Journal 6: Armin, becoming part of the culture? PLUR.

Armin Van Buuren was amazing! When I walked into RIMAC I did not know what to expect. I arrived to the event right before Armin (the main headliner) went on stage to perform. I tried to get as close to the front of the stage as I could, but could not stand being surrounded by so many people that were touching each other and dancing like the world revolved around them. I quickly went up to the bleachers portion of the stadium and was seeing the performances from above.

I was observing all these strange things occuring. People with gloves that had lights at their fingertips were waving their hands in front of people that were just sitting completely still in front of them. I went up to one of the guys that was wearing these gloves and I asked what he was doing. He said he was giving someone a light show. I asked him what that was and he pretty much told me that when a person in really into the zone (taken "e") they enjoy these lights in front of them. I asked if i could watch him do one and he said yes. I watched as he performed one of these light shows to a stranger at the venue and saw that this person was really into this light show*.

Another thing I noticed is that people were wearing tons and tons of colorful bracelets made of beads. I saw people exchanging beads with each other and doing something with their hands before exchanging beads. I observed and observed all night and then this girl came up to me and asked if it was my first time at an event like this. I told her yes and then she told me about PLUR. PLUR** stands for Peace Love Unity and Respect and is known as the Mantra of Electronic Dance Music. She made me do this hand sign things with her and then gave me one of her bracelets. Was I now being invited to become part of the culture? I began to feel welcomed.

UPDATE: TRANCE. After going to EDC I feel like I could honestly say that Trance music is my favorite subgenre of EDM. The words, the rhythm. Everything about trance is more soothing than that of brostep, or dubstep, or hardcore electro. Do I like trance better than dubstep because it was what I was first exposed to? 

*Going to be looking more into light shows because it seems that this is a big part of the culture.
**PLUR seems to be the welcoming into the culture. Definitely going to look into this.