1988–1995 · Britain
Drug parties are destroying a whole generation!
Rave and ecstasy
Panic meter
The verdict
The raves led to a law aimed at music with “repetitive beats”. The drug risks were real but smaller than the alarms.
Reality meter
What was said?
From 1988, thousands of young Britons gathered at illegal parties in warehouses and fields. The newspapers wrote about ecstasy and "acid house" parties, and when tens of thousands converged on Castlemorton Common in 1992, politicians demanded action.
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 gave police the power to shut down outdoor gatherings with music "wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats".
The verdict: what happened next?
Ecstasy can kill, and a few high-profile deaths, such as that of Leah Betts in 1995, made a deep impression. But most of those who danced came to no harm, and electronic dance music went mainstream.
The law put a stop to the big illegal parties, which simply moved into clubs and festivals.
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