For those that attend raves regularly, how much violence such as fights and stabbings do you see compared to places where alcohol is predominently served. Do you agree that a party full of people on ecstasy, marijuana, lsd etc, will have less violence then those where alcohol is served?
I haven't been to any raves in ages now, but the ones I used to goto hardly ever had any violence, there was still stealing of peoples stuff (unattended bags) and ripping people off for drugs (taking money and not coming back) and selling totally bunk pills on purpose, but it was pretty rare. That sometimes caused scenes and some agro, but it usually got sorted out pretty quickly, i'm sure there were fights sometimes, but I don't recall any.
In comparison to the major drinking venues the violence was really minimal, no stabbings or glassings or king hits. Some people would come to the raves drunk, but if they were going to last all night till sunrise they usually would take some chems of some type, otherwise they would not have the energy to last and they would be crashing out in someones car or around the edges of the venue. Some people would go straight, but that was pretty rare too, some punters and dj's and promoters would be straight, I used to doit occasionally.
After I stopped going (to raves) in the early 2000's some of my younger friends would report that lads (gang types) would roll people in the car parks and around the outside of the venue and sometimes inside the event for money or drugs, but it seemed pretty rare.
Generally I think a crowd on mdma and other chems or pot would be alot safer to be around than a bunch of very drunk people. I recall at one or two of the larger raves some people would be so high on whatever drug that they'd do really stupid shit like jump off a balcony or stairwell and I recall one person died I think and you get the occasional overdose, but for how many people go and how many events there are it's pretty rare. Same happens with alcohol events, some people act like idiots and do some really stupid shit sometimes hurting themselves or other people.
Never been to an illegal free rave
We had a run of these types of raves, 'free loves' (there were 2 of them and i'm sure there were a few other ones) come to mind and some doofs in parks or fields or on beaches where it was free and the party was illegal and it was generally the same as the ticketed events, most people on drugs and no violence usually.
Edit -
There was a shooting at a rave in Syd in the mid 90's at 'Raveland' I think it was called at the graffiti hall of fame (Alexandria, gone now) that was pretty bad.
