Seven Arrested After Police Shut Down Illegal Rave in Little Snoring

An unlicensed rave in a Norfolk village called Little Snoring — population roughly 620 — got shut down by police early Sunday morning, and seven men were arrested in the process. You couldn’t script a better place name for this story if you tried. The soundsystem was reportedly audible over a mile away in the neighboring village, which, naturally, is called Great Snoring. Nobody in either Snoring was doing much snoring on Saturday night.

According to Norfolk Police, officers were called to the event off Thursford Road shortly after 1am on Sunday, August 23. They closed off the entrance to stop more people arriving, cleared the site using powers under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 — the anti-rave law that’s been chasing UK free parties since the ’90s — and seized sound equipment, generators and a number of vehicles.

Five people have been arrested after police shut down an unlicensed music event in Little Snoring.

Officers attended scene and closed the entrance in order to prevent further people from attending. Numerous vehicles, generators and sound equipment were seized by officers. pic.twitter.com/76lDiPlRQP

— Norfolk Police (@NorfolkPolice) August 23, 2026

The force initially confirmed five arrests, with the count later rising to seven, according to ITV News Anglia. The alleged offenses run the full festival-season bingo card: drink driving, drug driving, possession of a Class A drug with intent to supply, and carrying on a licensable activity without a licence. One man has already been charged with drink driving and bailed to appear at King’s Lynn Magistrates’ Court in early September, while the investigation into who actually organized the party is still ongoing.

“We are committed to doing everything we can to prevent, disrupt and stop these events from taking place, while reducing their impact on local communities,” Superintendent Craig Miller said in the force’s statement, adding that unlicensed events lack the safety standards of legal ones and can put attendees at risk.

Local reaction online was a bit more split than the police statement — one resident pointed out that sending a field full of not-sober people to their cars in the middle of nowhere at 1am maybe isn’t the safest dispersal strategy either. Fair point, honestly.

It’s been a busy week for UK police and dance music in general — over in Cheshire, officers just dug up a buried drug stash at the Creamfields site ahead of this weekend’s festival. The free party scene has never really died in rural England; it just keeps finding new fields. This weekend it found the wrong one.