Who killed the rave?
It's not really surprising, but the article seems to conflate raves with nightclubs, with numerous remarks about the cost of being out at a club all night and paying for things like expensive bottle service.
Raves are not clubs, and historically have never done that well in club environments. People who are really into staying up all night dancing to techno music aren't buying expensive alcoholic drinks, they're buying cheap water to stay hydrated. Many (though by no means all) take drugs, but generally that means one dose of a drug like MDMA at the beginning of the evening. Psychedelic drugs like LSD are also associated with the rave scene but are less compatible with a nightclub environment (bars, security, overgrown disco lights). People are more likely to consume psychedelics at an outdoor party or a warehouse space.
In my view what has killed raves was the declining availability of cheap accessible commercial spaces, police/administrative hostility to informal economic activity, and overcommercialization, which has tended to select for the shittiest music/DJs.
One big change is that they got better and much more organized. I go to an annual event with a few hundred of my friends and family. We rent a lodge in a national forest, set up an enormous sound system, and dance for 3 days around some very confused deer. There are food trucks and coffee bars and dozens of portapotties scattered around, plus daytime poolside sets while we swim around and listen to 100dB house.
We grayvers still like to have fun, just more comfortably. We have work next week, you know.
> The proportion of club nights running beyond 3am fell in 12 of 15 global cities between 2014 and 2024, according to a Financial Times analysis of events on listings website Resident Advisor.
Club nights are not raves. Raves are (usually) not posted on RA. The underground scene is doing just fine.
I think there's a lot of nuance here. I teach DJing (house/techno mostly) and there's never been more interest in electronic music & DJing. Folks who thought I was a bit out there in high school for liking electronic & dance music, have recently all now become more interested in DJing and raving. The DJ today is continuing to grow into the modern rock-star (albeit, in terms of real $ of music money, it's no where close).
Moreover, as several commenters have pointed out there has been a big growth in festivals and awareness. Lots of people talk to me about "house music" now, whereas before it was a relatively "underground" thing.
Now, I think there's a question about whether the scale of such events have maintained the same cultural ethos as the early rave days, and that, though I'm not old enough to have participated, is likely a categorical no. There's a greater focus on 'documenting' experiences at these events rather than living it. Here's a clip of an rising group called Kienemusik [tik tok link](https://www.tiktok.com/@as.anca/video/7359750430345186593?q=...), where you can see there's more video taping than dancing. I would venture to say, we are so filled with wonder sometimes that we forget that part of experiencing awe is letting go of ego and just experiencing.
Probably a bunch of factors...
Tier 1 city RE prices have made live entertainment venues harder to run profitably.
GenZ studies have found a lower participation in "risky behavior" which late night clubbing may or not be considered.
Mobile internet & smartphones seem to be killing all forms of live in person interaction.
And finally electronic music of various forms used to be a niche, and now it's mainstream. In the 90s/00s my consumption of electronic music was mp3 downloads of BBC late night recordings. Now pop is electronic, electronic is pop, it's all on the radio, it's unavoidable.
I find it really hard to believe this and am questioning the data.
I raved back in the early 2000s and I still rave now and the popularity is absolutely booming in a way I've never seen before and in more parts of the world.
15 years ago there was zero electronic music events in Dubai, now there are huge electronic music festivals there and it's clear a ton of people at those events are taking "something" that isn't just booze. Even Saudi has had its first big EDM festivals, albeit I think they were no alcohol allowed.
EDM artists are more popular than ever and more and more of my friends are getting into EDM and going to EDM festivals like Tomorrowland, Mysteryland, ADE, etc.
Interesting. My experience in NYC even with folks in the 20s is they prefer going out BEFORE it gets super late, with the super late nights only happening for shows (where the DJ/main act doesn't come on till 1:30 AM).
I've also anecdotally seen more day parties which might be driven by demand from the former rave crews who are aging out.
Because the author uses Berlin as an example. As a millenial that grew up in Berlin, I just think that the hype about, what used to be alternative, mainstream clubs is flattening. Especially techno and electro clubs. They are just not as great as social media wants you think they are.
People who love the music will go their for the music and will keep going. Social media folks that go there for the drugs and epic party will lose interest, because it's not as epic as they think it is.
Apart from that other alternative clubs are just doing fine (I am going mostly to drum and bass parties). Even though they got less. But I think the club dying there was because of other reasons, not the missing audience
NPR did a recent expose about a local renegade spot & the shows it supports in my scene:
https://www.kuow.org/stories/under-the-bridge-a-portrait-of-...
