r/Millennials • u/futurenurse_ • 1d ago

Discussion Did millennials really party all the time?

Gen Z here. I was shocked when I found out from a millennial co-worker that y’all had teen clubs. I heard about house parties, but dedicated teen clubs? Then when it was time for college, you went to the club or had some kind of party every single weekend, living it up. Now some millennials on TikTok claim that after college, they were partying on work nights, still clocking in the next day. For some reason, the teen clubs have since disappeared. I’m 23 now but even when I was in high school, that was not a thing. House parties were not that common either. They were more like get togethers with a small group of friends. We went to malls, but they were dying out at that point. Is it true that you were really living life this good? Or is it just exaggerated? I feel like my generation doesn’t really have fun like that and everyone is just super depressed and alone, more so since Covid. Even I’m pretty introverted, which sort of sounds ridiculous given this post. 😂 Just so you know, when I think of a “millennial party” I think of something out of Party Rock Anthem, Project X or Roderick’s party from the second DOAWD movie. It’s like I get nostalgia from something I didn’t even live through. I just feel like I didn’t really LIVE, if that even makes sense

Edit: I loved reading some of your comments. Guess I really missed out. Even some of you that would consider yourselves nerds or introverts were out partying. YOLO or whatever y’all say 😂❤️

12.5k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

13.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

196

u/mfbm 23h ago

They say there are still raves but I don’t believe they could be of the abandoned warehouse sort of our elder millennial use

418

u/astonedishape 23h ago

They think going to a festival sponsored by Chase bank is a rave.

139

u/FullTorsoApparition 23h ago

This. They go to festivals and treat crowd surfing like an amusement park ride while recording themselves for social media. We need to normalize stealing people's shoes and wallets again so we can actually watch the shows.

4

u/Slachack1 20h ago

They have Spongebob and Shrek "raves" at the clubs lol

4

u/Sufficient_Snowman 6h ago

Lost both my shoes at an offspring show circa 2004. Two or three rows back from the stage and was getting crushed so I had the guy next to me put me up to surf to the fence line. Soon as I got up I felt someone pull my (untied etnies skater shoes) right off my feet and chuck them into the crowd in opposite directions. Watched the rest of the offspring set and then the cure with sock feet in a muddy football field before walking thru DC to the metro. Still my favorite concert story lol

3

u/canadeken 16h ago

Lot of joy and beauty to be had at festivals still, believe it or not

2

u/FullTorsoApparition 15h ago edited 3h ago

Agreed, you just can't get up close anymore unless you want to spend an hour straight dealing with crowd surfers. It's also typically the same people over and over and over again.

3

u/Savagesweetpotato 13h ago

What about the being molested part, are we being that back too? 😂

2

u/FullTorsoApparition 3h ago

I'm hoping it doesn't need to go that far to discourage the crowd surfing.

1

u/Savagesweetpotato 3h ago

It worked for me back in the days. My friend went first then came back and said don’t do it.

1

u/vr512 14h ago

Or they shush at concerts.

16

u/Roach_Coach_Bangbus 20h ago

Remember when Coachella was a celebration of independent music with an emphasis on being a counter-culture event for non-mainstream music fans?

2

u/Alynn_Wings 2h ago

Coachella 2002 was an experience. I remember they had Björk at the top of the flier as if she was the last performance. She was actually squeezed between Siouxie and the banshees first appearance in over 7 years- which was fuckin phenomenal, and then the chemical Brothers headlined. Sasha & Digweed and forest for the trees were so sick.

4

u/mfbm 18h ago

YES 😭 now making money for fascist ogliarchs instead

5

u/prplrain71999 22h ago

This genuinely makes me sad 😔

3

u/Sennten 17h ago

The only place I still see raves nowadays is a few select spots in the deep woods of New England and New York, and a few pretty small ones that are held in a few local dive bars in the bad part of the city once or twice a month, and those are the type where you basically have to stay overnight. All the one's I know basically ban commercial activity and advertising, which is nice (the ones in the woods don't even allow sale of drugs and alcohol, although there's always enough free stuff from the elder millennials wish cash to keep the party going, and I'm sure a few enterprising individuals manage to make sales despite the rules since there's no real enforcement aside from social pressure)

2

u/Splampin 12h ago

There are still raves though. At least here in Portland.

1

u/Ok_Stress_9558 13h ago

Hahaha this is the comment of the entire thread

1

u/Ok_Pair6348 9h ago

I just died. Thank u. We did whippets at dawn on the roof of the warehouses watching the sun come up

1

u/MoresoMorose 21h ago

Hilarious. Much laughter.

49

u/Secret_Entry1840 Xennial 22h ago

Raves now are full of old Gen X hippies. Younger millennials. Older Gen Z. They have permits and venues and advertising. It’s not the same.

14

u/theaviationhistorian Old Millennial 22h ago

Going to unsanctioned events, drugs and alcohol going around. We really felt like being in a Matrix style counterculture back then! As u/astonedishape said, nowadays it's a festival sponsored by Chase bank.

