A Spiral Tribe exhibition is opening this month

An exhibition on the Spiral Tribe free party collective is opening this month, running from Friday 13th October to Saturday 16th December 2023 at Mikro Offspace in the Gewerbeschule district of Zurich.

The work on display at Music, Magic and Mayhem will explore the roots and motivations behind Spiral Tribe, and outline why the crew have played such a pivotal role in grass roots dance music culture over the past three decades. 

Archive videos and photographs, visual art, and manifestos will tell the story from UK foundations in 1991 and the notorious Castlemorton Common Festival a year later, through to clampdowns by British authorities and Spiral Tribe’s relocation to Europe. More contemporary activities, credited to SP23, will also be covered. 

A number of special dates will take place over the course of the exhibition's full run. These include a book launch with Spiral Tribe co-founder Mark Angelo Harrison (13th October), a talk on free party communities and cultures of today (2nd November), and a screening of the movie Free Party: A Folk History (2nd December). 

Originally released in 2021, the film is regarded as one of the preeminent documentaries on early rave culture, and includes segments on both Spiral Tribe and Castlemorton. The landmark free party was attended by an estimated 20,000 people, and is considered one of the key triggers for new laws prohibiting a broad range of gatherings in the UK, introduced through 1994's Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. For the full story, revisit DJ Mag's in depth feature on 'the UK's most notorious travelling sound system'.