Rave

For other uses, see Rave (disambiguation).

A rave (or rave party) is the term in use since the 1980s for dance parties (often all-night events) where DJs and other performers play electronic dance music, which may also be referred to as "rave music", with the accompaniment of laser light shows, projected images, and artificial fog. Popular rave dance styles include breakdancing, popping and locking, shuffling, glowsticking, liquid dancing, poi, and Kandi Stomping. Rave parties are often associated with the use of "club drugs" such as ecstasy, LSD and more recently, ketamine. There is some dispute in the dance community whether raves exist anymore, with some suggesting that the last true rave existed in 1994. Some define raves as being large dance parties of over 30,000 people characterized by mainly rave goers (ravers), consuming copious amounts of illicit drugs.

File:NASA 4-3-04 20.JPG

A crowd at NASA Rewind in New York City on April 3, 2004.

Origins of the term

The word rave (and various derivatives) as a descriptive for a party first came into popular vogue in the UK in the 1960s. It was a usage that originated with people of Caribbean descent living in London in the late 1950s as a word to describe a bohemian party. The word was co-opted by the burgeoning mod youth culture of the early 1960s as the way to describe a wild party. A variation of the term was "rave-up" - a term popularized by the band The Yardbirds. People who were gregarious party animals were described as "ravers". Pop musicians such as Keith Moon of The Who and Steve Marriott of The Small Faces were self-described "ravers". The word also came into usage by young people as a verb. "To rave" about someone or something was to be extremely enthusiastic. (This usage differed from an earlier meaning of the word that meant to rant.)

There were multiple manifestations of these words in popular culture:

• The British rock/R&B group The Yardbirds released an album in the United States in 1965 titled Having a Rave Up
• A monthly magazine called "Rave" - targeted primarily at British teenage girls - was successfully published in the UK for 69 consecutive editions from February 1964 to October 1969. It presented articles, interviews and exclusive photograph sessions relating to the contemporary pop music of the era.
• The lyrics of the 1968 hit single Lazy Sunday by the mod band The Small Faces referred to "ravers":

  Wouldn't it be nice to get on with me neighbours?

  But they make it very clear they've got no room for ravers...

Presaging the word's subsequent 1980s association with electronic music, the word "rave" was part of the title of an electronic music performance event held on 28 January 1967 at London's Chalk Farm roundhouse titled the "Million Volt Light and Sound Rave". The event featured the only known public airing of an experimental sound collage created for the occasion by Paul McCartney and John Lennon during the early stages of the Sgt. Pepper sessions - the legendary Carnival Of Light recording.

With the rapid change of British pop culture from the Mod era of 1963-1966 to the hippie era of 1967 and beyond, the term fell out of popular usage. During the 1970s and early 1980s until its resurrection, the term was not in vogue. Its use during that era would have been perceived as a quaint or ironic use of bygone slang; part of the out-dated "sixties" lexicon along with words such as "groovy". This perception of the word changed again in the late 1980s when the term was revived and adopted by a new youth culture.

1980s

In the late 1980s, the word "rave" was adopted to describe the subculture that grew out of the acid house movement. Early rave-like dances were held in the early 1980s in the Ecstasy-fueled club scene in clubs like NRG, in Houston, Austin, Dallas, and in the drug-free, all-ages scene in Detroit at venues like The Music Institute. However, it was not until the mid to late 1980s that a wave of psychedelic and other electronic dance music, most notably acid house and techno, emerged and caught on in the clubs, warehouses and free-parties around London and later Manchester. These early raves were called the Acid House Summers. They were mainstream events that attracted thousands of people (up to 25,000 instead of the 4,000 that came to earlier warehouse parties). In the UK, in 1988-89, raves were similar to football matches in that they provided a setting for working-class unification in a time with no unions and few jobs, and many of the attendees of raves were die-hard football fans. The lack of football rivalry at raves was due in large part to the Ecstasy taken by the "thugs" who would otherwise have relied on fighting for an adrenaline rush. Popular songs at raves at the time, such as The Timelords' (KLF's) "Doctorin' the Tardis," still bridge music and sporting events, being sampled at games and matches over a decade later because of their catchy audience participation/cheering moments.

