It's a bloody shame that all this had to happen. I DID see some of the stuff that was going on outside the venue at Super Duper Sci-Fi. It was a total mess, and I was kind of pissed that I had to sit through it all. People were being pretty rowdy...there was some pushing, cutting in line and all of that. Actually, there WAS no real line... It was just kind of a huge mob that wrapped around the corner. Anyways... a lot of people were just straight up rude... Also, someone got one of the side doors to the venue open, and a huge mob of people ran in until security could get the doors shut. It seriously was NOT fun out there.
The thing is though... while I wasn't happy with what was going on outside, not once did I think that our scene was going downhill. The only thing I could think was "Damns... only at a massive." Honestly, when I go to massives, I always expect a different crowd than what I'm used to seeing at the smaller parties. I don't believe that the crowd you see at massives is representative of "our scene." Instead, it's a much more mainstream crowd... and a lot of them won't necessarily respect the venue or all the hard work that the promoters are putting into the parties. They don't realize that these venues are rare...and that we're LUCKY to have as many parties as we do. I'm not saying that people who attend the smaller parties are better than everyone else... or that everyone that goes to massives suck. For the most part, everyone I've met at these parties have been really cool... people I wouldn't mind partying with on a regular basis. Yeah... with massives, you're likely to get a handful of people who will mess up the image of our scene... but they exist in every scene! Plus, you're also gonna get a grip of really good people who wouldn't have been exposed to some bangin' music without these parties. Shoot... my first party was a massive (Cyberfest 99) I dunno... All in all... I'm not surprised that things got as ugly as they did outside. I kind of expect it from the larger parties. But at the same time... it SUCKS that the Skills promoters had to go through that... no one should ever have to. Hope that wasn't too pointless... bChoi! -----Original Message----- From: natasha [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 12:15 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [D] Thought some of you should read this. (fwd) [this was forwarded to f8 from an sfr post. the first two paragraphs are by tom slik. the guy who wrote the flame after is andy w, an old school producer.] > I would like to thank everyone that came and supported > Skills on Saturday April 6, 2002 @ the Bill Graham > Civic Auditorium. We at Skills feel this is one of the > best events we have produced over the past 4 years, > but I would like to chat about something a little more > serious. The events that transpired that night outside > of the venue were a complete and utter tragedy. Lets > face it, if you saw what was going on, you know it was > a war zone outside. This kind of behavior is the > reason why we are shorthanded on venues. If you have > no intention of paying, being searched, or being IDed then > you are putting everyone, inside and outside of the > building, safety at risk. I have just come out of a > long discussion with Captain Gallagher and Officer > Kilgarrif of the Northern Police station, and I can > tell everyone that the future of events in San > Francisco does not look good. I hope everyone can > take a moment and think about how their actions not > only represent themselves, but other people as well. > About how just a few people can ruin the reputation of > thousands. Our scene has just taken one huge step > back. Our scene, not just our events, is labeled as a > potentially violent situation. Why is it that *my* scene took a huge step back because a promoter across town had a crowd control issue? I'm sorry, but I haven't done anything! Skills advertises the shit out of a party (wedging a huge ass flyer into my motorcycle's seat? Where the fuck am I gonna put it!?!?! I'm on a mo-tor-cy-cle), Skills makes Lo0T, Skills has a line/crowd issue, and now everybody has more of a problem throwing a party and we as a community have to change our evil ways? Stop selling the scene outside the scene pal! There's some ugly people out there! You wonder why you're getting people who are clueless to the underlying ethics of the scene that you fell in love with, look at who you tell your party about? Oh wait, you have no idea... you guys never see them. Why don't you get on the same radio stations, ads, promotional spots, and huge ass flyers you used to tell people about your event in the first place and share this little bit of info... tell people about mutual respect and self sustaining communities and a basic trust, and what a temporary autonomous zone is, and how we can use the insights we've gained through shared experience to reach a higher level of unity, understanding and tolerance, and how our actions as individuals reflect on the community... and not to riot no matter what, even if you're stuck in line and Mars is about to go on, you're starting to clench your jaw and you're pissed about getting your chapstick thrown away. I honestly doubt the problem can be effectively addressed by sending a quick e-mail out to a list of a couple hundred people, many of whom I know for a fact weren't at your event that had an attendance of several thousand. Sorry if that seems a bit abrupt, but this cry of "our precious scene"seems most often burped up by those making the most off it. I undertand I probably seem really annoying, but hey... I'm annoyed! This kind of stuff _is_ a real issue, and the perception of ALL events (no matter how inimate or carefully planned) suffers as a result. But getting on this list and scolding the people probably least likely to have been part of the problem does not seem like you're taking responsiblity for what you have helped bring upon us all. andyw
