Even stuffy commentators had to acknowledge that Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony owed a huge debt to rave culture, with its flying bicycles, its excess of UV glow, a score by Underworld, love, hugs, diversity and the occasional trip to hospital.
Channel 4 is now taking up that glowstick with its rave House Party, a night of dance music with no ads to commemorate the infamous Castlemorton rave: the last great free party of the rave era, where an estimated 20,000 hedonists barricaded themselves on common land for a week-long festival of the demon repetitive beats. “Castlemorton was our generation’s Woodstock,” says Rick “Digs” Down, who was DJing there with his DiY Sound System.
Tabitha Jackson, who commissioned the show, admits she wasn’t actually there