Adelaide is seeing a resurgence of ’80s-style abandoned warehouse parties and many of them have attracted less than complimentary attention from the police. Percussions is different - run by a handful of Adelaide’s most experienced party people, it’s a real-deal warehouse party without the arrests.

CityMag pushes the door open to a dusty warehouse currently occupied by a particularly lonely looking Red Bull bar, a half complete mural skewed across about 20m of floor space, some speakers and lights dangling around the place, and a stage that doesn’t look safe to jump on just yet.

It’s hard to imagine that on Saturday afternoon this old space will be filled with hundreds of people, loud music, and a tonne of art installations.

Today we’re rendezvousing with three of the minds behind Percussions, an electronic beats event that features a handful of local and international musicians alongside visual and performance artists.  In order of appearance we meet Cathy Adamek – the curator of the performance and art installations, then Sugar nightclub owner Driller Armstrong and Brad Shawyer – the brains trust behind the music and event aspects.

Where do parties start? In boxes, apparently.

“It’s not a rave.” Brad assures me with some conviction. “It’s like a nice little element of live electronic music and DJ sets…it’s kind of a journey. It’s not so much like a festival, where it might be just one style of thing.”

Cathy takes us on a tour of the place, painting a picture of what Saturday will look like.

“The whole D.I.Y. thing, is very punk in origin; setting up a warehouse, putting the music in that was all generally made by the people who were putting it on.”

Cathy is an experienced independent banc/music/theatre maker who has a PhD in Adelaide Dance Music Culture from the late ’80s – to early ’90s. As she moves slowly through the site, you can see her brain ticking over imagining what the final product will look like.

“The early raves and dance parties were about a complete visual and aural experience. This is a chance to do this again, in a different way.”

“There are probably a lot more aspects to what we’re doing rather than just the one thing,” Driller adds. “We’re trying to activate inner city sites to bring back a culture that’s been around since the mid ’80s in Chicago. I think people these days don’t get to experience a real genuine, underground warehouse party here – that’s what we’re trying to put on.”

Driller and Brad contemplating doing some dangerous climbing of the building.

Brad has a history of putting on events similar to Percussions, having tried his hand at an illegal party in an abandoned space just off Gawler Place, and throwing a “more” legal event in Lonsdale a month or two ago. He knows more than most that with new legislation, heightened safety standards and the coming and going of small businesses, Adelaide has become a somewhat difficult place to set up these events. Additionally, Driller says the 3am lockout laws have been hurting established live music venues.

Ultimately, this group of three are trying to combat the trend against live music, and they’ve been happy to find support from some unexpected quarters. Adelaide City Council has been a big help in navigating the various regulatory hoops that needed to be jumped through.

“The fact that Adelaide City Council are trying to support us is fantastic, because I’m not sure that too many councils understand what dance music is actually about,” says Driller. “There’s negative connotations about it, but really it is only about a certain kind of music – everything else is periphery. The meat and potatoes is all about music, and people coming together in interesting spaces; and this is the first of what I hope will be many examples of that.”

“Once you’re working with government and stuff, when they’re on your side, then they can open up all sorts of doors,” adds Cathy.

The crew also repeatedly praise Renew Adelaide for sourcing the warehouse location and negotiating access to it.

“Renew Adelaide have been awesome dealing with that side of things,” says Driller. “This whole process streamlines it for everybody. Hopefully they’ll start popping up all over the place. I’m incredibly excited about it actually!”

By this time Driller and Brad have disappeared. We find them outside with a ladder, a big sticker and a plan. We stand back as they scale the warehouse to where an logo used to be, about 10m off the curb. After much deliberation they decide that because of the high risk of unnecessary death they should get down, and rejoin the group – but the attempt is proof positive their free-spirited side remains strong.

We move back inside through the rusty roller door, and move toward the stage where we are promised an infinity prism is going to be installed. Lights in a cube? Rad.

The organisers and the writer, standing right about where the infinity prism will be.

Brad speaks of the bands, and the booking process, which apparently was a lot easier than expected. “We’ve built a bit of reputation over the past three years…without sounding like dicks, but people want to come play with us. Sugar especially, has a good reputation.”

A half afternoon-half evening festival seems odd when you consider the genre of music and the whole idea of underground parties – which comes complete with mental images of people dancing and sweaty as the sun crests the horizon. But there’s method behind the timing and it runs deeper than liquor licensing headaches.

“There’ll be an after party of course,” says Brad. “I’m sure Driller has mentioned, there’s all these popup things that happen, and big festivals… and sometimes they don’t help out a local business. You know, we need to finish at a time that lets people go out into the local pubs and stuff.”

“The fact that we’re finishing quite early is what pop-ups should be,” Driller adds. “… we’re bringing 600 – 700 people into the city and hopefully they’ll spill out into the existing bricks and mortar places when we finish up.”

Most of the build for Percussions will happen on Friday evening and Saturday morning. By the time the first punters trickle in at 2pm, this abandoned space will be transformed. The change to this location will only be fleeting, but CityMag is sure this group are well on their way to permanently solving the problems that can come with temporary events.

Properly abandoned now, this space will be full of good times tomorrow.