Late Gen Z & Early Alpha…we are counting on you..
Every 35 Years or So
Every 35 years or so, there is a rip in space-time—not the astrophysical kind, but the cultural and, crucially, the musical kind. The cycles collide. Fascist governments try, and usually succeed, in crushing a cultural movement founded on oppression.
As Luke Una said recently: there is something afoot , it feels diffent out there . Out of darkness becomes light. Oppressed teens and twenty-somethings have their breakout fuck you moment.
The Summer of Love, '60s. The '90s rave movement—something I was very much part of—came out of the crushing oppression under Thatcher. The '60s had the draft, the Vietnam War, the enlistment of children. Last weekend, history didn't repeat, but it rhymed—loudly.
The Pattern
1967 — San Francisco
100,000 young people converged on Haight-Ashbury. Cheap rent, Victorian houses, and the escalating Vietnam War created a haven for artists and the disaffected seeking an alternative to "straight" society.
Time magazine ran "The Hippies" cover story. CBS News aired documentaries on "flower children." By October, organizers held a mock "Death of Hippie" funeral—the movement had been co-opted. But the pivot point remained: it catalyzed the anti-war movement, birthed the ecology movement, and created the template for modern music festivals.
1988–1994 — The UK
The Second Summer of Love. Not LSD this time, but MDMA. Ecstasy fueled a movement that saw football hooligans become dancefloor allies. The "Madchester" sound—baggy clothes, smiley faces, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses.
It peaked at Castlemorton Common, May 1992. A week-long free festival. 20,000–40,000 people. The authorities couldn't shut it down. The panic was immediate.
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994
The government's response to Castlemorton. Section 63 granted police powers to shut down gatherings of 20+ people where music consisted of "a succession of repetitive beats."
They legislated against a rhythm. Up to three months in prison for staying.
The effect was devastating. What felt like revolution became illegal. Checkpoints in the forest. Phone boxes for directions. Ford Escorts filled to the brim. Camo tents and parachutes strung through trees in East Fife. Watching the sun come up over a beach, or slumped over a McDonald's table in a city, still buzzing.
That culture is embedded in Scotland and Northern England like a heavy 180-gram deep-grooved record. Still today, if you get the bus from Edinburgh airport—fittingly a stone's throw from the Royal Highland Centre, home of the REZ—you'll hear those happy rave sounds on Forth FM, playlists frozen in time.
The Present Convergence
Eggtek
2,000 people. Ministry of Defence land. One of the annual highlights of the free party scene.
Police arrived at 23:45. Hundreds of officers. Riot shields. Twelve hours standing like dummies while people tried to dance.
Police claim: "Missiles" (plastic bottles) thrown, justifying batons, dogs, pepper spray.
Ravers claim: Shocked by the level of force.
Arrests. Equipment seized under the same 1994 Act used to crush the '90s movement.
Palestine Action
523 people arrested at a mass demonstration supporting Palestine Action—the direct-action group banned as a terrorist organization by the UK government.
Their crime: Opposing genocide. Targeting Elbit Systems weapons factories.
Arrests made under the Terrorism Act 2000. Up to 14 years in prison for supporting a banned group. The High Court had already ruled the ban unlawful—interfering with free speech—but the government appealed. Arrests resumed anyway.
WTF is going on? It's Orwellian to the core.
The media reporting was a disgrace:
- ITV News — "Police 'under attack' and arrests made after 2,000 people attend illegal rave"
- Manchester Evening News — "Riot cops attacked at huge 2000‑strong Easter rave"
- AOL/Press Association — "Missiles thrown at police as illegal rave shut down"
The Parallel
Everyone who participated felt it. The parallel is undeniable: a fascistic police state tightening its grip. We thought dissidence was gone forever.
The millennials never had their moment. They turned inward instead of outward. Social media ruined them—voyeurs in their own time, harking for nostalgia they never experienced. No massive togetherness. No culture-shaping movement. Just apathy, algorithms, and the slow strangling of public space.
Is this the summer people finally live in the moment? Put down the phones? Stop performing for reels and actually experience?
A Note to Gen Z
If this culture comes to you, grab it with both hands. Do not let go. You can be our salvation. The older generation will have to help you, but you can do this.
Do not take phones into clubs. Speak to your fellow clubber. Stay the fuck off social media. Go where the flow takes you—not for photos, not for reels, but for the experience. Savour the moment through your own eyes, not through a lens.
Keep the rip in the cultural space-time open. Don't let the fascists stick it back together.
