Rave culture is alive and well in the UK - free parties several days a week around Bristol and south Wales. Old heads and the younguns collaborating usually.

You are simply disconnected. The rave scene is thriving.

Probably depends where you are.

Here in Western Australia there still seems to be a “Bush Doof” party scene. I’m way to old to know the details of that though.

Ehhh, raves are definitely still a thing in Vancouver at least

I can second Vancouver, and will raise you any big city in the USA - most of Latin America as well. Only thing that changes as usual is regionally based music tastes, though I find that people actually dance a hell of a lot more outside the anglosphere

Europe is a given but I hear Asia is popping off too. I have friends in Oceania who do some work around the scene. Really it's all over the world, people never stopped partying it just goes a little more underground here and there

>I can second Vancouver, and will raise you any big city in the USA

I'll reraise you any decent size college town in the US as well.

Heck, I'm in Iowa and there's plenty of raves in the middle of nowhere here.

Those are the best places these days. It sucks when clubs get closed in urban areas but there's still plenty of parties happening where you're bothering nobody, and nobody will bother you.

I think I'm at the age where I'm more interested in participating as someone actually creating part of the entertainment if I'm going to feel like I'm having the best time though, I think that's probably the best way for anyone to get into it. Lots of volunteer opportunities at festivals and of course paid gigs you can do. If you're a programmer, maybe getting deep into visuals is a way you can have some fun contributing too.

There are raves happening in warzones and even places you think there would be authoritarian crackdowns like China

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp2qB9qXJ1w

PNW in general. Seattle is for sure active. They're not even that hard to find if you go looking for them.

This comment would have be so useful to me if you could have at minimum dropped some breadcrumbs.

As an oldster who has only recently gotten into edm, I am clue free on where to begin finding anything underground and mainstream venues suck.

Follow artist socials, they will promote themselves at gigs. Search for your town name + edm genre on soundcloud, that may tell you the names of regular festivals,events and club nights from the set names. Follow said venue's socials, or regularly check their website for upcoming events.

Figure out who your local promoters are, & follow their socials also.

Go to a youth focused cafe or skate park, look at what event posters are being posted on the walls? Unsure if the kiddies still post bills for small events, honestly everything is on social media these days, and is where you should start once you've identified some names.

In my city, facebook is the most reliable way to discover events - we have very active promoters in the main '$city $genre scene' public fb groups.

In Seattle at least they do posters. Mostly in Cap Hill (the gay area). The super small stuff is generally social only but anything with an actual venue will pop up. 19hz is also a good resource, it's searchable and city specific.

I've not found that to be the case, though I'm only casually interested these days (too old to feel comfortable at most events, worried I'm more there to relive the good old days than a 'genuine' interest etc).

With dB festival gone, do people just hit up showbox or monkey loft shows and try to make friends?

19hz has a good listing of events. A lot of it is announced on Instagram or Telegram (or the old classic of looking at the fliers on the telephone poles of cap hill). Renegades still happen (the bridge has been a super popular spot) but that season is sorta over. I more favor the Kremwork (that's more my scene) or digital hardcore shows which seem to just pop up everywhere.

Awesome stuff thanks, as to kremwork I wasn't aware they'd survived little marias closing - glad to hear some culture is left in the city. Funny to hear of it via HN but hey small world.

is serato no longer a thing?

It is. You want to give me your or buy me one? ;-) I never said it wasn't a thing, only that my discretionary fund for such things prevents me for purchasing them.

Serato Lite is free (as in beer) and you just need to buy a pair of timecoded vinyl records, which are pretty cheap.