and for you old schoolers... a look back to parties from years back. this is what our scene/parties used to look like...

livingart.com they have parties listed both alphabetically and chronologically... take your pick.

see the difference between kids then and now? yup... no children running around in underwear!!


just something i thought i'd share. :)

biger produtions

more ravers

and older ravers

Ah, bigger productions - but not as many stages and DJs (on average). Hmmmmm....

wasn't the 10 year anniversary of The Real World like last year?

tv is destroying the youth of america. get up and go rave! (except the ones that have leave their clothes at home :P)

wasn't the 10 year anniversary of The Real World like last year?

That's sad that you can even guess it.

I haven't watched the Real World in so long.
I didn't even realize it was on TV still until I saw like 5 minutes worth of the "Hollywood" one.


It's getting lamer every episode.

oh yeah its a show based on drama, you can't hold the bar too high.

entertaining, nonetheless.

Sweet jesus I love this pic :)

Sweet jesus I love this pic :)

all i get is a broken link, lol

i see it lol its so dope.

here's a copied versio

NOW THOSE ARE PANTS!!!!

people should wear those. :)

i only kept one pair of my phat pants. :(

i threw away 3 pairs of kikwears & and a pair of jnco's. sad day in raver history. lol

i only kept one pair of my phat pants. :(

i threw away 3 pairs of kikwears & and a pair of jnco's. sad day in raver history. lol

Get some More

bwild.com

none of those pants are nearly wide enough at the bottom. the ones i threw away were 44" bottoms and bigger.

yeah the biggest was 42

SAD FACE ):

oh yeah its a show based on drama, you can't hold the bar too high.

entertaining, nonetheless.

I just wanna jump in the TV and smack some hoes around myself.
:S

NOW THOSE ARE PANTS!!!!

people should wear those. :)

I'd wear them, but I think nobody would find me!
D:

I'd drown in those pants.

I'd drown in those pants

there Phat Pants, not swining trunks

lol

I'm just saying they're so huge and baggy...and I'm so small and ...skinny!

wow haha I've never seen so many people at a rave actually wearing clothes that cover more than 10% of their body.

i'm so glad i ended up on livingart.com ...pictured at the event Masqueraid in march 2006...



its a shitty picture
and i look totally different, and dont see those kids around at events anymore...
but its awesome to have ended up on a event photography site that hasnt been updated in over 2 years

~karma

I posted this HERE and have decided to re-post it in places where it is more on-topic (and so it doesn't completely disappear into the DSI ether).

That's an interesting perspective. What are the things at all-ages parties that make them fun for you, besides kandie? What else about the environment is different/better?

I will have to argue that there ARE fun people at 18+ parties, but it depends on your definition of fun. If you are attending in order to dance, meet new people, have intelligent conversations, etc, and you consider THESE things fun, then there are likely plenty of fun people. If you are seeking to trade kandie, do lots of drugs, roll around on the floor, invent "rave names" for each other, become "rave parents" and stuff like that, well, I guess I see your point. There are some admittedly snobby/dismissive people at 18+ events, but if you are friendly, approach people respectfully and with something interesting to say, are willing to accept the input/advice/ideas/etc of older people, and can maintain that without letting yourself be affected by negative people, then you can likely make plenty of fun new friends.

The DJs aren't as good - at 18+ parties? May I ask what you base this conclusion on? Is it how much kandie they wear? Is it the kind of music they play? I honestly want to know. Much of the music here is made/played by people who have been doing this a long time. Check some of it out and see if you think the people putting it out there aren't any good.

And, the whole kandie thing... You should know that when many of us who are 18+ (well, mostly those of us who are 25+) started going to raves, kandie was not very common. Where it WAS common, it was never excessive - a piece here or there. Being "decked" in kandie would have been considered ridiculous by many.

Whether or not anyone goes home with anyone or asks how old they are before they do isn't really the main issue (though it IS an item of concern). The issue is that older people feel out of place and uncomfortable around a horde of teenagers and kids, especially when they're wearing next to nothing, rubbing each other, and on more drugs than most of the old school ravers would take in three months. To many of them, it feels like being 30 and going to a high-school kegger/makeout party where they have nothing in common with most of the people there and little to talk about. Except, at THIS kegger/makeout party, there's a lot of people (especially girls) running around with as much skin on display as possible and people are having sex in public and throwing all decency, coherency, and sense of purpose out the window.

All ages parties now guarantee increased scrutiny, hysteria, and harrassment on the part of media, law enforcement, and the rest of "the system." They bring a much greater likelihood of an event getting shut down, of someone getting hurt, of some parents freaking out and placing pressure on the authorities (*cough* Earthdance *cough*), etc. Also - People over 18 usually have jobs, careers, established and self-sufficient lifestyles, etc. Most of them have reservations about being photographed at such an event (or otherwise be associated with one). There's something called "Contributing to the delinquency of a minor." It can get a non-minor in big trouble, and it's a charge that can be placed upon a non-minor on a whim and on very little meaningful evidence.

There's also the concern about predatory individuals having easy access to teenagers with SEVERELY lowered inhibitions. Another of the litany of reasons adult ravers have a distaste for all ages parties, teenage kids in their underwear, teenagers on drugs, etc, is that they don't want them to GET HURT, or to be in any way witness to or associated with kids getting hurt. It ruins their FUN.

I agree with you about clubs - there is rarely a vibe (most people are there to drink and get laid), the music is often sterile/boring, and they're just not very interactive or meaningful. This is NOT what 18+ raves/parties are meant to be, which is why 18+ ravers still go to them.