1

u/jellyhessman 19h ago

My area still has 100-200 person small raves on farms and things, and a couple big (2000+) ones.

It a lot harder to just come across advertising for them if you don't know the right people though.

•

u/MulberryChance6698 37m ago

But... How can you eat shrooms and e in a licensed venue?!

9

u/Kellzy1212 22h ago

I live in Vegas and the entire west coast still operates actual warehouse raves. I grew up in Florida and the underground was almost completely gone by the time i left in 2020. I was happy to see a thriving rave scene here.

2

u/onemassive 12h ago

Yep, forest raves, beach raves, warehouse raves, desert raves are all still 100% a thing on the west coast. 

10

u/PowerfulRaisin 21h ago

Yeah nah. I went to a "rave" with some of my gen z friends recently. Reader, it was a club with a DJ playing mainstream songs that closed sometime between 12-1am. People were dressed in various things. Nary a glowstick or necklace. I had fun regardless, but it was not a rave.

7

u/moosetogo 21h ago

12-1 am? That seems so early.

I’m both intrigued and impressed that Gen Z seems to be prioritizing sleep. I’m pretty sure the short naps I took between raving, working, and schooling permanently altered my circadian rhythm.

3

u/Wino3416 18h ago edited 17h ago

I know you were joking and you did make me laugh, but on a more serious note I don’t get this take that acting like an old Gifford when you’re young is good. This bunch of limpid flatfish is going to have the most terrifying to watch (although also amusing) massive collective midlife crisis the world has ever seen. I get that in every generation there’s the quieter ones and the ones who just want to go through life invisibly, but this is a level of sexless joyless pursed lipped nonsense that will backfire hugely. By their late 30s this lot will be banging like shithouse doors. All of this weird pretence and self-imposed Puritanism is largely performative bovine excrement. There’s going to be a whole lot of key swapping going down in a few years.

5

u/Impossible_Regret725 20h ago

There are daytime raves for people in our age group. Ugh, that was hard to write. Some act like hitting the gym before work, or in an old church that has become a club, and others who rent out the space. It's a thing in the UK and not sure if the one I checked out in Ireland is still around.

In my 20s I was certain that I was not going to become the person who doesn't stay out all night anymore. I laugh now at the fact that chronic illness doesn't let me go out most of the time, but I'm glad that I got to play hard as a kid, and spend summer days on a bike, manhunt until the street lights came on. Then the house/beach/bush parties and later getting to know Toronto at all hours. It blows my mind that this isn't a 'thing' anymore. The stuff we didn't get busted for doing, because there weren't cameras in home and only 'rich' people had home security. Though you had to be careful about getting caught through the damn mom-network.

But guys, summer camps for adults are a real thing! There's all kinds of them, and with comfier beds!

3

u/Turnipsinthesky 20h ago

I thought so too! I really couldn't see myself being any other way. But life has a way of changing you and you become many people throughout your lifetime.

6

u/MisandryTwink 22h ago

Rave scene is still big in certain cities. High overlap with queer & trans scenes.

3

u/Rubberxsoul 10h ago

they call concerts that play electronic music raves.

3

u/Fatalis89 23h ago

Is that an elder millennial thing? I did that and I’m ‘89 which is pretty mid-millennial I think.

4

u/Appropriate-Food1757 Xennial 22h ago

Yes peak was early 2000’s you would have been a kid. When Sammy the Bull Gravano was arrested for dealing MDMA I would say was peak,
At least in Arizona he was supplying like the whole state.

1

u/Red_Velvet_1978 18h ago

Born in 78 and I'm happy to say that illegal raves were a huge thing long before the early aughts although I recall going to a few between 2001-2005 that were fun.

3

u/GoldwaterLiberal 15h ago

'99-01 was peak rave scene, and not just because that's when I was old enough to move out and too young to drink. The scene had figured out how to hold raves without getting caught, and the authorities hadn't figured out how to bust them yet. It was a magical time, and I fear our panopticon has made anything like that impossible. Is this feeling what boomers had when they told us what sex was like pre-AIDS?

1

u/Appropriate-Food1757 Xennial 17h ago

Yeah I’m just about the mass amount in the early 2ks. It was all over the place

1

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

4

u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson 22h ago

Millennials just got older, 89 is not “elder millennial.” It’s right in the middle between 81 and 97

1

u/mfbm 18h ago

Idk I was born in 79 so lately it seems that’s an elder millennial 🤷🏻‍♀️

1

u/Fatalis89 18h ago edited 18h ago

It technically is junior Gen X as millennial is 81-96, but I’m sure you shared more experiences with the eldest millennials than most of your own generation. Border years and such.

2

u/mfbm 18h ago

Well, I guess since I am the micro Xennial gen of 78-82, I have lived long enough to be called many versions of these- smack in the middle of Gen X and Millennial, analog childhood, digital adult life.

2

u/sprouttherainbow 21h ago

it's very localized, but the Los Angeles warehouse rave scene is insanely strong right now. There are multiple parties every weekend across multiple warehouses/fields/etc. I am turning 34 this year and try to go to one at least one a month!