Mainstream American politicians responded with hostility to the emerging rave party trend. Politicians spoke out against raves and began to fine anyone who held illegal parties. Police crackdowns on these often-illegal parties drove the scene into the countryside. The word "rave" somehow caught on in the UK to describe common semi-spontaneous weekend parties occurring at various locations outside the M25 London Orbital motorway. (It was this that gave the band Orbital their name.)

The early rave scene also flourished underground in North American cities such as Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles and as word of the budding scene spread, raves quickly caught on in other major urban centers across the North American and European continents.

1990s - 2000s

United Kingdom

From the Acid House scene of the late 1980s, the scene transformed from predominantly a London-based phenomenon to a UK-wide mainstream underground youth movement. Organizations such as Fantazia, Universe, Raindance & Amnesia House were by 1991/92 holding massive legal raves in fields and warehouses around the country. The Fantazia party called One Step Beyond, which was an all-nighter attracted thousands of people. Other notable events included Obsession and Universe's Tribal Gathering in 1993.

In the early 1990s the scene was slowly changing, with local councils passing bylaws and increasing the fees to prevent or discourage rave organisations from getting licenses. This meant that the days of legal one-off parties were numbered. The scene was also beginning to fragment into many different styles of dance music making large parties more expensive to set up and more difficult to promote. The happy old skool style was replaced by the darker jungle (later renamed drum n bass) and the faster happy hardcore.

The illegal free party scene also reached its zenith for that time after a particularly large festival, when many individual sound systems such as Bedlam, Circus Warp, DIY, and Spiral Tribe set up near Castlemorton Common. In May, 1992, the government acted. Under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, the definition of music played at a rave was given as:

"music" includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.

— Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994

Sections 63, 64 & 65 of the Act targeted electronic dance music played at raves. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered police to stop a rave in the open air when a hundred or more people are attending, or where two or more are making preparations for a rave. Section 65 allows any uniformed constable who believes a person is on their way to a rave within a five-mile radius to stop them and direct them away from the area; noncompliant citizens may be subject to a maximum fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1 000). The Act was ostensibly introduced because of the noise and disruption caused by all night parties to nearby residents, and to protect the countryside. It has also been claimed that it was introduced to kill a popular youth movement that was taking many drinkers out of town centres drinking on taxable alcohol and into fields to take untaxed drugs and drink free water.

After 1993 the main outlet for raves in the UK were a number of licensed venues, amongst them Helter Skelter, Life @ Bowlers (Trafford Park, Manchester), The Edge (formerly the Eclipse [Coventry]), The Sanctuary (Milton Keynes) and Club Kinetic. Events proved to be one of the main forces in rave, holding legendary events across the north-east and Scotland. Initially playing techno, breakbeat rave and drum and bass, it later embraced hardcore techno (including Happy Hardcore) and bouncy techno. The Rezerection legacy was continued by Judgement Day, History of Dance, and now REGENeration. In Scotland clubs such as the FUBAR (Stirling), Hanger 13 (Ayr) and Nosebleed (Rosyth) played important roles in the development of these dance music styles.

These were nearly all pay-to-enter events, however it could be argued that rave organisers saw the writing on the wall and moved towards more organised and 'legitimate' venues enabling a continuation of large-scale indoor raves well into the mid-nineties. One might remember that the earliest house and acid house clubs were themselves effectively 'nightclubs'. Raves were also overshadowed in the press by the 1995 death of Leah Betts, a teenager who died after taking ecstasy; journalists and press/billboard campaigns emphasized the drug use, even though she actually died from hyperhydration at a party in her own home, not a rave.

Continental Europe

Rave culture was becoming part of a new youth movement. DJs and electronic music producers such as Westbam proclaimed the existence of a "raving society" and promoted electronic music as legitimate competition for rock and roll. Indeed, electronic dance music and rave subculture became mass movements. Raves had tens of thousands of attendees, youth magazines featured styling tips and television networks launched music magazines on house and techno music. The annual Love Parade festivals in Berlin (in Essen from 2007 onwards) attracted more than one million party goers between 1997 and 2000. In The Netherlands a new, faster (over 180 bpm) and harder form of hardcore techno developed, called gabber or gabba. Meanwhile, the more commercial sound of hardcore, happy hardcore topped the music charts across Europe.

