Oooooh, do you remember those joyous days of the past, where you could go to paradise regularly and have the time of your life (guaranteed) with 70.000 other people?
Did we APPRECIATE THIS enough at the time? OH YES WE DID! Do you remember those days where any kind of plastic cover attached to your head was FUN HAPPINESS plastic?And when face masks were made out of fantasy animals and glitter? And hugging was normal. Hugging was everywhere.And being allowed to enjoy big crowds of people was normal.And dj’ing was normal.Dj’s were everywhere. (This is TrailerPark 2010).And sitting close to your friends was normal.Sitting close to your friends was in fact EXTREMELY normal. Ooooooh, do you remember those days where you could just invite your friends over for a garden party?Back then when it was super duper normal to just show up at the garden party and press your face up against other faces as many times as you wanted – to say hello or to show your enthusiasm or to whisper some interesting secrets or to take pictures or just because you felt like it. Aaaah, those garden parties. Just put up some deco and let the vibe build up and chill out in the grass.And get cosy by the pool.And not worry about the amount of people showing up.And light a fire when the sky turned dark blue.And then dance some more, into the night.Aaaaaaah, the good old days of the packed dance floors. So many of them. So packed.Of course, we made sure to enjoy them fully, back then! Even though we didn’t know they would disappear. Because they were so awesome. Oh, the happiness and the joy.So many variations.Daytime dancefloors. (Turmbühne, 2008).Daytime dance floors, hot and enthusiastic version. (This is S.U.N, Hungary). Good times! This is why I prefer jungle and psytrance. PROPER MOVEMENT.More daytime dance floors. Boom, 2012. And night time dance floors. (This is a great ‘Spot a Junglist’ / ‘Spot a Psytrancer’ pic. Have fun.)
Crazy stuff happened back then, you wouldn’t believe… Sometimes people drank from the same bottle.
And laughed about it!And people even touched each others’ hands all the time. Just like that. The mayhem.Or each others’ elbows. Just like that.
Check out all the interesting meeting of hands in this fun little video of Classic DJ Problems at TrailerPark 2010. Sometimes people used their hands just for fun.All kinds of weird fun.And people stuck their tongues out of their mouths.Whenever they felt like it. Just living on the edge.
Aaaaaah, the good ol’ days where people just pressed their faces against each others faces.
So much face squeezing.Endless amounts of face squeezing.Happy, sweaty faces.All the time.Everywhere.So many face squeeze variations.Sometimes even in groups.Sometimes in big groups. Open mouths and everything.Ooooooh, the group hug expertise of the ravers! Look at the complexity and the spontaneity, COMBINED. Only Vitus is worried about this group hug. (This is Docken, 2007).JKamata also has a sudden weird feeling about all this facial contact. Where does this weird feeling come from? From the FUTURE? This is June, 2009.Okay, worries in the dance are over. Super dangerous group hugging here! Look at the lovely people not giving a toss. RAW, august 2009.Aaaaaah, the group squeeeeezes. Post-dj-Hype in 2009 in dangerous Sweden.Casual head squeezing, surrounded by thousands of people. Waiting for Roger Waters, 2006.LOL. A classic overdoing-the-face-squeezing pic from 2005. But it’s so niiiiiiiice!
And do you remember all the kissing? So many raver kisses. Because that was just a normal thing to do.
Today, I saw a big, ugly sign on Istedgade saying “God jul og god afstand”. Read that again. That is offensively annoying. I need three raver kisses to recover from such an assault on my sensibilities.
Fusion, 2007.Stella Polaris, the year of the hail storm. Turmbühne, 2007.
Recently, Sune saw this horror of a sign (see below) in Copenhagen and took a photo, just to remember Dystopia.
We need three raver group hugs to recover from this.
Here is Sune, recovering.Complex electric boogie group hugging. Learn from the masters.Complicated horizontal group hugging.
So…. how do we squeeze something good out of 2020 – the most raver-hostile environment ever?
Well, here’s an absolute certainty: The parties are going to be EXCELLENT when they come back! Great music is made in dark times, and once we are allowed back on the dance floors, it will be like reuniting with the cosmos and a thousand friends and your own innermost self all at the same time.
We will all look and feel like this:
Nufie, the spirit animal of the raver of 2021, reunited with the vibes and the bass.And like this. Nico, the spirit animal of the dj, back at work.And like this.And like this. (CRS is having himself a beautiful zen moment). We will be dancing into the sunset and through the night and into the morning and hugging everyone, including people we don’t necessarily know (yet). So basically, we will be doing exactly what we used to do. (This is Ozora, 2015, by the way. An incredibly beautiful festival. Just whauw.).
And just to put things into perspective, this is what Tim Driver said about his early early days of raving – back when proper techno parties were few and far between:
“Back then there weren’t that many parties to choose from. A month could easily pass between one techno party and the next. So when a techno rave was on, everyone showed up. It didn’t matter if it was techno or house or jungle or goa trance or whatever it was. It was just ”Let’s go!” no matter what.”
Words to remember in 2020….. AND you can use them as a fun thought experiment or meditation practice or whatever you need to lighten up these last (and dark) december days of this anti-raver year. Imagine that first proper rave some time in the future… where everyone shows up! 🙂
Meanwhile, here is youngster babyface Tim on his way to Mayday.
Alright, I have run out of time and stamina. I hope you enjoyed the tour of the Forbidden Pleasures of the past. And I hope you are looking forward to indulging in them again.
And I think this would be a perfect time for you to read a few pages from my diary about my early years of raving. This is one of my personal favourite JUngLEkalender posts: The Jungle Diaries: Longing for the Tribe
Need some proper psychedelic vibes? Join me for a trip to Ozora!
Did you like the photo of Tim Driver, Babyface Version? Read about Tim Driver’s first rave experiences here. And enjoy an entire selection of babyfaces in the Babyface Special.
Christina Majcher 