U.K. law enforcers appear to be cracking down on the surge of illegal raves taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last weekend, 200 parties were broken up in London alone.
Commander Ade Adelekan of the Metropolitan Police told the Evening Standard that they wouldn’t go easy on event organizers. “I make no apology for the Met’s exhaustive efforts to shut down the dangerous and exploitative unlicensed music events which we have seen across London,” he said. “Since the end of June, the Met has responded to more than 1,000 events.”
Elsewhere in Europe, even lawful events have elicited the ire of the electronic music community and beyond. Large gatherings in Italy and France took place over the past month as daily confirmed COVID-19 case counts trended back upwards in both countries. In the past week, Spain and Italy’s health ministers have reinstated event and venue bans.
On Friday, August 14th, U.K. lawmakers also announced that fines of up to £10,000 would be issued for illegal gatherings.
