rave planning: here we go again

1/14/25 9:03pm

so! planning another rave. skip to the break if you dont care about the boring stuff.

first things first: finding a venue. we need a venue that reaches a few qualifications. 

first, it needs to be large enough to accommodate the crowd were expecting. usually our raves are $10-15 if you buy a ticket early and around $20 if you get a ticket at the door. this rave is gonna be free, so everybody and their momma gonna want to be there.

second, it should be inside or at least decently sheltered from the elements. its the coldest month of the year and we would prefer if our attendees didnt get hypothermia.

third, it needs to be cheap. like i said, this rave is going to be free, even with a bar theres a solid chance we wont break even. we still need to have enough in the bank to fund the next couple events, so it would be nice if we bled as little money as possible. 

fourth, it has to be available in febuary at the latest, preferably early january.

good fucking luck finding something that meets all of those.

now, theres only one venue i know of that could reach all those requirements. some time last year the owner of 19hz.info came to one of our raves and gave us his card. if you dont know what 19hz is, its basically a collection of all the upcoming electronic music shows across a bunch of major cities in the US. we just happen to live in the city the site is based in.

we chatted a bit and he offered that we could use a venue he owns built out of a storage unit. we didnt end up taking his offer at the time, but now that venue fits all our requirements. so, we reached out. of course the venue is booked up until april so were back at square 1. however, he did offer to arrange an in person meeting to discuss the venues availability. we still need to set up a time that works for all of us but he could be a very useful connect.

we were really hoping we could find an indoor venue, but lets be realistic. theres no way were gonna find one that meets all these requirements. fortunately there is no shortage of renegade spots in the bay. 

theres this one spot ive been wanting to use for a while. its a highway overpass. pretty sheltered, out of the way from heavily trafficked areas, pretty far from any residential areas, and also far from any bodies of water. hasent been used in like a year so we gotta sound test it. this entails blasting music loud as hell and seeing if anybody notices or cares, which we did this most recent saturday.

after loading up all our equipment, piling into lunas truck, and stopping for pizza (necessary) we made our way over to the spot. before unloading we had to get a lay of the land, so deniz, monique, and i looked for a hole in the fence while luna (our resident lock pick) stayed back to check out the lock on the gate.

the 3 of us found our way in and started planning out where we wanted the stage to be, the dance floor, how we were gonna get the equipment inside, etc. i think i was planning out a path for the attendees to walk inside when i heard monique (resident dipshit) laughing hysterically from behind me. when i turned around i was greeted by luna completely drenched in some sort of unknown substance looking like a wet rat. luna explained that she had hopped the fence and landed directly on a container of vegetable oil which exploded all over her. 

after we all had some fun laughing at her expense, we convinced her to drive back to her apartment, clean herself off, and get a change of clothes while we set up. luckily she didnt live very far so its not like it was out of the way. 

now we only brought a fraction of our soundsystem. only the generator, one subwoofer, and one head could fit in lunas truck, so we decided to just squeeze that stuff through the hole in the fence and carry it inside. with the full uhauls worth of stuff we bring to each event, this strategy wasnt going to work. we need to be able to drive the truck inside.

i mentioned earlier that the fence does have a gate. its locked, but thats no problem. what is a problem is the giant concrete barrier in front of it. something like this. these things weigh several thousand lbs so needless to say we couldnt just push it out of the way. were gonna have to tow it. 

i dont know shit about towing, but according to deniz (resident smart guy) were going to need two vehicles to do it. depending on the towing power of the uhaul we could use that and lunas truck, or hes gonna have to call in a favor with his friend who also has a truck.

anyway, we set the equipment up and played some music for a couple hours. we were out their till 3am only 3 cars passed by the whole time. some truck who immediately turned around and left (probably took a wrong turn), some guy doing donuts, and what couldve been a security vehicle but they seemingly didnt care much because they didnt come back and never sent anyone. 

so yeah were planning the rave for the end of the month since its our 1 year anniversary. looking forward to it.