Never in a million years would I have imagined myself at a rave. To be honest, I never saw the appeal of it and always thought it was more for people who do drugs (as ignorant as that sounds.) But when my friend spontaneously called me one night and asked if I wanted to go to LED that weekend, I realized that I couldn’t decide whether or not I would have fun unless I actually went, so I agreed.
Right when I said, “yes” I thought of all the reasons why I might not have a good time – the rave lasted for 7 hours, I knew how tired I would be by the end of the night, and I did not want to be on any drugs. I thought about these things throughout the weekend, but when the end of the night finally rolled around I was mostly excited to be with my friends. Everything I was worried about was not really a big deal. Yes, I was pretty dead by 4AM but the whole night went a lot better than I expected.
There were people on drugs, some guys who tried to dance with me, and a whole lot of sweating, but I honestly had such a great night because of my friends. I didn’t need to be on any drugs to enjoy my time and the music. I think there’s a lot of stigma around raves and people who go to them, but (like everything else in life) it’s not something you can judge unless you’ve been to one.
All in all, I think that I would go to another rave as long as I have good company and it probably would have been a bonus if I knew some of the artists who were playing. If you’re thinking about attending a rave for the first time, I highly suggest attending smaller events and then building up to an actual rave to see how you like it! And there is definitely no pressure to do anything you are not comfortable with, especially if you are with people who respect that.