Australia

File:Brunswick Street Free Rave 1994 - Melbourne Australia.jpg

Brunswick Street Free Rave 1994

Raves flourished in Australia where raves were generally called Dance Parties. In Melbourne, the underground dance style called the "Melbourne Shuffle" originated at these parties. Some early parties such as Every Picture Tells A Story were broadcast live on free-to-air television from the party's own TV station. The Melbourne raves tended to have a greater amount of artwork, video art, decor and performance as the underground arts community of Melbourne was heavily involved in producing the parties. Fashion was also a very important component, as many party goers were in the fashion industry which is very large in Melbourne, and they designed and made their own 'party' clothes and accessories. The parties became a fashion show for the designers and created strong retail sales for their works. Often outstanding dancers were sponsored to wear designers' ranges at parties.

The Melbourne underground rave community was very large with its own street press, radio stations, TV shows, clothing shops, bars, cafes, theaters, performance venues, record labels, clothing labels, and free street raves such as the Brunswick Street festival (pictured) which regularly drew crowds of 100,000 people.

South Africa

The first mega-rave in South Africa was held in a warehouse on Cape Town's foreshore. Dubbed the World Peace Party, it featured a cross-over crowd of Cape Flats rappers, fashionistas and clubbers dancing to rave music and progressive house. The first electronic South African Bands who performed live at the Raves were the Kraftreaktor and The Kiwi Experience. The first large Johannesburg rave was held at an old cinema in Yeoville in early 1992. Amongst the first Johannesburg rave organisers in the early 1990s were Fourth World Productions (responsible for the legendary 1993 nightclub 4th World) World's End Productions and Damn New Thing Productions.

Worldwide

In the early 2000s illegal parties still existed, albeit on smaller scales, and the number of sanctioned events seemed to be on the rise. The few constants in the scene include amplified electronic dance music, a vibrant social network built on the ethos of the acronym PLURR, "Peace, Love, Unity, Respect and Responsibility", percussive music and freeform dancing often accompanied by the use of "club drugs" such as ecstasy, methamphetamine, speed and ketamine. However, increased cocaine usage, preponderance of adulterated ecstasy tablets and organized criminal activity has been detrimental to UK-based rave culture, although free parties are now on the rise again.

Wonky Disco psytrance Party held in a disused bowling alley in London during April 2007.

According to some long-time observers, rave music and its subculture began to stagnate by the end of the 1990s. The period of grassroots innovation and explosive growth and evolution was over; the flurry of passionate activity and the sense of international community were fading.

By the early 2000s, the terms "rave" and "raver" had fallen out of favor among many people in the electronic dance music community, particularly in Europe. Many Europeans returned to identifying themselves as "clubbers" rather than ravers. It became unfashionable among many electronic dance music aficionados to describe a party as a "rave," perhaps because the term had become overused and corrupted. Some communities preferred the term "festival," while others simply referred to "parties." True raves, such as "Mayday," continued to occur for a time in Central Europe, with less constrictive laws allowing raves to continue in some countries long after the death of rave in the United Kingdom. Moreover, traditional rave paraphernalia, such as facemasks, pacifiers, and glowsticks ceased to be popular. Underground sound systems started organising large free parties and called them teknivals.

Police in riot gear at the 2005 Czechtek, to protect the public from the ravers, who the Czech Prime Minister called "dangerous people" with "anarchist proclivities"

Raves and ravers continued to be targeted by government authorities. For example, following a July 2005 violent raid by police on CzechTek, an annual teknival, the Czech Republic's Prime Minister said the festival's attendees were "no dancing children but dangerous people" and that many were "obsessed people with anarchist proclivities and international links," who "provoke massive violent demonstrations, fueled by alcohol and drugs, against the peaceful society."

The rave scene has recently revived the old tradition of warehouse parties, with a surge in "old school" club nights, particularly in the jungle music scene, with DJs and producers who had dropped out of the business playing sets of music from the founding days of their genre, and producing new records in that style. Clubs are increasingly going back to the days of warehouses in terms of styling, rather than the interior designed venues of the late 90s. The music itself has seen a surge in popularity with students who were very young or not even born as yet when rave first became popular.

