Midday Mooners
"THE BEST PARTY IN THE WORLD EVER!!!!!"

This is a camping facility during the eclipse in August from 7th till 12th August 1999. There is a 5 day free party being thrown for anybody paying for camping. featuring loads of music styles from hip hop to drum & bass, with loads of djs from Manchester, London, Scotland, Wales. Room for 2,000 people. There will be food stalls, clothes stalls, etc.

Report from schNEWS Issue 224, Friday 20th August 1999
BLOWN AWAY AT THE ECLIPSE
At an eclipse party at Summer Court between Truro and Bodmin attended by 1000+ people, 20 riot cops attempted to shut down one of the 5 sound systems and take it away, while more of their kind sat waiting in vans. The crowd didn't take kindly to this disruption of their fun, and replied with bricks, spades etc. Out came the CS gas, with a woman and her young daughter getting sprayed. After a brief stand-off the press showed up, possibly preventing events escalating even further. Crowd highlights apparently included a woman giving a man a blowjob in front of the old bill, but SchNEWS don't swallow that story.

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Sylda:
The story about the blow job is not true but there were 2 donkeys on the site one called Petro and one called Spike who apparently started shagging during the fighting.
Also a friend of ours who will remain unnamed is really into star wars and when the police came in with riot gear he stood in front of them and said 'this is not the festival you are looking for' performing the actions with hands and light saber of the Jedi mind trick, we thought this was very funny.
Most of the people at the festival had a really good time, everyone was very friendly, sharing and caring all that stuff. There were a great many people down from Manchester due to the organisers being from there.
Most of the travelers were nice to, obviously apart from the ones that beat and stabbed the poor guy on the Tuesday night. None of us heard about this until the next day. Most of us were very upset about it.

Mike
Well the eclipse party was organised with 5 official sound systems. It was cloudy most of the time and we didn't see the eclipse, but it was a good party. there was about 15 sound systems playing anything from 'trance' to 'jungle', 'dance' to banging 'techno'. There was about 3500 people there including some locals. according to the news reports it was an "illegal rave & drug haven". It was legal with a music license and as for drugs, go to any club!!!. It was a lot like the old free festivals. All in all a good time.
For those people not in the UK an explanation. The state and its supporters, don't like alternatives such as travelers, festivals and uncontrolled music and events. The "Criminal Justice Act" forbids "illegal" gathering, includes clauses for the confiscation of vehicles etc. It also goes on about music with "repetitive beats" giving powers to seize sound systems.
Back to the story.....
Apparently some locals had complained about the noise, at least one of these was at the festival until midnight, but then wanted to go to bed, and on one day stayed till four, but once she got home, well it was to loud so she complained. (I actually spoke to her - I was gob smacked). Anyway the police turned up, about a 100 riot police. They stopped people moving from the camp site to the music site, and as I was in the camp site at the time this is second hand and from the press. Basically 200 people (travelers in the press), threw stones etc (petrol bombs in the press - yeh right), and drove the police away. The press were trying to talk to people, and some idiots talked to them. NEVER talk to the press in a situation like that, they'll miss quote you etc. All the press were at the bottom end of the camp site about 200 meters away from were the police were, so all there writings were fed from the police. 2 cops and 3 council workers were hurt (council workers are the ones who investigate noise complaints), no arrests, and the party continued. This happened on the Tuesday, eclipse on Wednesday.
We left on the Thursday and didn't hear of any more trouble until later when we heard someone had been stabbed.

Subsequently Davey wrote
"I wasn't charged . Paul and Gary got three hundred quid fines each 'cos they're on the dole. Duncan (because he gets benefit for his MS) got slapped for 500.
EVERYONE was amazed how lightly we got off with it. Apart from one quite decent copper who pointed out that cases brought against coppers take longer to get in court. So as we were up first, it would go better for the filth if everyone was dealt with leniently then the dib would get a smoother ride."

Click here for Bekki`s excellent site featuring the Midday Mooner Eclipse Event 
(chucking rocks in the hot sun, we fought the law and we won) 
with loads of photos and  interesting stuff about other gigs

Click here to find out more from another outside site

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