Last night my friend and I went to Area 51two, a live electronic music festival in Austin (and the most texas thing ever - there were cowgirls on horses with LEDs in their hooves). Vertical Circles, Jason Leech playing live, Chris Berner, live art, food trucks, and a lot of people dancing under the lights. (Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/area51two/)
We had a great time at our first rave. We're both in our late 40s.
So why would two middle-aged women go to their first rave? Partly because it was a shakedown cruise. We're going to EDC Las Vegas in May for my 50th birthday, and we wanted to find out what breaks before we're three nights deep in the desert. But we're also not alone. At least one study has found that women over 40 are heading to raves and reporting real mental-health benefits.
In the Uber home, doing our post-mortem, I started wondering: did Gen X invent raves? It always felt like ours, a thing happening out there in the wide world beyond the corn fields I grew up in.
Turns out, no. House music came out of a Chicago club called the Warehouse, where a Bronx-born DJ named Frankie Knuckles held court starting in 1977. Techno came from three high school friends in Belleville, Michigan: Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson. Saunderson missed being Gen X by one year.
What Gen X did was fill the dance floors. My friend and I may have missed them when we were younger, but now that we’re at the age where other people’s opinions man jack to us - it’s on.
So what did we learn?
Field Notes
The fan is a necessity, but you gotta learn how to wield your weapon.
Giant hand fan: fan yourself, fan your neighbors, be a hero. (Do NOT clack it). And watch where you plant the base — there's surprising pressure from the weight of the fan itself, the torque around its base, and the volume of air you’re moving. I bruised the weirdest part of my body I’ve ever bruised.
Clear, theft-proof, and as small as possible.
Get a clear, theft-resistant hydration pack, and size it down to the smallest one that holds your stuff. (Remember, anything you bring in, you’ve got to wrangle the whole night.) The catch: theft-proofing also slows you down when you need something fast. My fix for EDC: clear ditty bags with glow-in-the-dark tags so that I can find shit in the dark. When I’ve sourced my solution, I’ll link here.
Fuck the Demonias.
They're gorgeous. They are not for dancing all night. Get sensible shoes and TEST THEM — run in them, dance in them — before you go.
Plan your pregame. Then go easier than you think.
Line it up ahead of time so you can time it. Don't go too hard. We're old now, and dehydration while dancing makes everything harder, not more fun. Honestly, I’m thinking about pre-workout for my pregame next time out.
DanceSafe: https://dancesafe.org
Skip the burner card. Use your watch.
My plan was a prepaid card in a "magic wand" holder. Then I looked into it. An Apple Watch never shares your real card number, and it locks the second it leaves your wrist. A card can still slip out of a wand. So pay with the watch, wear it on a buckle band (magnetic bands have a known exploit), and bury a backup card deep in your pack in case the battery dies.
You will get hot. Dress for it.
No matter how cute, if you're melting under fabric, you'll cut your dance time short or give yourself a headache. Plus the sweat ick. Current best formula: fishnets + bike shorts + a flowy top. Cute, airy, no chafing. Next experiments: a nightie as a top, or a tank with a swishy skirt over the bike shorts.
Remember: this is an athletic event.
Expression and comfort. You're not going to a party; you're doing six hours of cardio in costume. Gear up like it.