In the northeastern United States, during the mid-2000s, the popularity of Goa (or psy-trance) increased tremendously. With the warehouse party scene, the trend is also restarting; cities such as San Francisco have seen a resurgence of warehouse parties since 2003, due in part to Burning Man theme camp fundraiser parties. This contrary belief in the early 2000s was that 2002 would mark the end of the rave (known as party scene at the time), and the scene was over. Raves still continue in hot spots around the U.S. even today, although they might be called "parties" to avoid the negative spin. Examples of this hot spot phenomenon are New Orleans, LA, the west coast of the United States, and south Florida. The mid-late 2000s is being marked as the renaissance of the underground electronic culture. Oddly enough, the majority of US anime conventions hold a rave on Saturday nights, as the techno style of the music and flashing lights are much to the taste of the otaku community. Drugs are generally uncommon or not present at all in these occasions.

In Christchurch, New Zealand the mid 2000s saw the emergence of raves targeting the youth market. These raves are usually held at warehouse locations and are specifically aimed at people aged 15 years to 20 years old. National and International DJs perform at these events, which can attract up to 1000 young people not yet old enough to attend clubs and bars. Companies such as Nitrate productions and Audiodreams are pioneering alcohol and drug free raves with support from The White Elephant Trust, a non-profit organization that provides First Aid stations, coat check areas, and publication support.

In the UK, a new genre of electronic music known as New Rave (a portmanteau of "New Wave" and "rave") has become popular, which combines indie fashion and aesthetic with rave fashion, sound and aesthetic, with paraphernalia such as dayglo and glowsticks becoming fashionable in hip British city clubs. However, the genre has come under attack for being primarily invented by the British music press, particularly the NME, and for over-stylising the original rave ideology.

US rave culture

The upsurge in popularity of rave culture in the United States at a certain period in time often lends it characteristics common to a 'movement' or subculture. Starting in the late 80's, rave culture began to filter through from English ex-pats and DJs who would visit Europe. Promoters like CPU101 in Los Angeles and NASA in New York were among some of the few successful promoters doing raves in 1989-1992. American underground rave DJs from that time who would go onto international celebrity include artists like Moby, Josh Wink, DJ Keoki, Frankie Bones, Doc Martin, Barry Weaver and others. The popularity of Rave music within the mainstream started in early to mid 1990s with such artists as Rozalla, Praga Khan, The Prodigy and The Shamen among others. Because the movement and music both embrace and incorporate so many different elements, a common thread can be hard to find.

Some cultural tenets associated with rave culture are:

• Peace - to make peace with all people around them
• Love - to stay close to all people and care for them unconditionally
• Unity - to stand together for the universal cause of peace and love
• Respect - to understand the diversities of culture
• Responsibility - to educate oneself on the effects of drugs before ingesting them

(The word "Responsiblity" was added to the acronym PLUR during the mid to late 90s to promote awareness of increased drug overdoses at Raves) Groups that have addressed drug use at raves include the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund (EMDEF), DanceSafe, and The Toronto Raver Info Project, all of which advocate harm reduction approaches to enjoying a Rave.

American ravers, following their early UK & European counterparts, have been compared to both the hippies of the 1960s and the new wavers of the 1980s, due to their interest in non-violence and music.

In the mid and early 90's, there was a boom in rave culture in the Bay Area, and at venues like Home Base, many parties, like the gathering, started a huge rave culture which lives on today though it has declined.

U.S. Rave culture on the North East Coast in the 90's was unique in that the majority of ravers were young (under 25) and rejected the alcohol- and sex-based mainstream culture of clubs and bars. By staging and attending raves in unlikely and non traditional places (either legally or not), North East Coast US ravers avoided the prevalent alcohol- and sex-based culture that was (and still is) predominant.

In contrast to many other "youth cultures," older people are often active members of the U.S. scene and are well represented at events. Certain facets of dance music culture in the UK, Europe and globally are also welcoming to the older generation (especially the free party/squat party/gay scenes), however rave and club culture remains on the whole very much a youth-driven movement in terms of its core fanbase. Although rave parties are commonly associated with illegal activities (e.g. drug use), it should be noted that raves themselves are (often) legal gatherings. Although drug use tends to be pervasive at many raves, drug use isn't, strictly speaking, a necessary part of the rave experience. It is a misconception some still believe.