With mixed results, it kind of burned the spot by virtue of being talked about in too wide an audience but I think it's also important to make it known to the mainstream that this kind of stuff is happening.
All that's needed to make a rave happen is music & speakers, scale and quality is all configurable. Humans will always find spaces to congregate: whether it's their own houses, local parks, abandoned warehouses, industrial districts, or deep in the woods. I hope we're not losing our drive to be around eachother and dance, it's been such a integral part of my life story (as a fairly young person!) and has let me find my people.
I think it’s health related, as the article mentions.
>One executive in the entertainment industry said younger people were less inclined to go out raving until 6am as they were more health conscious and less frivolous with money than previous generations
This is the same generation that has 12 step skincare routines, eats only organic food, chooses to vape or zyn rather than smoke because of secondhand smoke, everyone has an Apple watch on their wrist tracking calories, etc.
If anything I’m surprised that binge drinking and going out late as survived as long as it has.
And as far as the money comment, this generation is not less frivolous there’s just less money to go around haha.
I'm curious where they got their data (or I should say I'm suspicious of their analysis). My cousin is a raver and she sends me Snaps of the events all the time. They're just as crowded as ever and happening just as often as a decade ago.
There was obviously a pause during COVID and a slow ramp after, but it's been back to normal for about 1.5 years now.
Too expensive? I see illegal dance parties in the countryside more than ever. And people drive far for them and sleep it off in the sun the next day (or so). Big bags of drugs (if you buy in bulk, drugs are those things that come with very large discounts) and wholesale energydrinks etc. So those are cheap, but I can see legal places would have issues maybe? High entry fees, super expensive drinks etc.
On the one hand millennials are getting older so it's totally reasonable to expect they wouldn't want to party into the early AM anymore.
On the other hand real raves don't happen in legal venues. I've partied in warehouses, upscale restaurants, artist studios, roller skating rinks, movie theaters, hotels, apartments. I threw parties on the lightship Nantucket (LV-112), although those were day parties. But none of these events would be factored into the financial times reporting.
Some of the evidence presented by the article is compelling but just don't think they can draw real conclusions about the state of nightlife with such a limited perspective.
I love electronic music. Been listening to it for 30 years. Mostly drumbass, dubstep, some house. Groups like subfocus. I used to listen to tiesto, bt, etc.
One, I hated the term "raving". I was thought raves were finding an abandoned house, playing music and drugs. I just like the music and don't need the dance clubs or the drugs.
But with the said, I think the "club" scene has dropped off. Expensive drinks. Expensive covers. Who wants that.
Has the music droppped off? I think it kind of merged into more mainstream music.
There are a lot more cool Techno festivals going on though, e.g: https://youtu.be/OCyJNS8frn8
A clubbing lifestyle where you're out every weekend isn't healthy, but festivals on weekends every other month are doable. Society seems much more health aware these days due to social media and the web in general.
It’s more alive than ever, I’d say. Just about any weekend in the Milwaukee/Chicago area has at least a couple parties. Proper underground shit. Not sure what it is, exactly, but it’s been feeling like a time portal back to the 90’s and I love it. Drop Bass Network and Chicago Redline will keep you plenty busy.
Greed, aka promoters, killed the rave scene when they started charging absurd prices and pivoting to festivals where they could command 100's of dollars for entry.
I haven't been to a club in a long time, but I am quite confident that if there's a hell for me, it's being forced to be in a club+rave for eternity.
I've never done any kind of "party drug" [1], and I think that party drugs have to be a requirement for me to enjoy something like that (at least for someone as awkward as me). Repetitive music that's so loud it hurts, not being able to talk to people, close contact to strangers of questionable hygiene; it's hard for me to even imagine how anyone could enjoy it.
I suspect that there are a lot of people like me who are finally being honest with themselves and acknowledging that they don't actually enjoy the entire club scene. Obviously if you like it, don't let me take it away from you, but one of the best parts of reaching age 30 for me was that no one expects or wants me to go to a club with them now.
[1] The only "recreational drugs" I've ever done are alcohol and caffeine, and I haven't had alcohol in quite awhile.
I spent a lot of time in the early 00s psytrance scene.
Most parties were on ranches or in the middle of nowhere state land.
We lugged generators and DJ equipment and the parties were a few hundred people.
We camped out - it was a blast.
It was a community - you shared your food, drugs etc.
I never enjoyed the massive raves, thought they were too commercial.
