The Folk History of Rave, and Our Continual Need for a Good Time

New film Free Party: A Folk History documents a moment in dance music that feels unimaginable within our hustle culture

The experience economy is so out of control you can’t call my dad without it going to voicemail. He’ll text you: “Just at the Van Gogh/Dali/Hockney/Jurassic World/Tutankhamun VR experience. Call you later.” For his 70th birthday we went to the War of the Worlds interactive experience because he’d enjoyed it so much the first time. To be fair, it was better than I was expecting: in one room, after our group had watched an alien set fire to our host, we were asked by the next actor up where the doctor was and if he was ok. In unison, this small group of strangers silently decided to say, “I think he’s going to be fine.” Our gift to a man we sensed was screaming out for a chance to improvise. “Nah, only joking mate, he was just burned alive.” And on we went. Nowhere near my experience economy low – a bar in London Bridge that was serving gin and tonic in vapour form, sprayed around the room by a dry ice machine. All we had to do was breathe, wear the mandatory plastic ponchos, and never speak of that night ever again.

In a new documentary called Free Party: A Folk History, filmmaker Aaron Trinder covers a period of time that predates the coining of the term ‘experience economy’ by 8 years, and a community that would baulk at it more than anyone else: the hardcore ravers of 1990 who were already fighting against the commercialisation of their culture.