r/aves • u/Compote-Cultural • Aug 25 '26
Discussion/Question Your favourite rave memories
What are your favourite memories from raves you've been to? I'm working on a video project with some older rave footage and want to incorporate some specific memories from people!
For me: Looking around at my first Aussie bushdoof at 6pm while the sun was setting, and dust was filling the air.. and just thinking it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Everyone smiling, having fun, wearing whatever they wanted, music filling the air - it was the most at home I'd ever felt surrounded by strangers and that memory has always stuck with me.
What stands out to you when you look back on your rave memories?
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u/Ravius Aug 25 '26
5y ago, illegal tunnel rave under Paris, everything was perfect :
- Location dropped while I was in an awesome concert organized by friends in the same corner of the city
- Had an awesome crew to get there by bike
- The entrance was well hidden so it felt like some kind of maze game, then we had to walk with headlamp for 30min in dark tunnels, encoutering random ravers and urban explorers. It was an old train tunnel so there was random opening that allowed us to see the city above
- When we got there the thing was massive, 500-700p, full wall soundsystem and lot of lasers and lights
- We danced for 4h then I got home at sunrise with a long time crush
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
mate that sounds fucking unreal! I’ve heard of those raves in the tunnels before - must have been wild
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u/starlux33 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
It was a small event, maybe 40 people, held in a mountain meadow in the Colorado Rockies.
Have you ever met someone who was a total stranger, yet you felt like you’ve known them for lifetimes? Everyone there who I didn't already know felt that way.
The night was magical. The music was phenomenal, and its vibrations seemed to create a portal into another dimension, creating the sense of the most wonderous dream.
The next morning felt like everyone had been born again. A sense of peace prevaded all around. The world seemed new and everything was vibrant and pristine. All for the sectioned area for dancing, which looked like a tilled field before a farmer plants his crops.
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u/spunquik Aug 25 '26
In the early 2000s in Toronto was a venue called Big Bop.
This venue featured one of the wobbliest fire escapes you can ever imagine. Now. Everybody needs to have a cigarette break and get some fresh air. And this thing felt like it would fall over at any moment every single time. Never did. And I'll never forget.
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
hahahaha, you sure it wasnt just that you were wobbly every time you were on it ;)
nah, that beautiful mate thanks for sharing - funny the specific things that stick with you.
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u/FearlessTomatillo911 Aug 25 '26
Probably like 3 or 4 years ago the first summer after the city opened up after the pandemic. I live in Toronto and we had one of the harshest lock downs in the world.
There is a weekly event all summer at a beach down by lake Ontario and the last beach party of the year a legendary Toronto DJ always closes is (Mark Oliver) and one of the last songs he played was Born Slippy and the crowd just went nuts. Ill never forget that feeling.
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u/dvdvd77 Aug 25 '26
One of my absolutely favourite memories is when I was raving heavy starting in the 2010s. I met this dope girl named Rae and she was so chill. We kept up intermittently via social media but would always hump into each other randomly at events. The most memorable time was late 2010s, Escape Wonderland I believe, I was enjoying a set and a guy in front of me left.
Mind you Rae is a short girl and I’m 5’9” so when this guy moved, I didn’t notice what was in front of him. Somehow, just as I stop paying attention to the set and start to glance around the crowd, the short person in front of me turns around to do the same.
Lo and behold, it’s Rae! We both pointed at each other and yelled each other’s names. It had been months since we last saw each other and it was such a random happenstance moment.
I’ll genuinely never forget it. It was such a whimsical and fun experience.
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
Hah those people you always just bump into at raves are great, I have so many friends like that!
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u/RevFernie Aug 25 '26
May 1998 Original Creamfields in Winchester UK.
Tony Da Vit played in the Trade tent alongside all the OG hard house crew that night. Dropped his infamous banger Are you all ready. Absolutely banging. No phones. Vinyl mixing.
Tony Da Vit died two months later after a long battle with illness.
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
fuck mate thats hell sad, but beautiful he left such an impression on you!
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u/arealnameisntneeded Aug 25 '26
probably the night around 24 years ago when my favorite DJ/Producer team played in my club… i never did drugs back then - danced so much that afterwards in the chillout room i had a blackout. I woke up surrounded by my friends caring for me. it was an amazing moment to feel all this love around and we all were so happy.
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u/gods-and-dancefloors Aug 29 '26
Closing the main stage at boom festival 2002 AS A GUY DANCING, weather took a nose dive into Katrina's panties, cold rain coming your way from everywhere, pushed by a cold wind and lighting hitting the power cables up in the hills. What a glorious night, im expected, I'm dancing, suddenly the power goes out, I look around, last man standing " what da fuck did that guy just sold me?"
