Fuente Alamo's illegal rave ends after five days of partying

The illegal macro-party held in Fuente Álamo (Murcia) under the name Big Fucking Party 2024, has come to an end this Friday after five days of uninterrupted partying. During midday, the last stage that was still standing inside the municipal speed circuit, in disuse for years and occupied since last Saturday by thousands of people, was dismantled. The rave, which was already held in a very similar way last year on the same dates in La Peza (Granada), has been concluded a couple of days before Three Kings Day, when it was expected to end. The end of the party has been carried out in an organized way and complying with security measures, although the mayor of Fuente Álamo, Juana María Martínez (PP) has warned that the operation cannot be ended as long as there are attendees in the venue and until the damage has been assessed or the waste derived from the party has been removed.

The celebration has hardly affected the towns in the area and there have been no major incidents, but it has resulted in a total of 200 administrative sanctions and one person has been arrested for drug trafficking, according to information provided by the Government Delegation in the Region of Murcia. The Civil Traffic Guards have filed 57 complaints after carrying out drug tests on drivers and another 14 for Road Safety infractions. Drug possession or consumption has also been reported 92 times and 14 complaints have been processed for violations of the Road Safety Law. The Local Police of Fuente Álamo has also filed 20 complaints for camping in areas that are not permitted.

The event kicked off last Saturday, when the organizers broke the lock that gives access to the circuit and began to install the sound equipment, stages, shops and fast food stalls that during the week have made up a nomadic city of 10,000 inhabitants; a parallel society with its own rules and economic system. From that moment on, the call began through messaging platforms and social networks such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook groups such as Teknival. Little by little, thousands of vehicles and people joined a rave whose resources, organizational capacity and material deployment have nothing to envy to that of a festival managed by a promoter, with large stages, a powerful and quality sound, and a variety of food trucks that sold crepes, pizzas or homemade hamburgers. None of the attendees consulted have offered details to identify the organizers.

Although the attendees have given up a little before Three Kings Day, as expected after the precedent of the Big Fucking Party 2023 – extended until January 6 – it has been five days of uninterrupted partying. Almost half of the participants came from other countries – mainly France, Italy and Germany – and arrived in motorhomes. Some came to squeeze their holidays and others were nomads who go from party to party arguing that this is a completely legitimate "culture" and "way of life".

The strategy followed by the Guardia Civil in this situation has been more one of attrition than shock. On Wednesday, the Government Delegation ruled out an eviction to avoid greater evils, and it was decided to prevent the return of all vehicles that left the venue to guarantee safety on the roads and to reduce the volume of the party. In this way, the rave was losing steam and this Thursday, six of the seven stages were already removed in trucks from the organizers. In addition, half of the vehicles left the venue, in a sign that the party could end earlier than planned.

Although the music could be heard for several kilometres, the venue was strategically chosen by the organisers and the macro-party has had little impact on the normality of the surrounding villages. The most populated in the area (17,589), Fuente Álamo, is 13 kilometers from the site and its citizens agreed that, as long as they did not leave waste, they did not look with a bad eye on the celebration of the festival.

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A night at the endless party of the nomads concentrated in the 'rave' of Murcia

The Big Fucking Party 2024 has not been without political brawl either. Vox's regional leader, José Ángel Antelo, has been demanding the dissolution of the event from the beginning. The stance was quickly branded as "repressive" by the regional deputy of Podemos, Víctor Egío, who encouraged the organizers to organize a similar party again at the same venue next year in a video disseminated through his account on X (formerly Twitter) and recorded from inside the illegal party itself.

Although the duration of the rave was somewhat shorter than the previous year, most of the attendees agreed that it had been a very positive experience and expressed their willingness to repeat next year. It is expected, then, that there will be a new edition of the Big Fucking Party in 2025. The dates and name of the event are foreseeable. But to know the place where it will be held is a year away.

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