Gen Z now is more into festivals. Back in the day multi-artist festivals were rare.
Maybe this is a dumb take, but how much of this is just demographics? Countries are getting older as birth rates decline, so you would expect a decline in things that skew younger in the audiences they attract.
"Classical Raves" had a renascence during Covid, in at least a few countries. Illegal, (outdoor )location not disclosed until the day of, with a two step process. "Go here at this time, look for a guy with a blue shirt, a good bit of chaos, shitty equipment, and a lot of younger folks who love it.
It is amazing all you come across if you spend a lot of time walking your dog.
But there was a real unfortunate one in Oslo. Someone had picked a local and found after a good deal of spelunking found that there was a huge cave farther in. They decided this was a prefect place for an illegal rave.
Got it all setup and running, people dancing.
However running electric diesel generator(s) in a cave with little access to fresh air was not the best idea someone came up with that year.
Anyone go to cat head's parties in the early 90's. There were cat's head spray painted on the sidewalk leading to abandoned warehouses on the Brooklyn waterfront. The legend was they were worlwide. Some friend of mine knew to follow them.
It's largely the same issue that every sector is experiencing. Everyone is trying for the same high end of the market crowd to extract as much prestige and profit as possible and pricing out the mass market.
Cinemas and concerts are in the same boats.
With the cost of essentials through the roof spending $$$ for a night out is now a periodic luxury rather than every Saturday night.
In my time night clubs were about hooking up, guess no need for that in the age of tinder?
What's missing is GenZ isn't into it. The kids are the ones that go out all the time and they drive a lot of the revenue that big clubs need to stay alive. I'm not really sure what GenZ is into instead -- would've been cool if this article had tried asking them.
Related Berlin's beat goes quiet as techno clubs close their doors (3 points, 2 months ago, no comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42149813
(Better Watergate photos)
Burning Man's been dying slowly since about 2018, so pre-Covid. When I say dying, I don't mean "getting mainstream & EDMified" like all the old Burners have complained about since forever. I mean, the mainstream has stopped taking interest, and increasing portions of the tickets are getting taken by internationals because its passé in the USA, but still on some people's travel bucket lists. This year was the first year in a while with extra tickets available, but the writing has been on the wall for a while.
I'm sure raving will come back in 20 years like most fashion.
In the two cities either side of me, a large portion of the organised events (on the DnB side at least) seem to be going daytime with a 10pm or 11pm finish on a weekend.
Great fun.
And there's still nighttime ones (also great fun) and illegal ones (which look to also be great fun).
Gentrification of areas with music venues is a notable factor. It’s like a cycle. Very noticeable in London.
Place is cheap and kind of a shithole so it’s possible to open cool bars and late night music venues. People move there because it’s now a cool place. Prices go up. People complain about the noise from the venues. Venues close and are replaced with sterile overpriced crap. Place is now boring and expensive. See: Shoreditch as a fine example.
I was really confused until I realized they're talking about nightclubs, not raves
I don't believe this is specific to Raves, but Bars & Nightclubs in general.
Younger people don't seem to be going to these places nearly as much as generations past. I think a lot of this drop off can be attributed to Social Media & Tinder.
You don't need to go out to see your friends or find a date. So why bother? It's easier and cheaper to stay home.
I remember the night when I knew clubbing (perhaps not raves per se) died.
Blackbird Ordinary, Miami. July 4th weekend.
Normal clubby kind of night. Then in comes a dude in bright ridiculous Uncle Sam gear, sparklers and all, making a spectacle of himself. All the phones come out.
Sigh. This is not the point of clubs/bars. You're mostly not supposed to be "seen" and certainly not like that.
I just met some hippies coming back from the yearly new years rave in Andalusia. Drugs, thousands of people, illegal venue, ...
There are raves like this all the time in Spain, Italy, France & Czech
Can't see the article but I imagine a big part of it is a combo of clubs continually being booted to new locations in cities to the point you kind of have to get tickets in advance for one place or run the risk of going there, being turned away and having absolutely nothing else to do in the area. To battle this there's loads of venues that seem to almost exclusively do shows that end near midnight and I've never been to one that wasn't completely devoid of atmosphere (hard to enjoy the music when the people next to you are talking at length about some work deadline they have).
One more guess: Part of the reason why people would go late-night dancing was for hookups. Nowadays, people meet partners via dating apps, so the prospect of a random encounter in a dark club is less appealing.