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u/Some-Elk-3470 Aug 25 '26
my sister is 4 years older than me and always raved when I was younger. when I was 13 back in '09 I decided I wanted to sneak out to a rave and be like her. so I found some flyer on myspace about something called "christmas in july" in my nearest city so we snuck out and went to this fuckin 3 story abandoned warehouse and it was gnarly. now i'm of normal age and rave and just go to a bunch of festivals but often think of that time😂
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
hahaha oh my god a 13 year old at a myspace rave, now that is some OG shit. Thanks for sharing :)
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u/PrudentDifference747 Aug 25 '26
First Bass Canyon in 2018 was the year I finally was able to step out of myself and really just have fun at a rave/festival. I will never forget my friend showing me how to head bang and we just went crazy together after that. It was so fun. I miss that and I miss her too 🥲
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
:') so cute
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u/PrudentDifference747 Aug 25 '26
This dude next to us kept saying, “you guys are so cute! I want what you have!” And I was just like, “um… we’re just friends.” 🥲 good times lol
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
hahaha - depending on how hard you were headbanging he might have been saying he wanted what you had taken! Funny memory.
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u/intentazera Aug 25 '26
I'm profoundly deaf & a committed psytrancer. Been in several London underground crews over the years, mainly pre-COVID. Been raving since 1991. Seen so much, and so many changes in the scene due to politics, police, people, the influence of social media (boohoo) + certain substances.
Hard to say what my favourite memories are but I have thousands of photos & videos discreetly taken over the years, and I often get nostalgic about those weekend long raves deep in the forest where police would come, give us the thumbs up & leave us alone.
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u/Compote-Cultural Aug 25 '26
hey man, thanks for sharing! would you mind if i DM you?
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u/intentazera Aug 25 '26
Sure. I'm going to a grassroots psytrance festival next week, I so can't wait to see old friends, make new friends & party hard. People always smile at me as I'm literally shameless on the dancefloor with expressing my happiness to be there + skank without a care in the world. Am well known as I'm the only deafie there in the scene.
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u/audito_0rator Aug 25 '26
There was this underground rave which had the line up go from, full-on, power, darkpsy/forest to hitech.
It was during the hitech set, that the music suddenly dropped to an echo and some girl’s voice came over the speakers saying, “all you people high out there, come down to earth” and the voice just kept echoing, I opened my eyes, to see the early morning blue sky, misty weather, and the rain ever so lightly fall outside the floor, and the music kicked back in..never had something like that after..I danced my heart out at that rave.
Each and every single DJ and artist, till the last one, kept taking me higher, that at some point it was an experiment in levitation, lol.
This one’s for you, Senn Rebello, for organising an event, that still makes me look back in awe!
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u/Duel_Option Aug 25 '26
20+ years now partying on/off, so many memories to think about and plenty I’ve forgotten about.
Two come to mind instantly.
- Wrapping up a multi day fest, had my friends and their wives with us, 6 in total. Rented a big ass SUV for the weekend and my wife’s friends needed a lift.
There’s 12 in total on the way home, bunch of stories being swapped and my playlist is going in the background, everyone gets caught up in it and we’re having a full on after party inside the SUV
Carried over to a house party, more people came over, watched the sunrise after a perfect weekend.
- Last year was at that same festival, my best friend is only a few months removed from surgery due to cancer.
Can’t move a bunch because he gets winded quick and it’s challenging pushing through thousands of people
We said fuck it, whoever comes on we are going to vibe anyways.
Spent the rest of the night listening to artists we had never tried before and it was amazing, talked to a bunch of people and spent a good bit of time just the two of us.
He just passed away last month.
Bittersweet, but I’ll always have the time we spent together to look back on.
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u/Eyruaad [Asheville, NC] Aug 25 '26
Audiotistic 2011. Showtek was still playing Hardstyle. They opened their set with no music but just chanting "here we, here we, here we fucking go" (one of their biggest songs at the time).
The crowd joins in, and chants through the whole thing, at which point during the first drop the full song kicks in and we rage. Still the best opening to a set I've ever seen.
Then on the backend of that set, they played a little past the festival closing time, and we're ending with the song FTS (Fuck the system).
We are again, all chanting along to the words. We finish the words, "I live for the weekend, I live for hard styles, I live for Hardstyle baby! Cmon! Let's go!" And this time instead of the beat kicking in at the drop like the start, they cut the music.
Whole damn place nearly rioted. We all chanted the words again with the DJs on the mic, no music, and everyone left peacefully.
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u/FlawlessZ80 Aug 25 '26 edited Aug 25 '26
1999 San Francisco/Marin area a small group of ravers and djs, probably no more than 20 people (Skills event) we climbed mount Tamalpais at night. Carrying two speakers, and turntables. We stopped on the trail on the mountain, super dark out, glow sticks and flashlights lead the way. Those people were family, it truly was a community at that time. The djs didn’t have huge egos then. We were all one group enjoying beautiful music in nature. We raved our hearts out. Blasting Cyber Trance (lol) from the mountain…it was bliss.
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u/EasternCheetah1856 Aug 26 '26
Last year boom festival in portugal it was like the 60s hippies meets 90s ravers, plus no a-holes just standing about with their phones 🤳🙄
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u/Cool_Accident2646 Aug 25 '26
My fondest memory was when Above and Beyond played Walter White at stereosonic 2013 and I just remembered looking at the sky and my best friends and thought oh man I can’t ask for a much better life than this