World Peace Party

The World Peace Party was a warehouse rave held in South Africa on Friday, 13 September 1991. It is considered to be the first warehouse rave in Africa.

The event was produced in South Africa, by the Cape Town based UFO Collective. Founders Carl Mason and Jesse Stagg teamed up to start UFO (an acronym for Unlimted Freak Out or Unity of People, Freedom of Expression, Original Ideas). The event featured live musical acts in proto Zef punk-rave-rappers the MC's from UNCLE and local rap act Organized Rhyme with early House Disc Jockeys DJ Giorgio and Rozzano and support by DJ Tony Smith. The event lasted 14 hours and was attended by approximately 3,500 people.

The venue was the Nautilus soundstage in the Paarden Eiland industrial zone, an area on the edge of Cape Town, reclaimed from the ocean. The location came with a 40 foot by 10 foot Infinity Curve, which served as backdrop for an elaborate fluorescent mural depicting the "journey of the beat" from Africa through Europe and the West and back to Africa in the form of a UFO. The mural was painted in a Mayan inspired hip hop cartoon wild style and incorporated state-of-the-art Commodore Amiga custom computer animations promoting positive affirmations and distinctive UFO branding. This level of artistic sophistication was unusual in the early years of the international rave scene.

The World Peace Party featured an inside and outside area complete with the soon to be ubiquitous fun park of inflatable castles, human gyroscopes and vendors serving fast foods and miscellany.

Given the political context of the time, and with the Apartheid regime still in power and Nelson Mandela still in prison, security was a major concern. The promoters assembled a large team of well-trained, mixed-race security personnel, who expertly managed the overwhelmingly mixed-race crowd who had rarely, partied together in such a context. No incidents of violence of any kind were reported.

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