said: "Outside of Anglesey, there are two main populations of red squirrels and the one in the woods around Llanfair Clydogau and Llanddewi Brefi is the largest.

"What I'm concerned about is the impact this rave would have had not just on the colony of red squirrels, but local wildlife in general. There's normally very little human activity in that area so the effects of the rave could potentially be far greater."

It wasn't just the squirrels affected. The three days of tunes obviously sent the party-hating locals nuts...

[Via: the Telegraph]

[Illustration: NeatoNectarine]

Dave Turner is Mixmag's Digital News Editor, follow him on Twitter