My First Rave at an Anime Convention
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My First Rave at an Anime Convention The following account is about my experience at my first rave at an anime convention, a rave is a dance that only plays very loud techno/dubstep music. Raves are always at night; they start around 10-11pm and can go on until 2-4am. A rave at a convention is quite different from a normal rave. A normal rave is usually 18+ and is hosted underground or outside. A rave at a convention is hosted in the convention center, where the anime convention is held, in a large ballroom. Raves at an anime convention are almost always appropriate for all ages. It was May 30th, around ten o’clock at night. My friend, Eric and I were looking for the end of the line to the rave. I had never seen a line so long in person. Everyone was dressed up in their rave attire. Some people wore colorful fur leg warmers, cuffs, vests, and hats. Others wore their cosplay, tutus, or just their normal clothes. After we finally found the end of the line, we waited for my other friend Dylan who had my rave outfit. While waiting in line for about five minutes, we saw Dylan on the other side of the glass outside. We frantically waved at each other. Dylan ran as fast as his little legs could take him to the entrance of the building. Coming in our direction, he ran down the long white hallway with my bag. Dylan and I then rampantly ran (leaving Eric in line) to the nearest bathroom so I could change. I quickly changed in the tiny bathroom stall, and then we both ran out of the bathroom. We found my parents, who were just “jumping with joy to be there” (note the sarcasm), and gave them my bag before running back to Eric. We were getting closer to the entrance of the rave, so now we were racing to crack, snap together, and put on our glow sticks. We were relieved once we had divided all fifty glow sticks between us three and had successfully put them on our wrists, ankles, waists, and necks. We ended up waiting another five to ten minutes in line. During that time we had a random conversation with the people in front and behind us and danced to the music that they played on their phone. We finally approached the entrance of the rave. Our hearts were pounding in our chests with excitement, well at least mine was. After the staff made sure we had no bags, no drinks, and had our shoes on, they told us we could go in. The atmosphere was completely different from the outside. It was almost pitch black, but the dozens of flashing colorful lights made it possible to see inside. Almost everyone was gathered around the stage where the DJ stood. Our ears were filled with the sound of techno music, making it hard to hear when someone was talking to you, unless they were right next to you. Everyone was dancing, jumping, or fist pumping to the rhythm of the music. After only dancing for less than ten minutes we were already sweating and destitute of water. “I’m thirsty! Let’s go get some water from the water cooler!” I shouted over the music. They both agreed and we stopped dancing and walked over to the water cooler. “What the heck…” Dozens and dozens of plastic cups were scattered all over the table and on the floor around the table. Every cup was either lying on its side, upside down, or crushed. We refused to use one of the cups in fear that it had already been used by someone. So we ended up not getting any water and decided to repose against the wall for a few minutes before continuing to dance. It wasn’t until around eleven when our other friends, Thomas, Megan, and Trish, decided to finally join us. We waited as close to the entrance as we could for them. Once we could see them in line, we began to jump up and down and shout at them. They all smiled and greeted us with the same gesture. When they entered we greeted them all with a sweaty hug. The moment Thomas entered the room he was already extremely pumped. He was jumping up and down and shouting inaudible things, making it hard to suppress his excitement while we tried to put on a few glow stick bracelets on his large wrists. Once we gave our friends a glow stick or two, we joined the conga line that randomly starts every so often during the rave. We used one hand to hold on to each other’s shoulder while we used the other one to pump up a fist in the air as we jumped up and down. After a few minutes or so the conga line randomly dispersed. Thomas, Dylan, and I then held hands as Thomas skulking led us through the hot and sweaty crowd. It was hard to breathe because of everyone’s body heat and odor that was invading our nostrils. Our arms were rubbing against everyone’s sweaty bodies; it was a very unpleasant feeling. Thomas stopped at a clearing near the side of the stage. There was a circle of people surrounding a guy who was doing these crazy cool dance moves. Then Thomas got in the circle and began to dance. He was surprisingly pretty good. He attempted a head spin on the ground and when he did this his wig fell off. He got up with his arms up in the air, completely oblivious that he was no longer wearing his wig. We shouted numerous times at Thomas, telling him that his wig had fallen off. Once he turned around to face us and saw that we were shouting at him and pointing at the ground, he finally grabbed his wig off the ground. He held his wig up in the air and shouted, “I have hair!” while pointing at his head. I forget who, but one of our friends told Megan to do the SpongeBob Dance. She said “okay” and randomly began to do it. We were all amazed. It looked as if she wasn’t even touching the ground; she slightly reminded me of a goat, I’m not sure why though. “Woah, how did you do that?” A random guy asked. Megan offered to show him. Dylan and I attempted to do it while she tried to teach the guy. He gave up, so did we. We were entirely confused. Trish then began to do the SpongeBob dance. As we continued to dance, another random guy wearing a light pink shirt came over to us and started twerking, which was hilarious. He was obviously adroit at it. It was almost two in the morning when I had to leave. Eric was at her limit and had to get up early in the morning, so she left with me. We exchanged sweaty hugs with our friends before leaving. Thomas was sweating a river in the end. His light blue shirt was now a dark blue and his face was dripping with sweat. When I got back to my hotel room, I was completely exhausted but happy that I got to experience something so exciting and fun with my dear friends. Send Feedback to: [email protected] .