Ravers are the Experts: Keeping Warm at All Times

Dedicated ravers know this: Rave culture can keep you warm through the coldest and hardest of times. Because the heart of rave culture is the dancefloor. And the dancefloor is the place to go for (re-)heating up our hearts when life freezes over.

Here’s an extremely hot dancefloor reheating up all the junglists. Look at Nico De Frost’s jungle shirt. And the shiny faces of Chriszka and Mariii. DNBZone, Infiltrata 2006.

Here’s a close-up of the sweatiness at the Infiltrata party. Photo: Miss Popo.

The pros bring a fan to the dancefloor to regulate all the heat generated from within. This is the Distortion afterparty 2024.

At Boom, everyone is a pro and everyone brings a fan to the dance floor (and wears as little clothes as possible).

Lux is always a pro and prefers to never wear a shirt on the dancefloor. This is the Trancefloor at Fusion, and it is almost 22 at night and it is STILL warm. Proof that thousands of pro ravers have warmed up this particular miraculous universe completely.

Le just decided to wear a bathing suit and swimming goggles and a towel to the dancefloor at RAW 2006.

DJ Matightazz keeps his shirt on and sweats decoratively on the dancefloor at DJ Assault at Culture Box in 2006. Picture by jonask.dk

Check out the dedication of the ravers by spotting their SOAKED t-shirts! We see you, Nufie on the left. This is the DNBZone Infiltrata party at Culture Box. Picture by Miss Popo.

Here’s a pair of glittery-sweaty hippies keeping extra warm with both hugs, sun, beards and fur at Fusion Festival.

And here’s Cibo, keeping warm with ultra-furry boots in 2006!

This is an article from CITADEL, February 2006, written by Atle. Enjoy!

FUN INTERMEZZO!
On the same page in that same CITADEL, I have written about the upcoming DNBZone: Vicious Circle party at Culture Box. I had completely forgotten that it was in the preparations for this party (and the writing of this text) that I heard the “Thrillseekers” track for the first time. Read the text, LOL.

18 years later (!), I was still mesmerized by the darkness of the “Thrillseekers” track, in the spring of 2024, when I decided to include it in my first mix uploaded to Soundcloud: The Darkside Jungle Mix: Shaping the Future

Yup, “Thrillseekers” is dark, with a sample that almost needs a trigger warning (if you’re into trigger warnings), but as I explain in the text, these kinds of tunes create the most HAPPY VIBES on the junglist dancefloors. I start mixing “Thrillseekers” in 26 minutes into the set.

Okay, back to the warmth and the sunlight and the heat:

A true pro enjoying the heat at the magnificent So Verbot-party at Odds and Ends in 2022.

Mariii enjoys the sauna heat at the dancefloor in Culture Box.

Sometimes, it’s harder than that to keep warm, but ravers manage anyway:

Lea keeps warm at her most marvelous garden/birthday party (yes, it was midsummer, but not peak warmth on this particular day). Notice the pineapple deco.

Chriszka, Claus and Lux keeping warm during sunrise. A critical point for all pro ravers.

Chriszka looks sweaty at Svingsen’s Jungle Hut after the Jeff Mills party in 2006.

Holger looks extremely sweaty on New Year’s Eve 2003.

It is, of course, possible to sweat more discreetly than junglists on the dancefloor. Here, Svingsen sports a discreet shine in the corner of the photo.

Ronin sweats discreetly behind the decks while Nicka keeps his cool – at Mambo, Ibiza 2006.

ONE MORE FUN INTERMEZZO! LET’S GO TO IBIZA!
I was offered a very short 24 hour trip to Ibiza back in 2006 to join Ronin for his sets at Mambo and Pacha – and write an article about it. And that’s a fun read.

It starts out like this:

“The reason for this sudden 24 hour express trip to the party island in The Balearic Sea is our local dj hero – Ronin. Ronin won the Danish round of Heineken’s Thirst competition in 2005; then he went all the way to the top of the European rounds, too; and he ended up winning the whole lot at the Heineken Thirst World Finals in South Africa.
This global triumph lead to a flow of foreign gigs including several Heineken events. And this Wednesday evening in July, Ronin is playing a set at superstar dj Erick Morillo’s Wednesday Bash, the Subliminal Sessions at the top club Pacha – a trump on any dj’s CV. This clearly has to be documented – and someone has to sacrifice themselves and do it. So: passport, sunglasses and an extra dress is thrown into a bag, and off I go.”

I was very happy for Ronin and his success, and I was thrilled to get to experience a small part of Ibiza during my (very) short and luxurious stay. But I have never been too keen on the more mainstream’y parts of club culture, and it shines through in the text.

“The sun is sinking, and people are networking heavily in the dj booth. Ronin is playing, and Morillo, the constantly smiling, friendly-looking Ibiza superstar is getting ready to take over. And then the dancing girls materialize, like twilight creatures, in lime green hotpants and not very much more. Ibiza is not a subtle island; almost every flyer flashes moist porn lips and bare breasts, and if you don’t find the pumping house rhythms and trembling basslines sexy enough in themselves, the surroundings and visual inputs will help you: if there is a dj around, there is at least two scantily clad girls as well, twisting their young bodies seductively to the music with lots of happy onlookers.”

“It costs money to park, it costs money to use the deck chairs, and it costs money just to relax on the deck chairs, too, since you can’t actually lie on them without eating or drinking. A steady stream of promotion teams in skimpy outfits trawl the beach continuously, leaving a slipstream of flyers, free passes and drink coupons amongst the sunbathers. Ibiza has been a party island for decades, and things are systematized. People come here with money to spend, and the party factory knows how to sell its goods. Pacha girls in tiny red bikinis parade alluringly along the beach with their juicy Pacha cherries, and gigantic billboards advertise club nights with names like ‘Rich and Famous’, ‘Xtravaganza’, ‘Filthy Gorgeous’ and ‘Silicon’. (Okay, so there’s a night called ‘Stink’, too… and obviously there MUST be a more low budget underground scene somewhere on the isle, but I don’t see any glimpses of it anywhere during my short n00b visit.)”

Okaaaaay, let’s hurry back to the underground! Literally!