what is the definition of a rave at this point? Large crowds of people dancing in or outdoors to techno music is still a HUGE thing. There's video of tons of them on youtube. If often put them on while working. Is it only a rave if it's illegal?
As someone in the culture 20-30 years ago, it was always something that was underground... not promoted in a traditional sense, and hosted in unpermitted spaces. Usually you wouldn't know until the day of the event where the location actually was.
Much of the time it would be in industrial areas that were pretty deserted and dark at night, far away from any life that would complain about the noise that would go on until at lease sunrise. If outdoors it might be out in the woods, on the edge of an Indian reservation, in the desert, etc. Often there was a gritty sense of danger and some really odd characters you would meet, certainly not helped by the substances they might be on.
What you linked is what I'd call outdoor parties/festivals. Maybe folks today call them raves, but these things existed back then and we certainly didn't.
~15 years ago I remember a friend convincing me to drive a bunch of us to a rave that involved meeting a guy in grocery store parking lot between certain hours and writing down the instructions he gave us. We then drove an hour on the freeway, got off and spent 30 minutes on a series of forest service roads to get to a 2(3?) stage rave in a clearing in the woods. It went at least until sunrise, we left as the sun came up.
I went to them 25 years ago as well. I get the same thing from the organized promoted ones as I got from the old ones. I didn't need it to be "underground". I just needed the people, the music, the vibe.
The main difference for me was the social aspects and tapestry of characters you'd meet. Not only were they much longer (if you're a night person), they tended to be significantly less crowded for the space they were in. There were time and space advantages for that aspect to blossom.
There were events where I met so many people that it had a snowball effect. In addition to anyone there I already knew, I'd be building/merging new friend groups on the fly and sometimes hours would go by before I'd see any of the people I came with.
Conversely, at sanctioned events I'd stick tight with my friends pretty much all night... sure you'd meet other people, but not nearly to the same level. Generally dance more and socialize less.
The events you’re talking about still exist to a T. If anything, there’s too much interest in them, and now they’re hiding not just from cops but from “tourists”. Think finance bros who just want the exclusivity and a chance to bother women
> No need to listen to the gatekeepers. Rave is a verb. Raves are where people rave!
While true, I think in this case it is referring to the noun, which peaked in the 90s early 2000s underground movement and was the basis for the PLUR culture that is uniquely absent in the club scene; and I say that as a person who has mainly been into clubs as I was too young at the time but knew plenty of those candy-ravers growing up but was really into various genres of psy music (ambient then, techno and then finally trance) before I ever went out to party.
I read the article, and it's maonly focused on techno heavy parts of Berlin and OZ but I know there is a contingent of early dubstepers and to a lesser extend DnB (which was more widely accepted at the time) here on HN that grew up and went to events that were analogous to this as we listened to pirate radio from the UK and went to underground parties out in warehouses and in outdoor parties when things were only starting up because we couldn't go to Plastic People in London.
This is the closest we had to the early rave scene, where everyone sort of knew everyone (including the artists, promoters or venue owners) and we still called it 'raving' as you mentioned, but these became the state-side analogues (Dub-Warz [0] in EC and SMOG [1] in WC) to DMZ [2] nights and eventually to things like Red Bull Academy sponsored events and Outlook festival [3] [4] when adoption had peaked.
All of this is to say, that the verb and the noun represent unique periods, that latter I think can still be found in festivals but have ultimately a more corporate and capitalistic motivation than just a bunch of party people bootstrapping and renting a bunch of generators and PAs and taking them out into a warehouse, desert or forest and dancing all night and day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yv33bb-C_bo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wy2WYqD2Rs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEacozH2uXs
There's also huge EDM and other types of events (so I guess not techno but the vibe seems related, at least to me)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7O-7rF0Hqk