There is a common conception among some parts of the country, especially the North East, that raves were a 1990s fad, with the common quip "People still go to raves?" The popularity of Rave music and the culture of it continues to grow, especially in the Northeast and in places like Southern Florida and Mendota Heights.

Glowsticking

File:Lightshow2.jpg

A basic figure-eight move with both strong lights and slow lights.

Main article: Glowsticking

Some ravers participate in one of two light-oriented dances, called glowsticking and glowstringing. These dances, however, are independent of the raving community, and often the stereotyped association may be resented. Glowsticks (or "light sticks") purportedly soothe the unfavorable side effects of ecstasy, such as muscle tension. Therefore at some rave places they are presented as "safety materials." The sale of glowsticks during rave parties has been presented as evidence of illegal drug use. Glowsticks have been considered drug paraphernalia because they are used in giving someone on ecstasy a "lightshow." The recipient of the lightshow can sit, stand, or lie on the ground facing the show giver who moves the glow sticks away and towards the face of the recipient in various stylized movements. This lightshow is sometimes accompanied by a massage, a vibrator and/or by blowing mentholated vapours into the nose, mouth, and eyes of the recipient. This is intended to enhance the effects of ecstasy, and is colloquially called "blowing up".

Other types of lightshows include LED lights, flashlights and blinking strobe lights. LEDs come in various colors with different settings. For example, a slow light will produce a line of dots, while a strong light will produce an even line. There are many techniques used to make the lights "flow" with the music in order to "trip" the person who is receiving. The most basic lightshow move is the figure-eight followed by the circle. There are also combination methods where the lightshower holds a glowstick in each hand as well as LED lights.

Regardless, glowsticks and LEDs can be used at raves for interesting dance effects, because most raves (except some open air raves, e.g. technoparades) are held in dark or nearly dark rooms. Because rave parties are popular with people who wish to show off their dancing, glowsticks can be an ancillary material for creative freestyle dance.

Drug use

In the U.S., the mainstream media and law enforcement agencies have branded the subculture as a purely drug-centric culture similar to the hippies of the 1960s. As a result, ravers have been effectively run out of business in many areas. Although they continue in major coastal cities like New York and LA, a few specific areas like greater Phoenix, and notably the Winter Music Conference in Florida, most other areas have been relegated to word-of-mouth-only underground parties and nightclub events. In some parts of Europe, raves are common and mainstream, although they are now more often known as "festivals," highlighting multiple acts over a several-day period, and often including non-dance music acts.

Groups that have addressed drug use at raves include the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund (EMDEF), The Toronto Raver Info Project, and DanceSafe, all of which advocate harm reduction approaches. Paradoxically, drug safety literature (such as those distributed by DanceSafe) is used as evidence of condoned drug use. Other groups, such as Drug Free America Foundation, Inc., characterize raves as being rife with gang activity, rape, robbery, and drug-related deaths. However, most ravers report rarely, or never having seen someone die of a drug overdose at a party, or seen any gang activity.

In 2005, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, advocated drug testing on highways as a countermeasure against drug use at raves.

Canadian Rave culture

Rave culture in Canada is very similar to that of the US. Recently, however, raves have become increasingly mainstream, especially in Montreal as well as the rest of the province of Quebec, with large commercial raves attracting major international DJs and much media attention.

Raves in Canada are concentrated in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. With the exception of house raves which can be found in smaller cities. Certain raves, such as the Montreal Black and Blue even attract government funding from all levels of government; municipal, provincial and federal, as they are deemed to be cultural events. On February 10, 2007 indie rap duo Grand Buffet stated they had played a rave in Montreal. The Bal en Blanc is another event in Montreal that attracts a wide variety of attendees from a wide demographic spectrum. These events have often been hailed as the biggest parties in the world, attracting more than 16,000 at a time. They are often held in government-run facilities such as the Montreal Olympic Stadium and the Montreal Convention Centre.

