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Glasgow J18/RTS party
Just got home after a _GREAT_ J18/RTS street party in Glasgow yesterday. We had such a great time that we were stunned to hear about the disaster in London. We had about 300 people in total, with 3 sound systems (one pedal-powered trike disguised as a silver spaceship), lots of folks dressed up, and about half a dozen drummers (incl. me) who despite the lack of numbers somehow managed to have a sizeable proportion of the crowd dancing... :) We paraded round and round the city centre, generally very favourable reaction from everyone who was emtombed in an office (interesting when the action's on a Friday afternoon and people thoughts are obviously elsewhere), lots of smiles from passers-by (not so many from car drivers stuck in the jams, but a few), even smiles from police. We had a police mountain bike team sprinting about keeping tabs on where we were heading and I spotted one of them enthusiastically bouncing about on his bike in time to our sound systems! :) Ended up at Kelvingrove park in the end, where people chilled, or danced to one of two sound systems. Apart from a token presence of 2 or 3, the coppers *waited outside for us to finish* (we'd told them we'd stop about 7:30), and everything was totally cool. Just shows how things *can* be I suppose... huge thanks to everyone who was planning, driving, DJing, walking, dancing, drumming or helping out in any way. Everyone I spoke to was REALLY IMPRESSED with the way the police handled it, they were almost *helpful*, so thanks to Strathclyde police -- they didn't even get too flustered when we stopped for a cheeky dance outside Pitt Street police station... :) The atmosphere was smiley and relaxed, everyone seemed to have a great time. Quite a few people had taken young kids along, with no problems -- Phil Kay (the comedian) was there with his young daughter, face painted up, and he said they'd had "a magic time". Of course, all the Scottish papers are filled with stuff about the rioting in London, and there's hardly any mention of the totally peaceful and successful Glasgow event, never mind any mention of the 30 or so other events worldwide. Let's keep doing it -- PLUR. :) © Dr Mungbean 1999 |