Tangential discussion from a month ago:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42352825
Nightclub stickers over smartphone rule divides the dancefloor (91 comments)
"Rave" has become quite a vague umbrella term. Perhaps the closest modern equivalent (in Europe at least) are free parties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_party#List_of_free_partie... .
A group of sound systems put the word out that they're going to get together illictly in a field in some remote location. There's a number that attendees ring to get the location on the (first) night. It carries on all weekend or until the police convince everyone to leave.
COVID + Middle Class Poverty
Just putting this out there for those who may be interested. If you are into making electronic music and want to get started performing, check out the EMOM movement. https://electronicmusicopenmic.com/how-to-start-your-own-emo...
I've been participating in Toronto version (TEMOM) and it's developed into a wonderful community.
Millenials are getting too old while Gen Z is too risk adverse and was generally shocked out of the habit of going out by the pandemic.
Early dancing seems to be getting a bit of a boost though? Dayfever and Annie Mac's "Before Midnight" events seem to be v popular in Ireland and the UK
rave != club
IMHO, "raves" are, or were, underground, unsanctioned, and generally illegal, whereas "clubs" are typically licensed and legal - in other words, expensive and lame. I went to raves back in the early-90s, and I can tell you, it was nothing like dance clubs of the last 10 years.
I live in a big US city. There are raves almost every week-end (like the real kind amateur stuff not the money grubbing ones). Sure they are not announced on RA and you need to know people but it is still alive and well. They are mostly in old abandonned industrial places and often literally underground.
Above & Beyond's label has a huge following. I have been to many events around the world. They do a big gathering each year e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEqySVgNkIA
It's going strong in Berlin, no one can kill raves, ppl can organize raves with friends outside :)
Will no one blame the banjolele? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT2iP5Si-Ho
Up next:
Why no one plays laser tag anymore?
Same answer as all the rest, Gen Z, of course!
For a long time I wondered why nightlife had cooled down so much. Then I realized that natality had sharply declined. Not evenly distributed, but around me it's pretty much the main cause. Every scene is just much less crowded.
I realized that it's impossible to find clubs that serve alcohol till morning. The laws are more strict nowadays.
Most of the raves I attend now are on indigenous lands, it's definitely not mainstream, and I can party till morning.
There's a similar documentary (from 7 years ago, by Annie Mac - BBC) about the UK clubs closures https://youtu.be/n9zjNKQ-snI
Worth a watch!
It's not just raves, it's pretty much all "nightclub" type bars. The common nightclub has been replaced by expensive, high-end, bottle-service only type clubs.
Rapists. Originally it was music lovers loving music. That authentic fun attracted lots of women, which attracted lots of rapists.
Come to the southern cone of south america (brazil, paraguay, argentina), late night dance is alive and well. Colombia too to a lesser degree.
I don't know what the big mystery is. Trends come and go, activities wax and wane in popularity.
Raves aren't special here.
It's probably the same mechanism that relegated the sock hop to a rare anachronism.
I don't have a subscription to ft.com.
Is it "tastes change" or a sexier and clickbaitier mound of bullshit?
I cannot comment on the article - it’s paywalled - but I can talk about the claim in the headline.
I can tell from my personal experience that I stopped going because most club shows start earliest at 10 pm, and even then headliner probably goes on at 1, and that’s just not sustainable for me, especially if I wanted to take a risk and see someone I was 50/50 on.
I’m aging, I’m 29, I enjoy the morning a lot more than I used to. It’s just too exhausting. And if the music isn’t perfect, you’re left bored and exhausted. The venues are also way too crowded, drinks are expensive, it’s just not as good of a time as in smaller underground venues.
I’d rather go to a show during the day, or early evening and HAVE and they’ve been GREAT but house and techno acts are compelled to start after midnight, and I will probably never go to one of those again.
Social media killed (real) social life.
GenZers are indulging in drugs at much lower rates than previous generations. That includes alcohol.
Who would ever want to stay up until 3 AM?
I'm already super sleepy by 23:00.
We've got kids and prefer to rave during the day now, back home for a sensible time ;0
Music volume these days is too loud for me.
If I may respond only to the title: LiveNation
This article is paywalled for me and I'm thankful because the title alone has the scent of bait, ie. the post might be about a narrow case like large venue/big name dj events rather than dance clubs in general
If there is a 'decline' it's likely because there's been a 20 year surge in DJ events -- like some clubs either going 50/50 between live performance events and dj dance nights or out right choosing DJ nights over live performance because it's cheaper (no sound check, no load-in/load-out, fewer drink comps for individuals and plus-ones ....) -- and the era is cycling down. But it hardly means nightclubbing or dance clubs are done for. Even if the activity were in decline, mobile phones would not be the cause. People go out even when their city is being bombed
Anything that relies on booze is dying. It’s too expensive.
