Earthdance Festival

Contrary to popular belief, the Nineties rave movement birthed more than glowsticks, copious ecstasy use, and bad trance instrumentals; it also served as a meeting point for naturalists and hippies bored from following jam band dinosaurs around the country and subsequently attracted to the dance community’s peace-and-love ethos. It was this scene that led to the inaugural Earthdance Festival in 1996, a series of parties held in 22 cities around the world that “synchronized” via satellite at midnight as a demonstration of international unity.

This year’s edition is even bigger, with parties scheduled to take place in 120 cities including, for the first time, Miami. Barring the appearance of another hurricane, locals will get to bliss-out to the sounds of prototypical pagan-house couple Dubtribe Sound System, the Spam Allstars, Galaxy Girl, and dozens of other DJs and performers. It should be quite a spectacle.