Rave

The Rave department runs the rave. The Rave department falls inside the Dance department. The rave usually starts around 11 PM on Saturdays and ends sometime between 2 and 4 AM on Sundays.

Policies & Procedures

• There is only one door at the rave.
• Make sure no dancers or unauthorized staff members touch the equipment
• Do not stop the music until the rave is over
• Make sure everyone is wearing shoes per the con policy (many dancers attempt to dance bare foot)
• Poi needs to be a safe distance from other dancers
• Free Glow Sticks while supplies last

Policy: Don't Stop the Music

DO NOT STOP THE MUSIC UNLESS THERE IS AN EMERGENCY.

Rovers may not interrupt the show for parents looking for their kids, or lost items.

Acceptable reasons to stop the music:

• The rave is over
• Fire
• Flood
• The venue needs us to stop and clear out
• The apocalypse is happening
• Someone is going to literally die if you don't

Drug Sensitivity

The convention is very sensitive to drug usage at the rave. Even joking about it will get attendees detained and probably banned from the rave for at least that year.

Cult of the One Door

After an incident in 2010 where someone gained access to our rave through a back entrance and allegedly attempted to sell drugs to the attendees dancing (he left before we caught him), the convention has been on high alert about anyone entering or leaving through an unapproved exit. In 2011, after being put in charge of the doors at the rave, Nyandrew gave a speech to all volunteers that no one would be entering or leaving through any door other than the main one or badges would be pulled.

This speech became infamous among the staff, was nicknamed the "Fear of God Speech," and attending it became a requirement to staff the doors at the rave in 2012.

After the con in 2012, the staff members were joking about how dark and threatening they could make the speech. By the end of the joking an idea had been formed about the "Cult of the One Door." T-Shirts (white on black) were made for 2013 with a design for the Cult of the One Door. The shirt is only allowed to be purchased by members of said "cult." Requirements for joining the cult are to sit through the Fear of God Speech and staff the rave. Once a member, you are always considered a member for the sake of purchasing the shirt and receiving the con achievement.

New shirts were made for 2014 and were red on black using the same design.

Fire Alarms in 2012 and 2013

In 2012 the fire alarms were turned off for the smoke machine. The convention learned that at the GSR the systems reset at about 2am because the lights randomly dimmed or brightened (depending on the room). The fire alarms also reset and shortly after the reset they were triggered by the smoke machine. The fire department showed up. Since we had alerted the venue about our smoke machines more than once, the venue took full responsibility.

In 2013 the fire alarms were turned off for the smoke machine, and after the reset, we made sure that the alarms were turned off again. Over time, the smoke worked its way through the venue ventilation system and set off alarms elsewhere in the building well after the rave was completely over.

The machines broke in 2013 so we did not have smoke machines in 2014 and there is no intention of purchasing new machines.

2010 Venue Panic

In 2010 the GSR saw that we had “Rave” on our site as part of our programming and became concerned. After a large amount of panic and some very long emails from Beta to the GSR, the response was basically “oh, it’s not open to the public? Okay.” And there was never another word about it from the venue.

In 2011 we considered renaming the rave to something cutesy the way other cons do, but since the venue was no longer concerned, we stopped caring as well. Everyone calls it a rave no matter what we name it so why bother?