Miami Beach is still partying at night, isn't it?
At least here in Germany, NIMBYs and their foot-soldiers aka team 1312 is very much to blame, next to gentrification.
Clubs in cities that have existed for decades get yeeted out of their rental contracts as there is no renter protection for commercial rental contracts - once it expires or gets terminated under the provisions of the contract (usually because some hipster shithole is willing to pay even more money), that's it. Others lose their license because people moving from the countryside can't cope with the noise and call the police all the time.
Clubs in rural areas almost don't exist anymore because of rural flight eliminating a lot of the customer base and what remains gets taken off the road by DUI enforcement.
That leaves illegal outdoor raves, and team 1312 has been aggressively beating down on these even over a decade ago when I was the tech guy for a local rave group. It's not made easier by the fact that there will always be some dumbasses dragging their minor siblings with them and other people not caring whom they sell MDMA and whatnot to, so you'll inevitably get into trouble for that as well.
Any tips if someone want to join in the Nordics?
Using the articles definition of a rave, essentially just a nightclub; a lot of them around me have been shutting down due to violence and the governments response to it. 10 years ago, my city used to have a thriving downtown / bar / club scene; driven primarily by university students.
In recent years, the homeless situation has spiked with dozens and dozens of aggressive, clearly mentally unstable individuals at various locations in the area. On top of that, the clientele has changed as the university students choose to stay closer to campus has their local offerings have expanded. This new group of patrons has brought violence with shootings and assaults happening now that never happened before.
The city government has responded by capping alcohol sales at midnight and requiring any bars that stay open later to provide and pay for onsite security. This extra cost has essentially crippled the club / bar scene with many of them going out of business.
Wonder if anything similar is happening in other cities, with nightclubs bearing the brunt of the costs for increasing violence in their area.
https://archive.is/2025.01.01-212538/https://www.ft.com/cont...
Non paywalled link
These guys killed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YS_7U0mDgA
Covid
I really like day-time raves
my dumb italian government literally made them illegal. that's what
I mostly watch 90s and 00s movies and TV shows because you know why. Same here. All new things are shit. Could House be aired today?
It's very difficult to operate a moderate-sized event secretly. Raves used to be promoted locally (at record & clothing shops) , and then shared among friends. The venue was secret right up to the event, because you first had to drive to a number of secret waypoints that were revealed by phone. The final location was often hidden in the wilderness or at a condemned (or squatted) building.
Accidental and deliberate surveillance is so common and cheap that this is no longer viable.
I don't know but In Portland there's a ton of them, the venues are great, and in the summer we go do it in the forest. And now that the RA app has it's shit together, I no longer have to get on Instagram to find out about stuff.
People travel instead
I dunno about globally but daylight music festivals killed them for me back around 2005. Raves are about staying up all night in a dark room with good friends, good EDM, flashy lights, suggestive clothing and questionable substances. Take away the 'dark room' part and and turf the rest out onto a sports field at 11am and it's ruined.
this sounds like a headline from Plague Inc
Thanks tiktok.
Maybe cell phone cameras killed the rave.
Nobody wants pics of them dancing like a spastic monkey
UK had criminal justice bill [0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_Justice_and_Public_Or...
The smartphone imo.
Plenty of great raves still around. I don’t think the Financial Times is a great resource on free of charge illegal underground parties?
The kids don’t party and fuck like we used to? I guess we’re old.
Why isnt the cause just trends, music and fads changing? EDM and raves have had a big moment early 2010s then every thing kind of evolved, there must be new music for the new generation.
Like why aren't we listening to guitar solos, or 80s metal bands or grunge anymore? No one killed it
Maybe the same person who killed the disco
There are many factors not mentioned in the article. In Berlin we simply talk about before and after the pandemic.
Prices have gone up like crazy after; this includes rent. Cheap airlines like Ryanair & Easyjet have canceled many flights to Berlin in the last year.
I can see this as I rent out my living room on Airbnb part time and 2024 was the lowest no. of bookings since I started, almost a decade ago (2022 was a brief surge as everyone went traveling 'again' but that was it).
