Intended Use of Public Space:

¶ … intended use of public space: A rave

It is not by accident that users of public spaces in unintended ways are often young: people lacking a sense of secure private space often intrude onto the public space. Someone in an apartment that is cramped, uncomfortable and ill-kept is more apt to seek out a place outside in which to define him or herself. The poor, the young, and the marginalized do not have the luxury of using conspicuous consumption of material objects in the form of houses with which to define their social identities. Raves allow young people to mark urban spaces as their own, and to create a transient but vibrant identity with clothes, makeup, and other physical markers that create a status. Suddenly wealth and occupation do not matter -- only movement in the space. The frequently harsh and dangerous settings of raves are partially for concealment but also to satirize the idea that a beautiful space is needed to have fun.

Young people are also in search of an identity. The anonymous locations of raves allow them to create superficial self, with costumes, paint, and wild movements to music. The availability of drugs at raves also allows the ravers to forget their workaday identities of the day, and slide into a new identity at night. Youth is linked to a sense of plasticity of self. Many of the drugs consumed at raves, like Ecstasy, also encourage the user to engage in demonstrative behavior to total strangers. And even people not on drugs like to use the transiency of raves, where most people will never be seen again, to engage in wild sexual behavior as well as dancing.