Circle line Party
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2006) |
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".
Although the Space Hijackers may have publicised the first Circle Line party, the idea appears to be spreading to other cities.[citation needed]
On 31st May 2008, the largest ever Circle Line Party was held in celebration of the last day of legal drinking on public transportation in London, under reforms of the newly elected Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Thousands of people showed up dressed in all manner of costumes and the shear volume of people resulted in the closure of many stations for safety reasons.
Circle Line Parties became much less common after the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
