Illegal Rave in Spanish Village Doubles Attendance and Earns Praise from Mayor

5,000 people attended a six-day non-stop rave near the Spanish village of La Peza.

As the end of 2022 drew closer, the Spanish village of La Peza discovered it had become the unexpected neighbor of a massive illegal rave. Roughly 5,000 people showed up for an illegal rave outside La Peza on December 30. Above all, the event itself lasted almost an entire week which surprised the entire village and even the mayor.

Random trucks and caravans arrived to set up tents, food stands, and seven music stages in the countryside. The party planners and goers had no permits and just showed up at the village. Additionally, Fernando Álvarez, the mayor of the La Peza municipality, told the Spanish newspaper ‘El País’. “We’re 1,200 people here. Imagine, we woke up Friday morning and we were 5,200 people. By Saturday we were 6,000,” said Álvarez, according to The Guardian. “Truthfully, it was a bit chaotic.”

Nevertheless, you can’t have a festival without some food and drinks to go along with it. T-shirts, soap, juices, pizzas, fried empanadas, and beers were sold throughout the festival. Admission to the festival was free, and young attendees from all over Spain and Western Europe showed up.

The majority of the descendants were Belgians, Dutch, and Italians. The party music, reverberating across La Peza, ran nonstop. “It was 24 hours a day of chin chin boom,” Álvarez told The Guardian.

Furthermore, towards the last couple of days of the festival, Spanish police set up roadblocks and barricades. The police wanted to prevent people from entering the rave, as well as flying a helicopter to spot people attempting to arrive on foot. The police said that the rave was primarily peaceful, with only a small number of arrests for resisting authority and drug-related offenses.

Last but not least, several women at the local market said their daughters had joined the party, and the rave was the talk of the town. Even Mayor Álvarez was impressed, saying that if he had figured out who planned the illegal party, he would have hired them to plan the village fiesta.