Reminds me of an idea I had a few years ago when the northeast states and provinces like Quebec and Ontario were in the grip of an intense cold snap as a result of a "polar vortex". I live near Lake Ontario and the surface of the entire lake froze over to a thickness that would support a transport truck.
You probably see where I'm going with this: throw a big party/rave in the middle of the frozen lake. The goal would be to keep it on the Canadian side (where I live) but far enough out into the lake that local police have no jurisdiction - IANAL but my primitive thinking was to see if you could situate it where it would require federal intervention, which seems to me unlikely to materialize in time to stop a party.
In any case, we would be in the middle of a very large lake, and I'm not sure that there are any laws preventing throwing a party there in the first place.
Naturally, to be a welcoming environment, a party like this would greatly benefit from a huge bonfire, raising concerns about risks that are less likely when you party on dry land, but I thought it was a fun idea...
In the late 90s, there were a few "no man's land" raves in places where jurisdiction was ambiguous between Israel and the (then brand new) Palestinian Authority's west bank territories. Neither the israeli army, police or palestinian police wanted to mess with a huge, internationally negotiated agreement for the sake of a party.
Around 1999-2000 the "Oslo Process" which created those jurisdictional grey areas collapsed into it's current state, things got violent and the raves ended.
Funny how "what's normal" depends on where you're from. Middle Eastern no-mans-land seemed like a cool place for a party, to 16 yo me. Frozen lake in winter seems way to dangerous to even consider. What sort of a lune would go to a frozen lake party?!!
Lots of people in freezing areas of the world do all sorts of things on frozen lakes/water bodies. There are ice roads in Canada's North that are only open when it's cold enough for the water to freeze. Heavy transport trucks use them all the time! And of course there's the hockey/skating and ice fishing.
I went to Canada's winter carnival a few years back. There is a lot going on but one is a canoe race through the ice choked St. Lawrence river. I recall them wearing spiked shoed to climb over ice flows.
I stayed one night in an ice hotel. Absolutely beautiful lit up by LED lights and with ice sculptures. It was pretty cold by my SO couldn't sleep as it was -10f, She said when she closed her eyes she thought, "don't fall asleep, you will freeze", so we bailed. They provide the sleeping bag/liner and instructions (no cotton pajamas etc..)
Cold can be very dangerous though, because hyperthermia makes you not think clearly about what to do next.
One thing to keep in mind - should anyone find themselves sleeping in a very cold situation - is to eat significantly more than normal, particularly fatty foods (butter!). In the cold, your body uses a lot of calories to keep your body temp up and eating a dense meal right before bed goes a long way to your overall comfort.
I also have a belief that keeping a hot beverage ready-made in a thermos (tea or just hot water) should be considered a safety item when winter camping, sea kayaking, etc. Warming yourself from the inside is more effective than trying to throw on extra layers.
You can enjoy this in Europe too. With a sufficiently cold winter, you'll get a nice bunch of ice roads between Estonia and Finland when the Baltic Sea freezes up. It sounds pretty awesome.
Every outdoor party needs a huge bonfire! It's part of the ritual. Depending on your definition of "big", you might be able to get around the hot-logs-on-ice problem using propane gas burners - I've been using them for years to get around summertime burn bans and the risk of grass fires. It might not be as romantic as the traditional bonfire, but it's a lot better than nothing and it really helps keep people out on the dance floor all night. I started out with one of these, and the system I'm using now is just a scaled-up version of the same idea:
Seems like it might work for a frozen-lake party, since the heat stays up off the ground; you could throw a reflective insulating blanket underneath for even better results.
You'd be under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Provincial Police and their marine unit would no doubt ride some snowmobiles out there to find out wtf is going on.
The goal would be to keep it on the Canadian side (where I live) but far enough out into the lake that local police have no jurisdiction
What do the Canadian police do in the summer when a drunken idiot is terrorizing the populace by riding his jet ski like an ass? "Whelp, out on the water, nuthin' we can do, eh?" I imagine it's like the U. S., where any number of law enforcement agencies have jurisdiction to write tickets and arrest folks. And though IANAL, I don't imagine the physical state of the lake water going from liquid to solid being a factor.
