Oxford Street Party

On 31st October Oxford had a Halloween Street Party. They knew this one would be different being the first party during the week, during the winter and during the night.

On the day, just before 6pm the drizzle stopped and the sky cleared in true Street Party spirit. A couple of hundred people had gathered at the Plain, with bagpipers and drummers providing music. Suddenly the Rinky Dink Sound System appeared from the other end of the roundabout and everyone went mad. After a few minutes the crowd surged round the roundabout to take Cowley Road, known as the backbone of ‘alternative’ Oxford.

The bus and traffic diversions set up by party goers were taken over by the police (we later found out that there were some tooled-up riot vans nearby just in case). Within thirty minutes the Virus Sound System arrived and started setting up, then suddenly Desert Storm Sound System arrived, parked across the road, and opened up the side of their lorry to reveal speakers pumping out techno! The crowd loved it and a blinding party started with people dancing on bus shelters, on top of the sex shop, roofs and even on the street!

There were about 300-400 people at first but by around 10pm it was at least 600, and in total well over 1,200 joined in. About 11.20pm the sound systems were turned off, they then tried to move off to Port Meadow for an after-party party, but instead the police escorted them out of Oxford, and tried to get people’s names and addresses.

For more information contact: Oxford Earth First! Box E, 111 Magdalen Road, Oxford, OX4 1RQ.