M6 UNDERGROUND — amerizm

AMERIZM CO.
PHOTOGRAPHER
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
ART DIRECTOR
BASED IN ENGLAND
UNITED KINGDOM.

M6 UNDERGROUND TUNNEL, ILLEGAL PARTY 2021.

M6 underground party, 26th March 2021.

During the pandemic, illegal parties have become a lot more popular and are being attended by people all over the country. No matter your opinion on COVID restrictions and illegal gatherings, I give the highest respect to the organisers putting on parties for us during these times.

On the 26th of March 2021, Birmingham's underground party organisers, Underground Source put a party for us under the m6 motorway inside a tunnel, a well-known spot by graffiti artists. Earlier in the day we heard the party would be held in Sheldon, so we got ready and headed over that way to wait to hear for the location to be released. We started by meeting the people we were going with, at the white heart pub near Sheldon, and having a good few drinks there while we waited for everybody to link up still unsure of the location. We had info it was going to be somewhere over these ways. As more of us congregated we decided to go into a local park, as the numbers were building up and it was becoming a bit bait.

A good hour odd went by and we were freezing in the park, taking the piss out of each other saying maybe it wasn't on at all and someone was having us on.

Luckily we had a postcode come through not long after so we all split up and headed off towards the given postcode. We went in a car so was the first to arrive, as we pulled up at the tower blocks somewhere in Chemsley.. a few of us knew the spot and we started to think it was a house party not a rave because it's so built up round there, we got out to have a mooch and smoke a spliff.. all the jokes have dried up and were starting to get bored of this cat and mouse when a random bloke walks over to me saying you looking for the rave. WE'RE ON! The bloke tells us to head into the park behind the flats and to follow the river for a 15-minute walk, so we get to it grabbing the beers from the car and running about buzzing.. loads of cars are pulling up at this point and loads of groups emerging over the hills all carrying beers and bottles.

We make it to the river and start following it. After a small walk, we start hearing the music and the lights slowly start showing themselves to us... we all start jogging down and are met by another person telling us the route to get across the river, without falling in.

The party started around 10 pm and managed to last a good few hours, lots of people turned up and it was a very lively party until the police arrived. Police came from one side of the tunnel that had been blocked off by organisers, but as soon as people noticed the police and their torches lighting up the crow everybody scattered, including me.
Following the crowd who didn't follow the crowd I ended up in a field that backed onto the tunnel alongside the m6 motorway, with my jeans weighed down with a film camera and desperately trying not to drop the remains of my last beer. I end up in chest-high overgrown grass and weeds, my trainers are getting tangled around all sorts of stuff juggling my beer I inevitably fall over laughing at myself and the situation, but you'll be pleased to know I manage to save the beer. I got my head together and focused on getting up and out of here without any police bullshit, battling to get up and out of the thorns and squinting at the motorway lights, once on my feet I followed a bunch of people through the trees but it ended up to be a dead end, so I turned around and went my own way sipping my beer, I walked around the edge of this field staying close to the trees. I climbed out of the field and I was on a dead road with 1% battery and I'd lost my pals.
I managed to make 2 calls to my pals who said they were heading back to the car but I didn't know where I was and I couldn't use maps because of my battery. So I sort of followed the park back, imagining the river and when I got to the end of the road, I crossed the island looked left and saw 2 riot vans. So I kept my head straight forward and got a quick step across the island, then cut back into another park towards some tower blocks which must be where we parked.

Now at the flats, I found the car expecting them to have made it back already and left possibly, the old bill was lurking in the streets surrounding the flats, so I sat at the back of the car on the curb and hoped for my pals to make it back soon, so we could get out of here. Another friend from the party randomly jogged past me so I shouted at him and joined his lot, as I didn't know how long my pals would be and I was on my own with no battery, so could have been stuck for hours so I joined him and his lot and went back to a yard with them.
We all linked up back at the yard I went back too and didn't make it home till 1 pm the next day, no fines and about 100 thorns stuck in my body.

Long live illegal parties and big up to all the organisers out there putting them on.

- Amerizm.

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