Can you feel it... viewers? Channel 4 to host rave night

Live, ad-free six-hour show aims to turn TV into DJ booth

Put your hands in the air: in an unprecedented move, Channel 4 is to host an ad-free, live six-hour house party to mark the birth of rave.

The show will feature sets from international DJs, including Grandmaster Flash and Annie Mac, in an attempt to "turn the TV into the ultimate DJ booth".

As well as no adverts, House Party, will have no commentary and no interruptions. Just like a real club, reveller will be able to make requests for tunes – although this will be done through social media rather than shouting across a DJ booth.

The event, which is part of the London 2012 Festival, will feature so-called "visual sets" from computer animators, graphic artists and video footage from cutting edge VJs reacting to the music being played.

To preserve an air of spontaneity, it will not be repeated nor made available on Channel 4's "on-demand" service.

The event, which will air from midnight on the evening of 24 August and run through to 6am, marks the 20th anniversary of 1992's infamous free rave at Castlemorton near Malvern in Worcestershire, which was attended by 40,000 people.

When police tried to end the Avon Free Festival, revellers instead set up their own impromptu site on Castlemorton Common.

Media interest grew, attracting thousands of extra people and making the event difficult to close down safely. In the aftermath of the week-long gathering, the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 was drawn up to bring an end to any more large scale illegal festivals.

To explore how clubbing grew from an underground movement to a multinational billion pound business, the House Party night will begin with a two-hour documentary fronted by Luther actor Idris Elba, interviewing Armand van Helden, Paul Oakenfold, Will.i.am, Pete Tong and the former Home Secretary Michael Howard.

Channel 4's arts commissioner Tabitha Jackson said that 2012 was "the perfect summer for this television event".

She added: "Perhaps the most radically innovative element of the night is that, in direct contrast to the new on-de mand TV landscape, House Party is a genuine one-off. It will not be repeated and it will not be available on 4oD.

Like all the best club nights and parties if you want to be there you have to turn up."