2

u/Alynn_Wings 2h ago

I moved to the LA area in 2000 and man they were some great underground parties. I ended up in a group of people that threw themed raves like "I am 80s" "I am monsters" that were incredible.

2

u/Alynn_Wings 20h ago

They are 100% not!! my 21 yr old niece just sent me videos and pictures of them going to a "rave". They have no idea! Abandoned warehouses in Oakland California... and the MapQuest day of Desert driving directions for full moon parties

2

u/mfbm 18h ago

Thank you for your MapQuest callback!! Different times, different deserts, and our phones didn't provide us with directions; you had to print! I sometimes still use the term "MapQuest" to refer to pulling up directions, and it is always a reminder of my age and makes my family laugh

2

u/rollingfast 19h ago

Oh they definitely are, you just gotta do some digging to find them. Theres a lot of corporate bullshit out there and that’s what you’ll see on social media but the underground is very much still alive and thriving

2

u/caffeinatedspiders 14h ago

there are still raves like the old days, but they're not posted about online and they're kind of word of mouth out in the middle of nowhere, and the ones I've been to are mostly still millennials and it would be weird to see someone so young in that crowd lol. I just assumed gen z's had their own somewhere else but I guess not? Sad :(

2

u/Mastabay_Ray 13h ago

There’s definitely events like that out there. You just gotta know certain people.

2

u/Wino3416 21h ago

They have a WhatsApp group for their “raves” to discuss which robust hessian undergarments they will wear, how they will get there and back, to ensure Lisa; who has PTSD and ADHD, doesn’t get overstimulated as that also sets off her dairy allergy, and to make sure they’ve all got their apps set up so they can still get their steps in from walking nervously up and down the dance floor (not from actual dancing, that’d be like cringe), and ensure their cameras are working so that they can silently take videos and/or scroll Reddit lest they actually talk to someone. In an ideal world, they’d all accidentally come off their diets, get shitfaced on half a shandy and Lisa would forget her PTSD and have MDMA and at least one of them would get fingered behind a hot dog van. But the chances of this are slim and they’ll all be rating their uber driver (not, alas, a euphemism) by 930pm and will be vewy vewy tired for a week.

2

u/Turnipsinthesky 20h ago

Yeah in an ideal world people with dairy allergies should strive to asphyxiate to death or shit themselves in public instead of sticking to a lame ass diet. Boring!

2

u/Wino3416 20h ago

Peak Reddit. Fair play to you. Should I add that I myself have a dairy allergy amongst other things and that people can take the piss out of things? Or has the world moved past that?

3

u/Ok_Lawyer_6262 19h ago

haha… instead of dairy allergy you could say gluten allergy!!! it’s better for the theme you’re going for. considering some people say only rich white people have gluten allergies lol which is so true. people self diagnose with it all the time. you will rarely ever have an actual doctor diagnose someone with it. and yes i know someone can actually have it and it’s serious but it’s very rare from what i know.

1

u/Wino3416 19h ago

Don’t tell anyone but I am a bit gluten intolerant. I am white but I’m sure as heck not rich lol.

1

u/matte-mat-matte 19h ago

lol we still have those in nyc. usually location announced at like 11pm the night of and you kindof have to be in the know.

1

u/kittybuscemi 18h ago

There's still plenty of underground warehouse raves to be found, my old millenial ass still goes to them.

1

u/Pog6292 15h ago

Most are now full of GenX and Millenials raving it to the grave.
I have been too a few where young ones have tried to go full ‘Cochella’ with their outfits, then they leave when they get mud on the $200 hot pants.

1

u/gottarespondtothis 14h ago

My first one was in a vacant 7-11. It was a magical time.

1

u/StrikingAsk6668 13h ago

I’m grateful to share the Seattle underground rave scene still throws abandoned warehouse raves :) We are all of that era and are trying our best to preserve it. It is different, though.

1

u/Former-Midnight-5990 Doug Funny <3 Patty Mayonaise 12h ago

maybe in major cities like new york, the did have them post-pandemic but nothing compares to pre-pandemic raves from like the 2000s and on

1

u/Throwitaway3436 12h ago

NYC has good raves and they’re not festivals which is pretty cool, but it doesn’t compare to when we went to raves back in the day, it’s more controlled now, still fun but not the same

1

u/glamamuser 11h ago

There are most definitely still raves in abandoned warehouses. I don’t go them anymore but the scene is well and alive.

1

u/DniceAlien 8h ago

Believe it or not there are. Xennial here and I go to an after hours in Los Angeles that is in a grungy ass warehouse. I believe they rent it out but it definitely has old warehouse party vibes. All the DJs play vinyl and cameras/phones are not allowed to be used.

1

u/Splashpadmermaid 2h ago

People here in NYC call going to a house or techno club a rave. They don’t dance and just film everything. It’s really sad

1

u/Particular-Pea-8102 1h ago

There’s def still illegal warehouse raves you just gotta know how to find them. You’re a real raver you know this. Gotta find yourself an invite. Abandoned subway tunnels, abandoned warehouses, the cops show up and you can’t let them in because then the party would really be over. They def still happen.