Teen Loses Finger During Rave, Keeps Going Because "Bass Was Hard"
As they are wont to do, teens went wild at a rave in an abandoned Royal Mail sorting facility in Croydon, London this past weekend. But one teen raver, "Josh," really knows what it means to just be there for the music, man: Even after he lost a finger ripping off a screaming fire alarm, he went on dancing, because he figured, "Fuck it, let's skank on and enjoy it." He contends that he was completely sober the entire time.
Josh, or so he's called, regaled the night of finger-loss to that magazine, Vice:
Well, at about 1AM we were up in the house room, but I don't really like house so I was waiting for the drum 'n' bass to kick in. As soon as I heard it, me and my mate went down there. Five minutes in, the fire alarm starting going off and everyone was like, "Rip it off! Rip it off!" So I thought I'd give it a go. I was completely sober at the time. I jumped up, grabbed it and my little finger got caught in the case because it was all broken, and as I came to rip it back down, my little finger got ripped off completely.
Not one to dwell on damaged phalanges, Josh wrapped his finger up with his shirt and went on dancing.
I was in so much pain and shock that the first thing that hit my head was the beat and the bass. The bass was hard, so I just ripped off my top, wrapped it around my finger and tied it up as tight as I could and skanked it out for half an hour. My mentality was, 'I've only been here for an hour, I've paid £10 for this night, I've lost my little finger – am I seriously going to go? Nah, I'm going to skank until I can't skank any more.' After that, my mate dragged me down to the paramedics.
The rave wasn't all fun and games, though. Police were reportedly aggressive in their attempt to break up the rave, eventually consigning themselves to guarding the outside of the venue after it became clear that there were just too many people.
"Police were everywhere, to be honest, and they were quite violent at times—I saw one raver being jumped on and kneed in the chest when he was detained," Josh told Vice.
And 15-year-old Rio Andrew died the Monday after the rave. Police suspect his death might be drug-related.
