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.^[18] Although they continue in major coastal cities like Seattle, New York and LA (and in a few specific areas such as Dallas or 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.^[19] Though all of those are very uncommon.

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.^[20]

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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, Edmonton, 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. Among the larger promoters were entities such as Pleasure Force, Chemistry, Destiny, Nitrous, Atlantis, Dose, Better Days, and Citrus; smaller promoters included Exodus, Sykosis, Infinity, Transcendence, Alien Visitation, and others. 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 than 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 attendees 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 numbers 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.

In Vancouver or the British Columbia area raves tend to be slightly more mainstream than in Toronto, but less so than in Montreal. Two mainstream Raves take place in Popkum, the first being the Apex Project, Which took place August 4, 2007. And the upcoming SummerBreak rave on August 18, 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). And also pacifiers of candy-flipping on half a hit of LSD acid and half a hit of ecstasy/MDMA.

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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.

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Films

Including some elements or descriptions of Rave culture.

• Make Believe Aconin- Based and made during the first rave scene in 1992. Starring Kier Kirby of Deelite and the alien ball from outer space. Sound Efx by Billy Beyond. Directed by then raver Carola Spadoni Carola Spadoni.
• Kids- The essential film on kid culture in NYC. Includes a scene at the Tunnel NYC (Called Nasa for the movie). 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.
• 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 underground 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 on A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• Blade - A number of people in a rave club are dancing when they are revealed to be vampires. Many are killed by the "Daywalker", (Blade), when he enters the club.
• 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.
• Return of the Living Dead: Rave from the Grave, directed by Ellory Elkayem and released in 2005, is the 5th installment of the Return of the Living Dead film series. The Film includes allusions and references to the rave drug culture and its climax occurs at a rave.

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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
• Massive Magazine - The original US Rave magazine from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Melbourne Shuffle a rave dance style culture that has evolved in Melbourne, Australia over the past 15 years
• Merry Pranksters, Their early escapades were best chronicled by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
• New Rave a new genre of music mixing elements 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
• Tecktonik, a dance style based on rave music, developed in Paris, France and well known throughout Europe
• Zippies

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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]

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External links

• old school NASA rave videos, flyers and DJ mixtapes from 1992 on SCOTTO.TV
• Zines, flyers and mixtapes from 1990-1999
• Rave Footage from 1988 - 1994
• - History of the Northeast of England Rave Scene 1990+
• Rave Culture
• Rave FAQ from 1995.
• Links to raves worldwide
• Regional community links at the Open Directory Project
• The original Massive Magazine site
• XLR8R Magazine

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