In Toronto, raves remain more underground and only events catering to the gay community attract more mainstream attention. However, this wasn't always the case. During the late 90s and early 2000s, the Toronto rave scene was one of the largest in the world attracting international talent and worldwide attention. Many events were held at the Better Living Centre at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds and at the International Centre near Toronto's airport. These events often attracted upwards of 20,000 people and would happen almost every weekend. Many other smaller events also happened every weekend along with the bigger events. As the decade drew to a close, Toronto's rave scene began to suffer as increased scrutiny from public officials and the local media began to exert pressure on the scene as a result of the high profile drug death of Allen Ho at a rave in an underground parking garage in 1999. This made throwing large events in Toronto more difficult. Eventually, almost all the major rave promoters in Toronto quit throwing events with the exception of a few including Destiny productions and Hullabaloo productions, both of which continue today in some form.

Since then, Toronto has seen a rebirth in the popularity of dance music but in a different form then in the past. Most Rave type events happen inside clubs such as The Guvernment, The Docks and the Big Bop. These venues still attract international talent each week and can still draw thousands of partiers for the larger events. These venues cater to Toronto's dance scene, which is more splintered than it once was, with events that specialize in dance music sub genres such as Jungle, Breaks, Happy Hardcore, Techno and Trance. Sometimes events will cater to multiple genres such as Destiny productions which specializes in Jungle and Trance. Destiny is also known for hosting the "World Electronic Music Festival" that occurs in southern Ontario annually, in mid summer, which consists of a 3 day and 2 night camp-out style, multi-stage electronic music festival. It attracts large amounts of people from Canada as well as other countries such as the United States and UK. There is also an underground Freetekno scene in Toronto and Montreal which organizes free events in obscure locations in Ontario and Quebec.

Raves In Vancouver or the British Columbia Area are the more mainstream raves in Canada. Two mainstream Raves take place in Popkum, the first being the Apex Project, Which took place August 4th 2007. And the upcoming SummerBreak rave on August 18th 2007 which will contain even a hip-hop lineup with lil john, Swollen Members and more. Other big raves in Vancouver are thrown by Solid Entertainment are held the PNE Colliseum. Dooms Night, I.M.F, NYE, and Fusion Dreams all attract over 5000 people.

All three cities have a burgeoning underground rave culture with smaller, less commercial events held in underground venues, attracting the usual crowds associated with the rave subculture, such as new wavers and hippies

Candy ravers usually dress up in wild clothes consisting of bright colours, fluffy leg warmers for the girls and ‘phat’ (excessively flared) pants for the guys. They are also the major users of glow sticks and are regarded as having started the Chupa Chup lollipop phenomenon. These two items represent what Hebdige refers to as the magical appropriation of “humble objects” [in Brookman, 1998:51] that express resistance in a form of code, and act to reinforce the ‘subordinate’ status of the group. There is however a practical aspect to the use of Chupa Chups at raves which is to prevent the grinding of the teeth (a side effect of ecstasy use).

Australian Rave culture

Driven by a need to be away from residential areas due to noise pollution complaints of residents, the Australian rave scene held their events in industrial areas. For the Sydney rave scene the industrial areas of the Western suburbs were quite common in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Following the 2000 Sydney Olympics the Sydney Olympic Park at Homebush proved a popular venue as it had ample large warehouse space available and the advantage of no close by residential areas. The "superdome" at Olympic Park has hosted a number of events due to the large capacity. Events at these venues often have ample room for amusement rides, open air "chill out" areas and food stalls. Several amusement parks have hosted dance party events (Wonderland Sydney and Luna Park Sydney).

In Victoria, the dockland areas of Melbourne hosted numerous raves in the 90s. Bushland areas out side of Melbourne provided doof venues, notably Mt Disappointment for Earthcore and Kryal Castle just outside of Ballarat. The Newcastle Rave scene made use of unused warehouses in the Newcastle CBD and at licensed entertainment venues throughout the late 90s and early 2000s. Events such as "Vital beats" and under-age dance parties were held in these venues.

Another style which originated in Melbourne is the Melbourne Shuffle. The Australian rave scene has a cousin in the Doof party scene. Although the rave scene attracts a younger, city-based crowd the Doof party events are a more "hippy" or alternative crowd. Warehouse parties in Sydney also shared the common theme of electronic music, although of a more house music style than the hardcore or trance found at Australian raves.

Films

Including some elements or descriptions of Rave culture.

