The return of the free dial-a-rave
Raves were born out of necessity, like most of dance culture we know and love today. From their beginnings in New York, Chicago and Detroit, before they swept across the Atlantic to Europe and beyond, these illegal disco parties have served as homophobia-free, racism-free, and sexism-free havens from the mainstream.
Unconventional off-the-grid spaces – rent houses, lofts, factories, abandoned underground stations, patches of grass in the middle of nowhere – became audio sanctuaries. Who you fancied or how you looked or where you came from didn’t mean a goddamn thing.
You didn’t know the line-up. You didn’t know whether your best friend’s ex-boyfriend’s sister’s cousin’s mother’s pet turtle was ‘maybe’ attending. You didn’t even know exactly where the party was. Here’s what you did know: a date, a city – possibly a meeting point near a motorway, if you were lucky – and a telephone number.
This year, Red Bull Music Academy are paying homage to those halcyon days, and throwing a free dial-a-rave in London, Saturday April 11, 10pm – 4am. Lineup and venue tba on the day.
And, on a real, this is 2015 not 1992, which means no flyers. Here’s what you do: Tweet #0800R1NG2RAV3. Check your DMs. Follow the instructions. Go to the address. Turn your phone off. Put your hair up. And get down. Sounds like our kinda party.
For more information on the 2015 RBMA UK/NYC tour and to find what’s happening near you, check out Red Bull Music Academy.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
Photos of friends, lovers and afters in Berlin’s party scene
Dreams and How to Keep Them – Vincent Wechselberger’s new monograph documents a decade of hedonism in the German capital, and the people he met along the way.
Joyous photos from the heart of the UK’s radical free festival movement
Common Grounds — The photographer has been capturing British counterculture for the past half century. A new exhibition looks at his archive sitting at the intersection of music, community and grassroots protest.
Inside the grunge golden age with Hole’s former bassist
My ’90s Rock Photographs — Melissa Auf der Maur’s new photobook is a sprawling visual memoir of her time at the heart of the US scene, from Tinker to The Smashing Pumpkins.
How the Home Counties took over UK rap
Landmark new exhibition is celebrating 50 years of female punk
God Save the Queens — The Museum of Youth Culture is bringing together rare photography, archive material and a one-night-only supergroup featuring members of X-Ray Spex, The Slits and The Raincoats.
Cristale: “Living in London taught me to be grateful”
What Made Me – In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s Brixton-born rapper Cristale.
