Drive-in raves: good or bad? [Magazine Editorial]

When the industry is faced with a challenge, it adapts and grows to overcome it. With COVID-19 though, it’s become one of the biggest challenges that the scene has had to face. Everyone is still figuring out ways to overcome it and try and see that the industry gets back on its feet once more. One of the challenges is facing the fact that live music won’t come back for quite a while – and that includes gigs big and small and festivals too. So, what’s the solution? Drive-in raves. They’ve been popping up in places like Europe and America for a couple of months now, but are they good or bad? Do they serve as a good replacement for the real gig experience?

Back in May, one of the first drive-in raves we saw pop up was in the town of Schüttorf in Germany and it was held in the car park of club Index. Devin Wild was the DJ to headline the night, and it definitely made impressions on many across the world, with worldwide news outlets reporting on this trend. Selling out pretty quickly, it proved to be very popular and so other drive-ins across Europe popped up more and more. The owner of club Index – Holger Boesch – even stated that he thought the drive-in rave may have been better than a normal club night may be.

On one hand, drive-in raves are brilliant and definitely an inventive way of getting round the issue of live events being banned, but on the other hand they can be a logistical nightmare, but let’s explore everything great about them first. First of all, they’re allowing electronic music fans to still get a chance to see some of their favourite artists. Whilst it may not be in the ways we’re used to; artists are still banding together to put a smile on their fans’ faces. 

 

 

Image Credit: Jona on Unsplash