A free party is a party "free" from the restrictions of the legal club scene, similar to the free festival movement. It typically involves a sound system playing electronic dance music from late at night until the time when the organisers decide to go home. A free party can be composed of just one system or of many and if the party becomes a festival, it becomes a teknival. The parties can be thought of as autonomous zones where all the people present create and enforce the rules. This typically means that drugs are readily available and noise levels are usually illegally high. The word free in this context is used both to describe the entry fee and the lack of restrictions and law enforcement. Motivations for organisers range from political protest to just wanting to have fun. An example of free parties as political protest was their prominence during the M11 link road protest. At most parties no money is asked for entrance since the aim is not to make profit. However at some (most often indoor) events it is requested at the door to make a donation to cover costs. Typically organisers make little profit or make a loss setting them up. The term free party is used more widely in Europe than in the US. In Canada and some parts of Europe they are also referred to as Freetekno parties. A free party might have once been described as a rave, and the origins of the two are similar. Since the birth of nightclubs in town centres in Europe the use of the word rave had largely fallen out of fashion, however in recent times it is increasingly being used again.
Free Party may refer to:
The Free Party was a minor political party in the United Kingdom. They were founded to promote the free party scene during the 2001 general election. They stood candidates for the three Parliamentary seats within the city of Brighton and Hove, under names associated with the Church of the SubGenius. They proposed to select their policies from a wheel of fortune.
In the 1997 general election, a candidate stood for election in Brighton, Pavilion, using the description Church of the SubGenius, and the name of the "church" leader, Bob Dobbs. This was the election when the Labour Party was swept into power, winning the election in Brighton and making Tony Blair prime minister. The Labour Government introduced legislation requiring registration of political parties, and at the 2001 election, the Free Party was registered as with the Electoral Commission, and the registered party symbol chosen was the image of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs.
At the 2001 election, the party stood candidates in all the local constituencies, with Bob Dobbs achieving 1 per cent of the total votes for the Pavilion seat, beating the UK Independence Party into seventh place. This was not enough, however, to secure the return of the candidates' £500 deposits.
Free Party Salzburg (German: Freie Partei Salzburg, FPS) is a political party in Austria active in the state of Salzburg.
The FPS was established in June 2015 as a split from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Prior to the split conflicts had occurred between the FPÖ's federal party leader Heinz-Christian Strache and the former chairman of the Salzburg state branch Karl Schnell. On 9 June 2015, Strache quickly expelled the previous acting as national party chairman Rupert Doppler from the FPÖ. Five of the six FPÖ MPs in Salzburg Parliament, as well as two Member of Parliament and a Federal Council joined. Between the FPS and the FPÖ's remaining Salzburg state branch, a conflict over the party name and the allocation of subsidies developed. Initially called Freiheitliche Partei Salzburgs ("Freedom Party of Salzburg"), the party had to change its name after a court had ruled that it was too similar to the FPÖ's name.