To many of us who were raving in the 90s, the raves of today don't feel like raves AT ALL. The same complaints are often leveled against the DJs who play at them, and inverse complaints are rendered about the kandie. You see, kandie, stuffed animals, pastel colors, and childhood-themed clothing and accessories represent infantilism. It is the rave scene's current emphasis on such infantilism that contributes to the older folks being uncomfortable and thinking that many of the younger folks are younger than they actually are (and, when the younger folks ARE 18+, that understandably irritates and alienates them).

It is emphasis on this infantilism that also confuses many parents and society at large. When it is combined with the rampant and excessive drug use among many of the young ravers of today, with the utter lack of discretion, responsibility, and self-control that many of the young (and old) ravers exhibit, and with the current and widespread fashion trend of showing a LOT of skin, no matter WHAT age (and this is not something that is only seen at raves, BTW), well, you have a recipe for parents and governments and people in general viewing raves in a very negatively judgmental and dismissive frame of mind. Feel free to wear all the kandie, stuffed animals, and toddler clothing/underwear you want (nothing objectively wrong with it, PER SE), but know that these are the conditions, social norms, and concepts you're dealing with when you do, and that "teenage drug orgy" is often the message you're sending to the rest of society in the process. Most normal people will come to the conclusion that you HAVE to be on drugs to dress that way, even if you're not.

I firmly believe that raves are NOT meant to be hedonistic drug orgies, strip clubs, or environments where ANYTHING goes and people are free to do WHATEVER they want. They're about music, dancing, acceptance and free expression (of the self-respecting kind), sharing ideas, meeting new people, finding common ground/connecting with others, displaying/sharing/practicing creativity (all the way down to fashion), and celebrating life and the glorious potential of the human mind.

That's what I got out of it, anyway. I'm just one person. There were certainly a good amount of do-nothing, fry-your-brains-out hedonists in the old days. But there were lots of intelligent, kind, and interesting people too. Most of THOSE people got fed up long ago, in all honesty.

I feel I must reiterate: The "rave" environment that I'm seeing these days is almost NOTHING like the definition of "rave" that I (and many ravers in their 20s and 30s) know. There are those who argue that things change and that people should embrace and adapt to change. *I* argue that change should be positive, and when changes are made to something positive, they shouldn't be changes that undermine the values and ideas at the root of said positivity. Change should be constructive, and positive/constructive change to something good is rarely achieved by re-identifying it and casting out most or all of what made it good in the first place.

I realize that there is a knowledge gap and a disconnect between the teenagers, 18-25 year-old ravers, and the elder ravers (let's just call them "electronic music lovers"), and it's painfully obvious that not many good ideas are being passed down to the next generation. But, not all of us are so jaded that we won't talk to you or give you the time of day - it's just a matter of interfacing with individuals in a manner that is worthwhile (for me, I find it is more worthwhile to write something that many people can read and come back to at any time than to try to teach anyone anything face-to-face). There are those of us who are doing our part to practice and share the values we learned when we were young and were dancing all night. In exchange for th effort we put into this effort, I only ask that more of the young folk at least meet us halfway and show us that they can be responsible, conscientious, rational, and willing to accept ideas/input/feedback from older people. If they can convince us, maybe they can convince their parents and Johnny Law.

All-ages parties used to be places where teenagers WERE relatively safe (safer than at a high-school kegger or other types of concerts and parties, anyway), where they could feel comfortable interfacing with many of the older people, where they weren't often mistreated and misjudged, etc. That kind of environment could exist again - it depends on the behavior of ALL the people involved.

It is my hope that at least some of you youngsters (and oldsters) here on DSI have the patience, willingness, and ability to read and understand everything I've written here. If so, then there is potential for these ideas to be shared with others, and potential for more people to benefit from them by looking at their behavior and their environment/atmosphere and then recognizing how certain behaviors affect others and affect their community, species, and planet as a whole.

Okay, off my soap box. I'm usually wasting my time when I do this, but hopefully this time it won't won't be completely for naught.

Wow, that's quite a mouthful from Nick, and being a newcomer here in AZ, and to this site, I can't comment on the past here in AZ, however from what I have seen, I agree.

In NY, candy-ravers, as we called them, we pretty much a rare breed, and grew out of it fast, or burned out. They didn't "get it" or were there for the look at me factor. The first time I was at something called a "Rave" it was 1990, and boy have things changed. In '92 was the explosion in the NY area, and it grew until 2000, then started to fade. After 9/11 things died off to near nothing. I lost my business, saw my Dj gigs drop, and lost a record deal (or 3) when labels started to go down. What I have seen here gives me some hope that it can come back, but as Nick implied, the crowds need to be more mature. When it all started to get going a lot of the party goers were young, but they stuck around, and by '96 it was a vital and healthy scene in NY. This can happen again, but it's as up to the promoters as it is to the ravers to make it happen. When I threw parties back in NY, we had a huge college crowd, we aimed promotions into campus' and brought out numbers of older ravers. In a town of 20,000 people we drew 1000+ to our weekly and 2000 to an average one off, year after year. In '94 we drew out 3500 a couple of times and in '96 a couple of times more in addition to a 5000 person event, all in upstate NY. The Phoenix metro area is the 5th largest metro area in the US. With time and effort, the rave scene can be vital and healthy again, but it is up to everybody for this to happen.

i have a friend that can custom make you a pair. you just pick out the materials that you like and she takes you measurements and poof! you have rave pants. lolz. i have a custom pair and they are awesome!