The State of the Rave Scene Today

"It's eleven PM, do you know where your children are?"

It's eleven at night, sometime in the fall of 200X. You and your friends have been on an adventure trying to find a certain location for two hours now. At 8:30 PM, your friend Rick called a number from a flyer, one that he got from a shifty looking character cruising around a record store.

It went straight to voicemail.

That voicemail, it's your map, within it are directions to a place only spoken of in hushed dialects. 38.2 miles up I-20 north until you reach a clearing in the trees to your right with a dirt path, turn your lights off and turn into the road. Drive down the road for about 7 miles until you see a blue bandana hanging in a tree, then take the fork left for about 16 miles. Take a right and go about 2 miles until you hear music, then cut through the trees.

...

You hear the music, you see lights.

You're here, it's 11:37, the event doesn't end for another 10 and a half hours, you're still early but there's so many people here already. The music is like nothing you've ever heard before; drum breaks looping endlessly that give you ground, leads that send waves of electricity through your body, bass that brings warmth to your soul, and vocals that repeat words of positivity and are seemingly used in a manner not unlike that of an instrument.

It has many of the same hallmarks as traditional music, but the structure is different. The music appears to follow more of a pattern with peaks and valleys rather than verse and chorus. It's longer and seems more journey-based than storytelling.

You look around, and all you can see are people moving. People moving like they are made of water, like Egyptians depicted in hieroglyphics, some of these people are holding glowsticks in their hands, conforming their movements to follow a geometry that can not be seen with the naked eye, but is only revealed through the sight of one's third eye. Some people have taken to tying shoestrings to these glowsticks to allow them to be spun, morphing them around each other, wrapping them around their bodies to change direction. Even in a sober state of mind, you can pick out that they are making shapes with these so-called "glowstrings". Some of these people are dancing in observation of others who take a step back, something the locals call a "light show".

There are so many people here that in the sea of people dancing, you lose your friends and make new ones. One of these new friends you make is a cute girl who goes by the name "Alison Wonderland", her arms wrapped in bracelets with words of positive affirmation on them, some with extremely intricate designs. Every one of these pieces of art, dubbed "Kandi", has had thought and love put into them, many of them are gifts to her, and many of them are gifts from her, waiting to find a new friend.

You both have each other laughing, and eventually she tells you to put up a peace sign. You do, and she pops one up too, she connects her two fingers with yours, and manipulates your hand into a secret handshake so fast that you did not have time to memorize anything of it. You both hug, and she says bye with a smile on her face. When you look down, you have a bracelet on your wrist, and what looks like a little white pressed tablet in your hand.

The pill is thick, it's taller than it is wide and has a symbol of a bird pressed into it. You've never done anything before, not even so much as drink. You're nervous, but you remember the connection that you made with your new friend earlier and it helps put you a bit at ease. You open your water bottle and swallow the pill with a hefty chug of water.

That pill was the infamous double stacker white dove, a vessel of pure ecstasy, and in 45 minutes, your life will never be the same again. The love that you gained and now feel for music, dance, and humanity, it will stay with you for the rest of your life. Welcome to the Rave scene.

"Directions to a place only spoken of in hushed dialects"

Fast forward to today in 2025. The scene has evolved immensely since it was first born in the mid 80's (for better or worse). No longer do you have to worry about law enforcement showing up to cut an event down early, passing out hefty fines to all the attendees and confiscating sound and light equipment (rest in peace to many of the soundsystems out there that died at the hands of law enforcement). Today, you can go to many legal venues and hear the same caliber of music that was once only heard deep in the woods, squatted warehouses, and DJ's living rooms. At these legal venues, you have access to bars, bathrooms, VIP, air conditioning, and they are always packed to the brim. The lighting and sound are amplified beyond the level that a few people could put together and tear down alone in one night with two vans and a dolly. It honestly could not get any better than this, right?

Wrong.

Many people today argue about the exact definition of a rave. Some people maintain that the difference between a rave and a club is the legal aspect, but is this really the case? Many clubs in fact are not legal venues, while many raves have taken place through legal avenues. Some people know this, and will say, "raving is how you behave, it doesn't matter where it's at", and I will say that this is true to an extent, but it's also not accurate, so what is a rave then?

