The lads from EVT give some advice on finding your tribe. I know it’s hard picking your friends or the right rave family to open your heart to; trust me, I know. It took me a while to feel like I was good enough to be loved and to love. I’m not an expert at making friends, which is why Harman, Devin, Kevin, and Michael are here to help me try and explain how to? Iono, I’m weird, and feelings are hard. DON’T LOOK AT ME. I’M A MONSTER.
If you would like to share your story about how you found your tribe, let us know in the comment section below.
ALSO!!!! The posting date of this clip is Feb 17th, 2021. It’s also the date for two members of the EVTs birthdays: Kevin and Harpreet!!! So happy bday and I wish the best to your health and happiness.
Festivals have been a massive part of my life. In a time when I was discovering my love for a genre of music once labeled for losers and outcasts, my rave family was there to help me find a sense of home and feel accepted. Compared to my Asian upbringing, my expeditions under the Electric Skys with the ZipperSquad helped me find and freed a wilder, weirder, and more affectionate part of myself I didn’t know was there.
On this episode of #sorryasianparents, I am lucky to have Harman, Devin, Kevin, and Michael sit down with me to share their own story about their chosen family: Eternal Vibe Tribe. A group of unique individuals who managed to catch lightning in a bottle at a Dada Life show in some Chicago club through a serendipitous series of events.
To be honest, I chuckled when Kevin called his EVT brothers shamans of music. Being Asian, I imagined their near 100 members wearing traditional clothes and dancing underneath a bass-heavy tent. However, by the end of the video, I knew he was right.
From start to finish, I couldn’t help but feel overcome by their affection and spirit as these four cheerfully narrated their journey to me. When our meeting was over, I knew that their bond transcended music festivals’ boundaries as they continue to support one another in their everyday lives.
If you enjoyed their story or want to share your own story, comment down below. I would love to hear it, especially during this time of isolation.
Timestamps
00:00 – Shooting the Shizznats
00:38 – Welcoming Kev, Dev, Harman, and Mike
01:50 – What Does EVT Stand For? And Their Origin Story
13:30 – The Rave Scene in the Midwest and How Everyone Got into the Electronic Dance Music
20:28 – How Friends Became Family After EDC Chicago 2013
32:32 – Describing Their First EDC Experience
38:26 – Comparing Raves and Music Festivals Outside of California
40:00 – EVT Heads to EDC 2016 in Vegas
44:00 – Comparing EDC to TomorrowWorld and TW 2013 Connections IRL
47:15 – How Many People Are in EVT? And EDC 2016 Stories
54:00 – EDC 2016 Favorite Moment w/ Above & Beyond and The Rally
1:02:30 – Electric Forest
1:06:15 – Harman’s Memorable Moment w/ EVT
1:07:47 – Dev’s Memorable Moment at Electric Forest 2019
1:09:23 – Mike’s Memorable Moment at TomorrowWorld 2015
1:13:30 – Kev Remembering All Great Sucky Times Together and EF 2018 Storm
1:23:00 – The Birth of The Real DLR, U4IK & SNRG
1:37:02 – EVT Supporting Eachother in Many Different Ways
1:41:55 – Advice on Finding Your Own Tribe/Be Yourself
On this episode of #sorryasainparents, I’m joined by CupCake, RidicuLance, and Vortex for a mini ZipperSquad reunion. We will be sharing with y’all stories of a time when we were just a bunch of broke youths trying to make festivals happen and (of course) EDC!!!
When I started this YouTube project, I knew I would be talking about my music festival journey a lot. This video is the second time I’ve brought up the Electric Daisy Carnival, and it probably won’t be the last. I am grateful to have these three (this time and probably more times) with me, so y’all won’t have to hear just me blabbering on about my glory daze for almost two hours!
So, you’re welcome.
It could be a bit hard to follow our overeager-storytelling as we zip and zap through a bunch of cautionary tales of our early raver days. Still, we couldn’t help getting excited when talking about our nights under the Electric Sky. For this reason, I’ve included timestamps marking things like our early struggles raving in a pre-smartphone era and having to deal with paper tickets, Nocturnal Wonderland and the NOS Event Center, and even infamous TomorrowWorld! I know our conversation may seem a bit erratic, but I’m sure our love for the events hosted by Insomniac will make everything seem connected . . . I hope.
It’s a shame I can’t get all of my rave family together in one video (because that would just be a chaotic mess, let’s be honest). I wish I could, though. I love everyone whom I’ve met throughout my rave journey. Being in this pandemic, I’ve come to realize how much I miss every one of those beautiful souls. And If I’ve learned anything from being stuck at home, limited to Zoom calls, it’s not to take your bonds and friendships for granted.
So I hope this video can bring some of y’all (who are also missing their rafe fam, festie besties, and the euphoric feeling of being on the dance floor surrounded by beats and lights) a little comfort. If y’all have any stories y’all wanna share, feel free to post them down below.
PS, I want to apologize for some of the crappy pictures; I had to extract most of them from Facebook. But like the memories we made, these shitty pictures are an accurate representations of the times we shared, cloaked in a beautiful haze of dreams and stupidity.
Timestamps
0:00:00 – Intro
0:01:00 – Welcoming In The Gang
0:02:00 – Starting Off 2020 w/ A Bang!
0:02:50 – Prepping For 2021 Festivals (COVID Measures)
0:05:00 – INSOMNIAC And EDC 2020 Problems
0:07:30 – 2020, The Year Of DJ Livestreams
0:11:50 – We Used To Deal w/ Physical Tickets, GrooveTickets, And MapQuest
0:16:30 – The NOS Event Center and Beginning Our Journey At Nocturnal Wonderland
0:23:17 – HARD vs INSOMNIAC Events
0:28:10 – Evolving Our Music Taste And Timeless Artist On Repeat (Above & Beyond, Seven Lions)
0:32:00 – Beyond Wonderland 2012 w/ ASOT 550 and The Knights Inn
0:35:55 – EDC Part1: 2012 Duststorm, Thursday Night Bar Crawl, And The Friendship Lineup
0:46:30 – Vegas Kinda Sucks w/out EDC
0:48:30 – Doing Crazier (Stupider) Stuff When We Were Younger
0:50:45 – TomorrowWorld 2015, Chicago Fam, And Risking Our Life And Jobs For Squad
1:05:40 – EDC Part2: EDC 2013 (Da Best Year), Fitting 13 People in a 2 Bed Hotelroom, EDC Traffic
1:13:00 – Boomer Ravers, Raving Used To Be Controlled Chaos, Off The Main Stages
1:18:40 – Being Messed Up At Raves and TomorrowWorld (Again!)
1:20:30 – Those EDC Moments, Our EDC Numbers, And Our Favorite EDC Stages
1:31:20 – The Last Time We Gave Out Kandi At A Festival, And The Scene Has Changed
1:35:20 – Prohibited Rave Items And Festival Security
1:39:00 – Safety At Festivals, Finally Getting Free Water, And New Friends
1:44:40 – We Miss Festivals And The Friendship Lineup
1:49:43 – Being Broke And Raving Made Everything Stressful
1:52:53 – Saying Our Goodbyes, Till Next Time
#SorryAsianParents 