Not that this isn't an interesting story, but the headline is dubious. The origins of Burning Man had far more to do with the SF Suicide Club and the Cacaphony Society than what was going on in LA. The first burns were arguably Cacophony society events, and there were Cacophony Society trips to Black Rock prior to Burning Man moving there.
It's interesting to note there was some overlap in between Survival Research Laboratories (mentioned in the article) and Cacophony Society and Suicide Club (according to the internet, I wasn't there)
During the early-mid 80's there was a strong illegal party atmosphere in youth culture. It was promoted by the punk rock fanzines and people were throwing illegal shows everywhere. I was an Iowa punker, and my buddy and I (who I later formed software companies with) used to rent out apartment club houses, church basements, various small venues and then overwhelm the situation with 2-3x the allowed occupancy, 3-6 unannounced local punk rock bands, a school bus with literally 60-80 kegs of beer inside, and every local drug dealer had a little private space to do business. These would be "1 night" events that would last 2 days, the situation would be so out of control the police would just try to manage the crowd. We simply took over with a mob of degenerate youth. I remember one major blowout the cops tried to shut the party down and gave up as the crowd simply ignored them. They even tried billy club force, until surrounded by skinheads shaking their heads. Christian Iowa had no idea how to handle this, and we had a blast.
We never managed to have a persistent venue in Iowa, as far as I know. The scene centered around a wonderful college radio show called "No Commercial Potential Radio" from some little community college. Gawd, those were the daze.
Illegal shows and music fests were common here on native reservations, in forests and abandoned buildings until overdoses happened so much the scene was killed. At the time Nicholas Sand was hiding from the FBI and flooding the local market with high purity lsd/mdma ect. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sand When his lab was busted fake drugs started being peddled at these events causing enough problems the police and reserve police took zero tolerance of any unlicensed shows/raves.
I've also noticed in the beginning, when it's just people involved in that scene, there's no problems. It's when popularity of your illegal festival spreads and outsiders show up who have no connection to anybody involved that problems begin, such as meatheads who eventually turned up on a regular basis to these parties to throw punches, set fires and sell piperazine derived pills.
Just goes to show -- the drug providers making quality product are keeping people safe! People will still seek their escape/bliss, but if they can find something with predictable effects it's way better than allowing free market forces to take over in the vacuum left behind when you bust a drug provider.
As i recall, most heroin overdoses happen when someone tries to get clean, slips, and ends up injecting a dose based on unknown purity and fails to account for their loss of tolerance.
Pssh, ravers have been doing this in the deserts of socal since the early nineties (if not earlier)
Surely deserts anywhere have a rich history of people secretly partying there, just like forests and whatnot.
A lot of that scene has died down but the burner contingent is still going strong. If you know the right names and the right people to talk to its fairly easy to find.
Are you referring to full-moon parties? I was hoping for a mention in the article. I would guess their origin also took inspiration from these parties, considering they started in 1983/4 i.e. a few years before the raves of the "early nineties".
Yeah, full moon stuff is going strong here. I'm not entirely sure when the socal rave scene started, but those guys are also still active (at least according to the folks I know who roll with that crowd) if a bit diminished
You probably see where I'm going with this: throw a big party/rave in the middle of the frozen lake. The goal would be to keep it on the Canadian side (where I live) but far enough out into the lake that local police have no jurisdiction - IANAL but my primitive thinking was to see if you could situate it where it would require federal intervention, which seems to me unlikely to materialize in time to stop a party.
In any case, we would be in the middle of a very large lake, and I'm not sure that there are any laws preventing throwing a party there in the first place.
Naturally, to be a welcoming environment, a party like this would greatly benefit from a huge bonfire, raising concerns about risks that are less likely when you party on dry land, but I thought it was a fun idea...