RAVE is an acronym that stands for Radical Audio Visual Experience. Raves are traditionally synonymous with the Free Party scene, with the key aspect being that Raves are about community. When you and a group of people build a civilization, does one person provide all the food, water, medicine, housing, and entertainment? What makes a community such, is when people come together and bring something to the pot that they can provide, whether it's for gain or grace, that's how a rave works, raving is about community. You bring what you need with you, and what you can't bring, someone else can provide. There are no VIP booths, there are no bars, there are no dress codes, there is none of that ego inflating bullshit. Everyone who enters is treated with PLUR, Peace Love Unity Respect, they are treated as an equal no matter the color of their skin, the way their face looks, the way their hair is done, the clothes they wear, what's in their pants, who they decide to date and sleep with, they are treated as fellow brothers and sisters of the human race.
Every person that is there, from the people who organized the event, to the guy selling water, to the crews who set the lights and sound up, to the people in the crowd, to the guy behind the decks playing that badass shit that you just CAN'T get enough of, everysingle one of them cares about the scene, the music, and the people who make that happen, and that's not something you'll find at a club. You won't find phones out recording every little thing, because the people who are there are there to live in the real world, to interact with real people face to face, rather than to impress plastic people that they've never even met to make it seem like their life is perfect or better than it is.

Raving is about community

The problem with the Rave scene today is that it is a former shell of itself. While there are still raves, they are VASTLY unknown to the masses of the youth today. Some of them will go to their favorite local club, partnered with Insomniac or Disco Presents, and point out saying "here's a rave right here", yet nothing about it is provided by the community. No, rather it is provided by corporations who care not for the community, but cash flow. Festivals can fetch tickets upwards of hundreds of dollars for three nights, not including $7 bottles of water, $12 fries, or god forbid, a fee to camp, yet even in 2025, I have been to underground raves that last just as long, if not LONGER, with nonstop lights and music, for no money at all, camping in the shitty blue 1999 chevy express that I have, NO CELL PHONE RECEPTION.

It was a truly liberating experience.

The last one that I had went to was HOT. I woke up on the second day to find that I had parked directly in the sun and was cooking alive in my van, my friend had woken me up so that I wouldn't suffer a heat stroke while recovering, and while moving, my van had gotten stuck. Were this somewhere like Electric Forest or Electric Daisy Carnival, you would not find someone to help you, you would have to have called a tow truck. I was at neither of these places, and within 10 minutes, I had a group of guys help me out and I was able to move to a better spot to set up camp and set up my own little DJ booth for when I wasn't playing. The experience that I had that weekend was unforgettable, and it did not cost me a single dime to attend, the only money I spent went towards gas, feeding myself, and providing resources to others who under packed or did not wish to carry them. We all picked up and managed our own trash, because many of us care about the environment and the ability to keep our scene alive. Those of you who know what I'm talking about know it as "leave no trace", you leave the space you occupied in a better state than when you arrived.

Flash back to those other festivals I talked about, what do you see when all is said and done? Trash everywhere, hungover people who aren't talking to each other, shallow people posting 9001+ photos and videos of dilated pupils and passe judgements to their instagram about the event. These two things are nothing alike whatsoever.

A truly liberating experience

Now you may be asking, why is the rave scene in the state that it is in today? Why is our culture being milked dry and cheapened to be a commercialized, packageable experience?

It all starts with the crackhouse laws. In 1986, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden (yes, THAT Joe Biden) signed 21 U.S.C. S856 as part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. These laws are known as the "Crack House Statute" and eventually led to the RAVE Act "Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy" of 2002. The scene survived and thrived under the spell of the Crack House Statute, but under the RAVE act, the rave scene took a serious hit. Even organizers of legal events had a hard time due to the national sensualization that "Raves are about drugs", and "Raves are dangerous". In the following years, a lot of soundsystems had to retire due to increasing legal pressure and the threat of potential prison time for the crime of providing music and entertainment as well as helping foster a community. With the void that was left by soundsystems and community organizers gone, the commercial space saw an opportunity and hit the gas on their operations. In recent years, we have seen a resurgence in the actual rave scene, but it's being snuffed by multi-billion-dollar companies who can afford to throw massive productions filled with nothing but headliners, even if they often are the same headliners across countless events, further cementing my argument about a commercialized, packageable, and ultimately, cheapened experience. The events that these companies call raves, they aren't focused on providing an experience that rejuvenates the mind, body, and soul, that expands your consciousness, just look at Insomniac, who are trying to trademark the acronym "PLUR", a term coined by DJ Frankie Knuckles. They aren't focused on providing new, forward-thinking music, they are focused on providing what their description of a rave is, and they'll do it at the expense of your wallet with none of the benefits that an actual, honest to god rave provides.

A rave is a place of commune, of spiritual healing and cleansing, of pleasure through excess, to spread knowledge and love for humanity, and to enforce positivity and acceptance for the betterment of society. A rave is place that I call home as much as it calls me it's tenant. I can say with certainty that I am a raver, from the cradle to the crypt, and that I love the music and the scene with all my heart, can you say the same? Support your local rave organizers, and stop giving money to the people who try to sell you an experience instead of letting it come naturally to you.