The Infaders are a mobile sound system that I created for the Burning Man Festival with a couple of friends. After the festival the project could only keep on going if it would get paid bookings in Holland. How could we raise awareness for our mobile sound system without any budget?
We needed free publicity, so we decided to organize an alternative to the planned strikes against budget cuts by the GVB (the Amsterdam public transport company). As party people it’s in our best interest to have a public transport system that safely takes us to the party – and back home. Our rave on their metro line would show citizen support for their cause and create news on the eve of the strike.
We started a Facebook-event and invited our friends. Within a few days we had 2000 people attending, forcing the GVB to respond that they appreciated the initiative, but that it wouldn’t be safe with so many people. Their response made national news and so we had achieved our goal before our Metro Rave was even held: Widespread attention for both the Infaders and the budget cuts. But we had to cancel the rave after pressure from the mayor of Amsterdam.
Then copycats emerged who made their own Facebook-event for the rave. We feared we had created an unstoppable event where there would be massive police presence and an aggressive atmosphere. So we had to create an alibi. In a split second we decided to drive to Berlin, organize an alternative Metro Rave and send our story to the media.
This video aired on NOS and AT5:
Here’s a slideshow of what happened in Amsterdam on the same night, which featured in Het Parool.
Berlin Video by: Willem de Groot
Berlin Sound by: The Infaders
Amsterdam Photos by: Amaury Miller
Amsterdam Sound by: No one 😉