Skryne Castle, an 850-year-old castle in Couty Meath, Ireland, was the site of an illegal rave on St. Stephen’s Day, December 26th.
Event organizers secured the castle by renting it on Airbnb. According to a report from EDM.com, around 450 people attended the rave. A “famous DJ” reportedly played a set, but their identity is currently unknown.
The owner of the castle, Derek Iceton, began receiving calls about loud noise and taxis arriving at the castle in the evening. Speaking to Irish publication Sunday World, Iceton said, “I started to get calls around 9:00 PM on Sunday night to say the roads around Skryne were flooded with taxis and the people were pouring into the castle grounds. The first thing I saw when I went in was a number of huge, two-three meter canisters of nitrous oxide and also a massive bar that had everything from tequila to Cointreau for sale.”
To disperse the crowd, which was spread over three stories, Iceton cut the building’s power. He also falsely claimed that local drug enforcement agencies were about to raid the building.
The illegal rave comes as Ireland officials restricted music venue attendance to 50% last month in response to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19.
