WHERE TO PARTY THIS WEEKEND
A survey of the virtual rave landscape
Welcome to RAVE NEW WORLD—a newsletter on the intersection of parties and protests. This newsletter is written by me, Michelle Lhooq, a counterculture journalist who also throws a party called WEED RAVE. Your paid subscription helps to keep this gonzo journalism project chugging, and also lands you a spot in our sub-only Discord group! Thanks for your support <3
Me hanging out at my last virtual party lmao
Greetings, freaks. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a little fried—maybe it’s all the psychedelics I’ve been eating during trippy October (lol I’ll write about this soon). In lieu of the usual essay, today’s newsletter is a dive into my virtual rave calendar, which is jam-packed this weekend with cool shit many friends are doing.
We’ve come a long way since the early days of the quarantine livestream, when a DJ could just pop a camera in front of their decks, play a simple set, and pop it on the internet. That’s still cute, but the e-party scene these days is next-level—spanning everything from a gqom dance workshop to a laughter meditation Zoom workshop with Laraaji, an all-femme Filipinx DJ party and a 12-hour fundraver for the trans community. If you’re looking to pop a shroom cap and dance around your living room this weekend (lol fml) - check out my picks below!
1. Bodyhack
It’s no secret that some of the most gag-worthy livestreams have been coming from queer and POC collectives operating outside the Dance Music Industrial Complex, and Bodyhack is more proof of how this community is taking care of itself. The 12-hour fundraver is raising funds for trans and nonbinary people via 12 vital organizations, and in addition to DJ sets from Miss Boogie, Mister Wallace and many others, also features a comedy salon, climate astrology reading (!), and a workshop on fundraising. Raving for a cause has never been cuter.
2. Unsound Festival
Unsound in Poland is one of the sickest experimental festivals in the underground, and their virtual edition lives up to their reputation as a congregation for the real heads. This year’s theme is “Intermission,”and the programming emphasizes discourse and dialogue to create “a festival where the sound of music largely gives way to the sound of speaking and listening.” Literally everything on the lineup is a banger—I’m writing this while watching a discussion panel with virtual artists Sam and Andy Rolfes disguised as glitchy alien avatars—but here are some things you absolutely cannot miss:
A gqom dance workshop with music by Durban-based Rudeboyz
Steve Goodman (aka Kode9)’s audio essay Virology—which connects Underground Resistance to AI-generated sonifications of SARS-CoV-2—followed by a discussion between him and frequent collaborator Lawrence Lek.
An online laughter meditation workshop by the New Age *ALL-TIME ICON* Laaraji
DeForrest Brown, Jr. and James Hoff’s new audio-visual project that uses the concepts of sonic warfare and the UFO as a vehicle for exploring Google’s Street View—in order to unpack the tumultuous geographic history of race in America.
3. Common
Common is a virtual DIY club created by a network of DJs, club kids, and visual artists that has been hosting semi-regular parties, with the aim of creating more sustainable revenue sources for underground musicians. To that end, they just launched something called “tipchains” – a new feature that converts single donations to an artist-distributed chain of support. This weekend’s party has multiple rooms hosted by Hyperdub, Spontaneous Affinity (one of my fave new labels, founded by the New York DJ Lychee, releases both zines and music), and Chilean crew IME, amongst others. Come for the party, stay for the tipchains?
4. TEDxHappily
My raver friend Lindon (who collaborated with me on the last Weed Rave) is helping to put together this TEDx virtual conference focused on climate and sustainability, which lets you join four different Zoom room “viewing parties” while watching the live broadcast—a concept that I love. The conference features guests like filmmaker Ava Duvernay and ex-NBA star Metta World Peace, as well as Weed Rave fam Kalaya’an Mendoza, a nonviolent direct action organizer who will be discussing the intersection of climate and racial justice—the hottest topic of 2020 by far.
5. DisclosureFest
Someone I met a few weeks ago at a volunteer program tipped me off to this festival, which combines meditation workshops with yoga, music, sound baths, and speakers. It might seem a bit woo-woo, but I’ve been really getting into meditation recently as part of my psychedelic regime, and some of the programming caught my eye—such as a talk on “Consciousness and Quantum Physics” and a performance by the Buddhist monk and live-looping beatboxer Yogetsu Akasaka. Also wanna check out a party called Ecstatic Dance LA, which has been hosting sunset dancefloors in Venice Beach!
6. PINAYISTA
My slaysian sis Gigi is participating in this incredible summit called Pinayista, which caters to the global Filipinx community. (Her workshop is on how Filipina women “make chill.”) The talks on ancestors and altars, healing racial trauma, and Filipino-American activism all look cool, but I’m most excited for the afterparty—with three femme Filipina DJs spinning for a Zoom dancefloor. Bring your titas!