On Friday, the Antwerp criminal court ordered the four organisers of an illegal rave party on the Groot Schietveld military base, on the border between Brecht and Wuustwezel, to pay €78,635 in damages to the Ministry of Defence.
The military base and nature reserve is in active use by the Belgian Armed Forces, who use the protected area for artillery practice. Groot Schietveld was partly accessible to the public through two roads between Gooeriend and Overbroek, but due to several incidents attributed to careless visitors, the public was banned from the territory in 2021.
The illegal rave, which occurred on 8 July 2023, saw around 200 people trespass into the restricted area. The rave caused local authorities to trigger their provincial disaster plan due to the presence of partygoers. Local police warned that the organisers had put the attendees in danger due to the likely presence of unexploded munitions across the site.
Around a dozen people were arrested during the local police's operation to clear the site. Belgian police had to call on their Dutch counterparts for reinforcements to disperse the gathering.
Police pictured near the site of an illegal rave party at the military domain Groot Schietveld, on the border between Brecht and Wuustwezel, Antwerp province, Sunday 9 July 2023. Credit: Belga/ Nicolas Maeterlinck
Two of the party planners were given suspended sentences on Friday of up to ten months. A third was given a prison sentence of one year and a fourth was given a community service order of 100 hours.
Eight participants in the rave party who had provided audio equipment were also convicted. Six of them were given community service sentences of up to 52 hours, while the other two were given prison sentences of up to four months.
