Circle line party

A reveler urges silence in anticipation of the second Circle line Party on March 14, 2003.

A Circle line Party is type of subway party occasionally held on the Circle line of the London Underground. Although the time and place of these parties is pre-planned, the event itself occurs spontaneously, as each participant decides for themselves what sort of revelry, costume, decorations, snacks, libations and guests to bring to the party. The participants decorate the carriages festively, and play music, either live or on portable sound systems, disguised to appear as normal luggage.

Other activities include setting up pole-dancing poles on the trains. Free drinks, snacks and sweets are provided, often being provided from well-stocked portable bars and snack tables, which disappear as the train arrives at the station. Commuters are invited to participate in the parties.

To maintain a low profile while the trains are in the stations, most participants only revel and frolic once the trains are in tunnels. Permission is not sought from London Underground or the British Transport Police for Circle Line parties, and police sometimes stop trains for long periods to break the parties up. However, their organisers, typically linked to anarchist groups such as the Space Hijackers, claim that Circle Line parties are not meant to disrupt travel, but to "reclaim the public space from the advertisers and give it back to the people to whom it belongs".

May 2008 Circle Line party

Thousands celebrate the last night of legal drinking on the Underground in May 2008

In early May 2008, the newly elected Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced that drinking of alcohol would be banned on public transport from the start of the next month. Many people then thought up the idea of a Circle Line Party to be held at the end of the month to celebrate the last night of legal drinking on the London Underground, and spread the idea on the social networking website Facebook. The plan quickly received media attention and was mentioned in several newspapers.^[1]

On 31 May 2008, the night itself, thousands of people attended, the largest Circle Line Party ever. Some had come in costumes ranging from 1920s prohibition to dressing up as Boris Johnson himself. Although mostly peaceful, seventeen people were arrested by police due to disorderly behaviour, six tube stations were closed and eventually the entire Circle Line was suspended for the rest of the night.^[2]

A year later on 13 December 2009, the Circle Line was converted into a new spiral shape with trains starting at Hammersmith and terminating at Edgware Road. This will make any future attempts at a Circle Line party trickier to manage, as the trains no longer go round in a circle and terminate at a fixed point instead.

References

1. ^ Guardian report
2. ^ BBC News report

External links

• Last Orders on the Underground
• Circle Line Party website
• Circle Line Party 3 video (2004)
• Transport for London - Circle Line
• More partying