marginal. It occupies the ‘cracks and vacancies’ left by the state, including
abandoned industrial complexes—the detritus of Euro-American post-industrial
society. As manifestations of the TAZ, raves are utopian social formations
temporarily convened in Turner’s cracks, crevices and interstices of social structure—
in the margins of society.
Moreover, the attribution of utopian urges and visions to rave cultures and the
rave experience is not a casual one. As Reynolds and others note, rave scenes ‘in
their early days buzz with creativity and we’re-gonna-change-the-world idealism’
(Reynolds 1999:90; see also Fritz 1999; Silcott 1999). In Rave Culture, Fritz states
that rave events are now being used as tools for political change:
It could be said that rave culture is essentially a revolutionary political
movement in that it represents the will of a significant portion of society to
organize and gather for the purposes of creating a new community model and
that these activities are carried out despite fervent opposition from governing
bodies.... A rave makes the political statement that we are all equal, and that
no matter how different we may think we are, on a more tribal level, we all
have the same basic needs as human beings. In this light, rave culture offers a
firm foundation on which to build a new political order which may, in the not
so distant future, lead the way to a more humanistic and personal system of
government.
(Fritz 1999:216–17)One of the findings from our study of the central Canadian rave scene was that the
urge for sociopolitical change and the drive toward utopian social models, as
described by Fritz and others, is closely linked with personal transformation at rave
events. For example, several informants made a causal connection between
epiphanic experiences at rave events and new perspectives on wider social issues and
their own culture. One 22-year-old Montreal raver’s description of his awakening
was typical:
The first time you rave, you go in blind. You come out and you can see....
Everything’s fucked up. Nothing’s right. Why is the news always bad? Rave is
just a generation of kids who don’t know what the future is. We’re waiting for
the Earth to explode.
(personal interview, 30 March 2002)While the pessimism expressed in this passage has been critiqued by many as
encapsulating commercialized rave culture’s failure to effect real political change,
utopian and oppositional urges have had more success in some post-rave movements
and collectives, and dance parties are being harnessed for political ends in various
locations around the globe (for example, see Marlin-Curiel 2001).
94 TIM OLAVESON