Illegal rave Bristol: Police face hostile crowd at unlicensed rave with bottles thrown as event dispersed

Officers began receiving calls from residents at around 11:15pm on Saturday October 26, alerting authorities to the gathering in a disused building. When they arrived at the scene they found forced entry and attempted to disperse the crowd, while additional teams were mobilised to prevent more people from entering.

The music was eventually shut off by event participants around 10am, at which point police cleared the remaining 100-150 attendees. Inspector Gareth Pike acknowledged residents’ frustrations and highlighted the impact on police resources, as officers faced hostility from attendees with items, including bottles, thrown at them.

Inspector Gareth Pike said: “Residents living close by are understandably angry by the disturbance this unlicensed music event has caused. We’re sorry for the impact it has had on them and we share their frustrations.

“A significant policing operation was stood up with specialist teams deployed, including utilising officers giving up their rest days. We also sought assistance from neighbouring forces through a mutual aid request, although they were not ultimately required after the music was turned off.”

Insp Pike added: “Public safety always must be our priority when responding to such incidents, especially given the potential danger and risk that occurs when you have a very large number of people in a confined space that is not designed to accommodate them.

“The individuals who chose to organise this event have acted in a wholly irresponsible manner and shown a total disregard to other members of the public.

“Officers have also faced unacceptable hostility with items, including bottles, being thrown at them, which is truly disgraceful.

“No police service has a limitless supply of resources. Every officer who has been deployed to Winterstoke Road today is an officer who could have been helping a victim of crime but couldn’t do so because of the selfish actions of those who organised and attended this event.

“Nevertheless, through hard work across the organisation, we have sought to provide victims with the level of service they should expect and deserve from the police, even though we were having to deal with this incident at the same time.

“We have been gathering evidence during our response to this incident to help us identify those who have committed offences and we will look to take appropriate action against those involved.

“We will also speak with the building owner to provide extra security advice to help prevent further such incidents from occurring in the future so as to protect local residents.”