After a few hectic days getting everything together and ready for the big celebration of 10 years of Indymedia in the UK, the party hosted by Dissident Island finally took place last Saturday night. Around 300 people turned up at the newly opened Social Centre in Camberwell to enjoy and dance to a great line up of bands and DJ sets, to watch films, and to have a toast or two at the bar. The party started at 4pm with a series of workshops and presentations and went on till the very sunny Sunday morning [Photos 1 | 2]

A comment posted in the IMC-UK wire sums up the general feeling most people expressed during bash:  "Thanks to Indymedia London and Dissident Island for a great celebration of 10 years of Indy UK, and cheers to the crew, performers and volunteers for all their hard work! Good luck with the social centre too."

A big shout from Indymedia London and Dissident Island to everyone that turned up to celebrate with us, and to all the bands, djs and crew that helped out on the night. We hope that the future brings many more years of independent, autonomous, radical and participatory media!

Some personal impressions of the party posted in the IMC-London wire:

I never made it beyond the lounge of the party were the bar was, and the cakes (thanks to whoever made that chocolate cake!) and the food. A large space, decorated with all the indymedia banners that accumulated over the last years.

There were a few fotocopies with a big barcode and instructions scattered on the walls. Apparently you could point your mobile to the barcode, take a picture and the barcode reader of your mobile would read the barcode and take you straight to the indymedia London publishing page so that you could upload the foto with no fumbling around. But it seems that nobody took advantage of this new high-tech service, otherwise there should be lots of party pictures on this site!

This was probably the first no smoking indymedia party. Luckily, the building has a beautiful roof terrace where smoking was ok.

Very few leaflets on site, I only remember a few dissident island flyers. I'd taken some money with me in case there would be books or DVDs to buy, but in a way it was nice not to concentrate on shopping and getting informed, but on socialising. The way the building was arranged for the party really encouraged that. The largest space, what I call the lounge, was without bands or djs, only some videos were shown in one corner. Altogether it was rather quiet, a good place to catch up with people without screaming short sentences into each others ears. DJs and bands played in two extra rooms.

What I liked about the party was that you could see that different groups were involved in making it happen. On the roof terrace was some great graffiti made by the tatoo circus, who I made the building fit for use for their own event. The party was hosted by dissident island and friends. The indymedia collective and friends helped with logistics, technix and decorations and got people together to help at bar and door. Probably other people were involved that i don't know about.

On saturday evening, the place was not really visible from the outside. All you could see was a half-open shutter, and some people coming in and out throughout the night. But soon the building will be opened as a social center, a place for non-commercial socialising. Hopefully the shutters will be open for a long time.