• Kids (1994 film)- The esential film on kid culture in NYC. Includes a scene at NASA. Directed by Larry Clark and written by then raver Harmony Korine.
• Rolling- The giddy highs and crushing lows of Ecstasy use are felt by a group of people looking to escape their troubles in this independent drama. It's Friday night in Los Angeles, and a handful of young hipsters are on their way to a massive rave party at a Los Angeles warehouse.
• Technobabble (1996) - 1996 documentary, Technobabble follows Factory Visuals and DJ Chang from an enormous rave in Atlanta to the best house party of the year in Orlando. During their travels we are introduced to many unique characters who are getting ready to attend one crazy party.
• Party Monster (1998) - 1998 documentary on Michael Alig, a Club Kid party organizer whose life was sent spiraling down when he bragged on television about killing his drug dealer and roommate.
• Better Living Through Circuitry (1999) - a 1999 documentary about Electronic music and Dance culture.
• Human Traffic (1999) - a fictional UK story focusing mostly on drug and club culture, but containing some elements related to Raves.
• Groove (2000) - Fictional drama about an outlaw rave in San Francisco, California and containing many standard elements of raves including multiple DJs over the course of a night, candy kids, a promoter Chris Robertson and a headliner DJ John Digweed.
• A Midsummer Night's Rave (2002) - A rave film loosely based off A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• 24 Hour Party People (2002) - a semi-biographical comedy/history of the rise of rave / DJ events in the UK through the eyes of one record label, Factory Records, to which Joy Division was signed; Joy Division later became rave music staple New Order.
• Stark Raving Mad (2002) - Fictional straight-to-DVD film about a heist pulled during a rave.
• Party Monster (2003) - Fictionalized story of Michael Alig.
• It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004) - a 2004 fictional biopic independent film about Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye), a DJ who goes completely deaf. The title is Cockney rhyming slang for "it's all gone wrong". Sometimes called rave's version of This Is Spinal Tap.
• One Perfect Day (2004) - Australian fictional movie that focuses on the more sleazy side of the rave/club scene, specifically drugs and exploitation, but also about finding an escape and voice through music.
• RISE: The Story Of Rave Outlaw Disco Donnie (2004) a documentary about the State Palace Theatre in New Orleans, LA, and Disco Donnie, the first person indicted under the U.S. government’s revived "Crack House Law".
• Melbourne Shuffler (2005) - Documentary about Melbourne's rave culture and dance style known as the Melbourne Shuffle.
• Welcome to Wonderland (2006) - Documentary about Australia's outdoor bush rave culture.
• Go - 1999 film directed by Doug Liman, with three intertwining plots that happen to involve one drug deal.

See also

• Acid house party - forerunner of raves typically staged in US and UK warehouses around 1987-89
  • Circuit party
• Doof
• Free party for the modern, illegal version of raves
• Melbourne Shuffle a rave dance style culture that has evolved in Melbourne, Australia over the past 15 years
• New Rave a new genre of music mixing elememts of rave culture, disco and rock

• RAVE Act, an American law targeting raves
• Rave against the occupation - political raves in Israel
• Rave Board Game - 1991 board game based on the UK Rave scene
• Rave music for music and music styles at raves
• Technoshamanism - a technique employed by some ravers, often utilizing electronic music and psychoactive drugs
• Zippies

• Category:Electronic music festivals

References

Further reading

• Matthew Collin. Altered State: The Story of Ecstasy and Acid House. London: 1997 : Serpent's Tail -- How rave dances began in Manchester, England in the Summer of 1988 (the Second Summer of Love) and the aftermath. ISBN 1-85242-604-7
• Simon Reynolds. Generation Ecstasy: Into the world of techno and rave culture. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1998. ISBN 0-316-74111-6
• Brian L. Ott and Bill D. Herman. Excerpt from Mixed Messages: Resistance and Reappropriation in Rave Culture. 2003. [1]
• Evans, Helen. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: An Analysis of Rave culture. Wimbledon School of Art, London. 1992. Includes bibliography through 1994.
• St John, Graham (ed). 2004. Rave Culture and Religion. New York: Routledge. [2]

External links

• Rave FAQ from 1995.
• Rave history in the UK
• Rave Gear
• Melbourne Rave history
• Regional community links at Curlie