With the good comes the bad, it’s just the way things go. Raves are awesome, but there are some things that you’ll have to deal with that really suck.
Although the good out way the bad by a longshot, the annoying and disgusting things at raves are inevitable. At the end of the day, no matter what it is, it’s always worth it.
Insane Ticket Prices
Ticket prices these days are absolutely insane. The days of paying $40-50 for festivals are long gone. With the rave scene becoming more and more popular, the rise of ticket prices was inevitable. Prices have climbed so high that there is now a layaway option where you pay off your ticket with monthly installments. In some cases, layaway is the only possible way to afford the ticket.
Nasty Porta-Potty’s
Besides paying $400 for a ticket, the provided porta-potty’s have to be the worst part about raves. Overtime you will learn that as the night goes on the bathrooms get worse and worse, but when you gotta go you gotta go. Not only are they absolutely disgusting, the long lines just make it that much worse.
Long Lines
The rave scene is boomin, everybody wants to go to a rave these days. What that leaves you is everybody cramming up the lines to get into the festival. You can easily find yourself standing in line for over an hour, which definitely is buzz kill. Sometimes you get lucky and get in right away, but most of the time no matter when you get there you will end up standing in line.
Losing Your Friends
We’ve all been there, that moment when you realize your all alone. The minor panic-attack sets in and your begin frantically looking around in hopes to see a familiar face. It’s always a good idea to designate a meet-up spot incase you wind up losing each other. Usually cell phone service is terrible so don’t make a mistake and let it ruin your night.
Overlapping Set-Times
Festival lineups these days are usually stacked, almost everyone DJ there you’d like to see. Choosing becomes very difficult which leads you to deciding which DJ’s you will see and which ones you will pass up on. Teamwork and organization is a must if you are trying to coordinate moving from set to set in order to see a little bit of each DJ. There comes a point where you have to just accept the fact that you might miss a lot of your favorite DJ’s set.
Ruined Shoes
You usually learn your lesson after your very first rave. You want to look good and make a statement so you wear a pair of your best shoes, sometimes even brand new. Throughout the night you slowly realize that your brand new shoes are going to be absolutely trashed. Sometimes you gotta learn the hard way.
Post-Rave Sadness
There’s a saying that says all good things come to an end, unfortunately this apply’s to raves as well. The entire night is a fairy tale, having more fun than you ever would have thought. As the night gets later and later you force yourself to ignore the fact that in a few hours it’ll all be over. It hits you right in the face when the Headliner yells out “thank you!”. It gets worse, not only is the rave over but now you have a long walk back to the car and terrible traffic leaving the venue. The next few days are filled with exhaustion and sadness, in a weird way its all still worth it.
Second Hand Smoke
Regardless if your a smoker or not, prepare yourself for a night of smoke and second-hand smoke. Cigarettes are a big hit at raves, they take you to that next level when your feeling good. Another thing you have to worry about are cigarette burns when your walking through a packed crowd. Some venue’s ban cigarette’s but its very rare. With a little effort you can probably avoid a lot of it, just choose your spots wisely.
Weather
Ravers are ready to party, and most of the time a little rain isn’t going to ruin the night. When it comes to weather you just really never know, it’s all about luck at the end of the day. You hope for blue sky’s and a nice breeze but you don’t always get what you wish for. If the weather turns bad, just embrace it and party harder!
Traffic
Just like the long lines, traffic has become an epidemic at festivals these days. With so many people attending events, there’s no way around traffic. You hope that the venue organizers allow for multiple exits to help speed up the process. It’s just kind of something you have to deal with, just like everything else it’s all worth it in the end.
Aggressive Police/Security
There’s two ways to look at this, side with the cops or side with the partiers. Raves are insane places that push people to their limits, and cops have to deal with this all day and night. On the other hand, sometimes they over do it in a petty attempt to look intimidating. Overall security minds there own business as long as your not going crazy. Raves are for partying so don’t let the cops keep you from doing that, just know when to slow your role.
Unimpressive DJ Set
Everybody has their favorite DJ. You follow them on all of your social media accounts and you go and see them perform whenever they’re in town. You look forward seeing them and all week you’re absolutely pumped to see their set. Then rave day comes, you’re all ready to be mind blown and your favorite DJ blows it. Nobody’s perfect and everybody makes mistakes, but this has to be one of the crappiest feelings ever.
Lightweights
There’s always going to be a few light weights no matter where you go. These are the people who go way to hard at the beginning of the night and end up passed out by 7. When you see them you almost feel bad for them but then you ask yourself, “why would you go that hard at 5pm”. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way, after wasting your entire night puking and sleeping you learn to pace yourself for future events.
