People are breaking lockdown and risking their health to rave in secret during the pandemic: 'Everyone is there for the music, not thinking about this s---'

• Across the world, people are breaking the lockdown measures imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus to rave in secret at the dead of night.
• In countries like the US, UK, France, and Germany, mass gatherings are still banned, so many parties have moved underground.
• Insider spoke to three people in the UK who are shirking government guidelines and risking their health by doing just that.

Beneath motorway flyovers, in ancient woodlands, and inside derelict warehouses people are partying, virus or no virus.

In the US, UK, France, and Germany, both young and old are shirking government regulations imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and partying in large numbers in the dead of night.

UK government guidelines currently forbid gatherings of more than 30 people, but the police identified at least 500 illegal raves in Greater London in July alone.

Attendees of illegal parties been slammed as reckless, inconsiderate, and selfish, but those who go don't see it like that at all.

'Hope for a better tomorrow'

On July 17, 2020, in Bath, western England, 3,000 people descended on an abandoned Royal Air Force base in the dead of night.

"It was like a mini-festival. There were a few rigs, around six or seven rigs [playing music]. It was pissing down with rain, the roads were kind of gridlocked, it was quite mental," a woman named Nic, who drove from London to Bath for the party, told Insider.

The party kicked off at midnight and kept going until 4 p.m. the next day, she said.

"It is every weekend now," she said, asking that her surname be withheld to respect her privacy. "This past month there's been major partying."

"I'm enjoying partying now more than I did before. It is so new, exciting, fresh, not too predictable, and way more varied," she said, adding that she has been to at least a dozen other raves since lockdown measures were imposed in March.

Two weeks earlier, on July 4, around 300 people gathered under a motorway near Barking, east London, for another rave.

"The music gives us hope for a better tomorrow," one woman who attended the party with two friends, and who works as a security officer in London, told Insider.

The person asked to remain anonymous, citing concerns over privacy, but her identity is known to Insider.

From around 12 a.m. a handful of DJs played thumping techno that reverberated off the concrete around them.

That is, until police showed up to shut it down at 2 a.m.

The location of the party had been revealed earlier that day on a secret WhatsApp group, members of which had to be verified via Instagram before they could be given the location.

This furtive form of communication makes it harder for police to gain enough intelligence to prevent the gatherings from happening, a policing expert told Wired.

Those who attended the parties say that while people are there to have a good time, they are aware of the safety concerns.

"These parties, they're not busy. They're not like clubs, where you're packed in like penguins shuffling," Nic told Insider.

There is, of course, usually the risk of the police showing up to disperse the gatherings.

But arrests have been largely made at raves where violence breaks out, or drugs are being sold, like one held in Manchester in mid-July.

The sources contacted for this article said the police had broken up some of their parties in the past, but were nice about it. They did not mention witnessing or hearing of arrests.

'We are playing with fire'

The level of health precautions at these secret raves appears to differ.

Nic told Insider that some people do wear masks and attempt to social distance, but it can be hard to keep up the discipline.

"Social distancing has come into it, in a way," she said. "There's also less people because not everyone is into breaking the rules just yet."

"People have taken precautions ... people haven't shared drinks. People respect that."

"I did see some people wearing the odd mask at the beginning," she added. "That didn't last very long because they realized no one else was wearing masks."

However, when asked whether she complied with government guidance about masks and social distancing, the woman who works as a security officer told Insider: "Everyone is there for the music, not thinking about this s---."

"I've been to many parties with big crowds and I don't know anyone who got sick with COVID-19," she added.

A third person who has been attending underground parties in Greater London told Insider that two of her friends tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a forest party, but said they were responsible about it.

This person asked to be anonymous, citing privacy concerns, but their identity is known to Insider.

"Obviously it is a risk and arguably we are playing with fire but I feel like given the circumstances people are still being as careful as they can be while still meeting," she said.

"People are transparent about positive results and then definitely self-isolate."

"The threat to others is on our minds and not something we take lightly," she added. "I would say that's why we tried to not meet up but eventually it became so hard not to."

"I am not working currently and have no elderly relatives or people I am in contact with. I wear a mask on transportation and in shops so my only unprotected contact is with people who have also made the choice to do so."

She added: "I have no regrets, no. The connection fed my soul."