Rave Music Fan Girl

The word "Responsibility" was added to the acronym PLUR during the mid to late 90s to promote awareness of increased drug overdoses at raves. Groups that have addressed drug use at raves include the Electronic Music Defense and Education Fund (EMDEF), DanceSafe , and the Toronto Raver Info Project , all of which advocate harm reduction approaches to enjoying a rave.
American ravers, following their early UK & European counterparts, have been compared to both the hippies of the 1960s and the new wavers of the 1980s, due to their interest in non-violence and music. In the 1990s, one of the most influential Rave organizers / promoters in America was San Diego's G.U.N. ,Global Underworld Network known as Nicholas Luckinbill and Branden Powers. They were made famous for organising and throwing the internationally known OPIUM and NARNIA raves that reached in size of 60,000 plus people in attendance, a feat unheard of at that time. Narnia which would become famous for a morning hand holding circle of unity was featured on Mtv and twice in LIFE magazine being honored with Event of the Year in 1995. Narnia quickly became known as the "Woodstock of Generation X". These festivals were mostly held on Indian Reservations and ski resorts during the Summer months and were headlined by well known DJs such as Doc Martin, Dimitri of Dee-lite, Afrika Islam and the Hardkiss brothers from San Francisco. They also featured exceptional local San Diego DJs Jon Bishop, Steve Pagan, Alien Tom, Jeff Skot and Mark E. Quark. Global Underworld's events were the first prop heavy , themed parties in America. Global Underworld Network were also the first production company to throw Raves within Mexico, thus launching the entire rave culture movement within South America as well. The iconic fairy and pixie craze with ravers getting fairy tattoos and wearing wings to parties all started from an image of a winged fairy on the first Narnia flyer. The Crystal Method played their first out of town show for Global Underworld's Universary event. Fearing reprisals from the police Global Underworld Network advertised the event as "A thousand Points of Light" referring to the power of healing crystals and not the obvious drug reference of the Crystal Methods name. A fact that tickled the upcoming artist so much they would refer to it years later in their biography. The Chemical Brothers were also in awe of Nicholas and Branden's Global Underworld headquarters in downtown San Diego. A multi story building of the arts, much like Warhol's factory. There Global Underworld fed starving artists and provided space for all the arts. The Chemical Brothers played an intimate show at Global's offices in front of a few hundred lucky fans on the eve of a Global event that was shut down by the authorities. In an interview with Virgin Airways The Chemical Brothers referred to Global Underworld as a cult with cult like followers, a fact that wasn't too far from the truth. Nicholas Luckinbill step grandson of the late Lucille Ball and Branden Powers were the Tim Leary and Ken Keaseys of the Rave Generation, and were instrumental in creating their political movement called RTD or RIGHT TO DANCE. RTD was a non violent protest held in San Diego and later in Los Angeles on the steps of the Cities administrators proving that Rave was about community, peace, love and not a dirty word. These protest by Global Underworld helped lay the foundation for future growth within the rave scene.
- San Francisco
The west coast rave scene, while today being the most active and diverse scene in America, was one of the later scenes to get started. At first, small underground parties sprung up all over the SOMA district of San Francisco in vacant warehouses, loft spaces, and clubs like DV8 (on Howard st between 3rd and 4th) and 1015 Folsom (on Folsom St. between 6th and 7th), and the basement of Jessie Street that had permits to run to 6am as long as no alcohol was served. The zero alcohol rule fueled the ecstasy-driven parties to a much larger crowd, and soon followed were the first large-scale raves.