Belgium had a turbulent electronic music scene during the 1990s, with a free, extravagant club scene and rocksolid music production. Unfortunately, this changed with repressive government actions against allegedly high
drug consumption in nightclubs, Belgium's emerging electronic music festivals as competitors and increasingly
difficult, obtainable party licences. Clubs are disappearing as fast as they were established, but something new is
bubbling underground. As was the case earlier in Britain, France and the Netherlands, Belgian collectives are
holding parties in forests, squats, fields, industrial estates and abandoned office buildings. These illegal raves or
free parties are organised by soundsystem crews consisting of DJs, sound engineers, artists and music lovers. On
the basis of interviews with five organisers and two partygoers, this study attempts to gain an insight into how
these parties come about and what significance they acquire in the development of participants' individual and
collective identities.