u/depolledejoie

There have been posts going off on certain events being branded as "raves", club culture in events, overpriced water bottles and food, bad sound and light production, overplayed music, and basically everything under the sun. I do understand the concerns from the community because bad organization and disrespect to rave culture does lead to bad results.

At the same time, I would also like to ask everyone what makes a rave a true rave? What makes it good for the community? What makes it true to rave culture?

Is it good production? Music? Free water? Respectful crowd (with no pickpocketers of course)? No tables? No drugs? Is it queer-facing/queer-protective?

What are other factors that makes a rave considered to be true? And most importantly, what raves are considered to be true to rave culture?

Lastly, let's all be respectful to those who are new to raving. They deserve to explore all events and choose what they want to attend. If anything, this discussion should help them figure out what to really consider when choosing which rave to attend.

I played at Ravenila’s Sanctuary stage last night and I had an absolutely great time! I guess I was lucky because people really started to fill up in the Sanctuary Room during my set (I had the 11:30-12:15 slot - that Where You Are to Reload moment will stick with me forever).

GOOD:
Not having the mainstage timetable be released was a great decision from the Ravenila team. It made you go through all of the DJs rather than just going for one DJ then leaving after their set is done.

The lights were absolutely bomb last night. They even had a pretty nice horizontal laser on top of it all.

The resting room is a much needed addition! I even slept there for a couple of hours after my set. Having free water refills were great but there were some issues with the pumps.

Also Baked Studios felt cold all night in my opinion. I think their ventilation problem has been fixed.

NOT SO GOOD:
Unfortunately, there were some people that had their phones stolen. From what I’ve heard, it’s a group effort starting with someone offering to take pictures for you. This has been happening in other events too.

Again, some water pumps were not working in the refilling station.

Lastly, and I think this is just a personal thing as a DJ, I felt that the speakers in the Sanctuary stage had too much treble and it was hurting my ears. I wasn’t even close to redlining during my set.

Overall, I thought Ravenila was a massive success! Congrats to Ems and the rest of the Ravenila team! I would definitely go to another edition as just a fellow raver.

I definitely did not cover everything so let me know your thoughts on the whole thing!