Hotel prices are also crazy (I got a lot of guests in 2023 that choose a high-end Airbnb over a four star hotel for the first time because the latter was now outside their budget in my area).
Then we have the phenomenon of restaurants closing early. It was easy to get dinner at 11pm at a good restaurant in my neighborhood (central Berlin). Most such places would close at midnight/1am. Now the latest is 9pm with most places closing at 10pm.
There is a street next to mine that is full of restaurants and bars. It used to be lively until 1:30am, even during the week. Before the pandemic. Now it's dead and feels like a small town now around 10:30pm.
Talking to several patrons there, this is what happened: during the pandemic all service staff found other jobs. Places were closed because they had to (lock-downs).
At the same time there was turnover of tenants in the neighborhood. People fled the cities because remote work allowed them.
The empty flats got new tenants and these people moved in under the assumption their street would keep the same noise levels. Ofc the landlords, desperate to fill their emptying flats during the lock-downs, would not tell them of any caveats in this regard.
When the lock-downs ended restaurants initially couldn't open longer than 10pm anyway because they couldn't find enough staff. People had found other work and didn't return to these jobs.
When staffing rebounded and they tried to open longer, two things got in the way:
1. Customers had gotten used to eat early (we're talking two years here from end of the lock-downs to the staffing situation in the gastronomy 'kinda' normalizing).
2. The new tenants in the flats in a street with restaurants had lived for 2+ years under the assumption their street was quiet from 10:30pm. They called the police and got injunctions for noise nuisance etc. TL;DR it was legally not possible any more to open longer for these restaurants, all of a sudden.
As a social dancer (tango) I noticed the same things mentioned re. the clubs. Prices have gone up, as a result less well-off people simply can't afford going dancing more than once a week. Most of my friends used to go 2--3 times a week. I still do but I work in tech and so does my partner and we don't have kids or any mortgage to pay off. We're in the 1%.
To get you an idea: the average venue for social dancing charged 7 EUR during the week, in 2019.
It's was 10 EUR when places reopened after the pandemic in late 2021 (i.e. 43% more).
And this year some venues have raised prices to 10--13 EUR as of 1st of January. So we're talking a 43%--86% price increase for admission and drinks went along in pricing.
It's simply not affordable. As a result, the average age in the Berlin tango scene went from 30 to 50 in just five years. It's mostly old(er) people with very few younger ones that work in well paying jobs (lots of techies) or have other sources of wealth.
And because more older people make up the majority of the audience, venues close much earlier. It was easy to go dancing until 1--2am during the week and 4--5am on weekends. Now it's midnight during the week and 2--3am max on weekends.
And because of the issue with airlines and hotel/Airbnb prices we also have less social dance tourists. Berlin used to be a top destination for social dancers from abroad to come visit but its noticeable less in 2023/2024 than before the pandemic.
Joe Biden did. He as a senator introduced the RAVE Act, which didn’t pass, but got built into a later bill that did, as a rider.
This made promoters criminally liable for drug offenses committed by people unrelated to them at their events. Then, it was selectively enforced against club drugs at electronic events and not cocaine at rock shows, and boom, no more raves in the US.
Shrek killed the raves
I'm pretty sure the writers at FT just don't know where the cool shit is.
phalates
The author doesn't even seem to know what a rave is, most likely they aren't in decline at all. They're talking about formal, permanent dance clubs shutting down for economic reasons. Raves are mostly an underground - often illegal or questionably legal - impromptu one off event, organized through word of mouth and social media on an invite only basis. There is almost no way to get statistics on them because they are intentionally stealth.
In my younger years, I was active in the wearhouse and desert rave scene, and it was a lot of fun. Typically it would just be an empty wearhouse in a run down industrial district, or simply an empty lot far out in the desert far from any homes.
Different rave scenes had different groups of people- some were quite out of control and doing very dangerous things, others were much more organized and responsible. Although I haven't been in many years, I am certain the more organized and responsible ones with a strong culture of vetting who is invited, and having responsible sober regulars that are able to help those more inexperienced are still going strong, and I still get invites to them.
There is nothing like dancing all night until sunrise under the stars on a warm summer desert night... to excellent electronic music made/performed live by the artists. Usually people are very friendly, warm and welcoming- aided by certain phenylethylamine compounds no doubt.
yea, yeah, everything sucks now... we know.
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Such an interesting mystery. Who killed the rave? In Berlin especially, a very interesting subject.
I don't think we can ever really know. It's complex and multifaceted.
https://archive.is/ul4Ui