Out with overpriced booze and 5am taxi rides, in with early morning shape-throwing, yoga spaces and ‘greeting angels’. With advocates in Boy George and Fatboy Slim, is the sober rave here to stay?
A drink called a summer love cup is shoved into my hand. Containing a colourful spectrum of orange, strawberry, apple, mint, lemonade and orange blossom, this sugary concoction could have been served at a school disco. In reality, I’m at something just a little more adult: a sober rave in Hackney. In recent years, these events have been cropping up around the world, from Sober Sweden in Stockholm to UK rave nights such as Awakening, We Are One, Right Here Right Now, Love is Key and perhaps the grandaddy of them all, Morning Gloryville.
With positive energy, mindfulness and wellness all buzzwords in 2016, there is a strong new-age spirituality element at these parties. But are these conscious nightclubs a nascent trend or just another fly-by-night fad?
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