​Huge illegal rave in Yorkshire was “as loud as Leeds Festival”, locals say

Six people have been arrested following an illegal rave in North Yorkshire over the weekend, local police confirm.

Around 1,000 attended the unlicensed event, which took place between York and Selby in a quarry near the village of Stillingfleet throughout Saturday night, raging on through to the morning of Sunday, May 7.

Locals reported that it sounded “as loud as Leeds Festival”, the annual event that welcomes more than 80,000 people to the area each summer. It was also reportedly heard from Skipwith, a town six miles away.

North Yorkshire Police were called to the scene after receiving reports of loud music, drug use, and disorder from locals, who took to Facebook to complain about the event on Sunday morning.

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“Some of the people there are saying it’s due to go on until Tuesday. Definitely isn’t showing any signs of slowing down,” one local said on a local events page.

“I’ve just witnessed so many clearly drugged up/drunk people (as in huge dilated pupils, can barely stand up) get behind the wheel of their car and drive off,” she added, urging others to “keep calling the police and take it to the media”.

In response, some locals argued that the rave was “no different” from the street parties taking place across the country for the King’s Coronation.

“Amazing! Reminds me of the 90s. Hopefully they will pick up after themselves and leave peacefully once fun has been had,” one person responded.

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A “significant” number of police officers and drones were deployed onto the scene on Sunday morning. "Events such as these cause huge distress and disruption to the local community, and also put attendees themselves at risk,” said a North Yorkshire Police spokesperson later that day.

Several vans worth of music equipment were seized and six arrests were made, including those suspected to be involved in organising the event.

“While this was a challenging incident to deal with – not least because of the sheer volume of people in attendance – we’re extremely grateful to local residents for their patience,” a police spokesperson said.

Gemma Ross is Mixmag's Assistant Editor, follow her on Twitter