Imagine you are part of a wild mass of people, dancing and moving to the music that comes blaring from the DJ’s throne. The sweltering bass pounding throughout the auditorium shocks and puts your heartbeat in a nervous frenzied sync. Hundreds of colors waltz before your eyes. Flames shoot out of the ground in front of your face.

All this stimulation comes together at once. The music begins to build, the crowd gets louder, and you wait for it all to peak.

This is just a sampling of my experience at Escape All Hallows’ Eve, a rave music festival in San Bernardino, California on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The festival took place over a huge expanse of land, with five stages of varying styles of music, setup and crowd.

An event such as this would not have been possible without the explosion of Electronic Dance Music in recent years. What first launched as a small sub-genre of music quickly began expanding and forming it’s own sub-genres, such as dubstep, trance and trap to name a few.

All day festivals featuring an incredible number of DJ’s, have begun to pop up everywhere, with some of the major events being HARD Summer, Electric Daisy Carnival, and Beyond Wonderland. Each has its own experience, and ravers often have their own preferences in regard to venue, DJ lineup, and attractions which differentiate the events.

The rave culture is alive and evolving constantly. Costumes, make-up, and attire have developed as new trends are continually created. Generally, it is acceptable for women to wear bras and underwear  with dozens of bracelets on their wrists. Gentlemen are more conservative, wearing mostly tank tops, jerseys and floral button-ups. Or those in full body character suits, such as the Cookie Monster (he called himself the Rave Monster).

Since the beginning, a drug culture has been associated with the EDM scene, specifically the drug MDMA or ecstasy, which has many parents worried.

Nic Higuera, a 25-year-old Diablo Valley College student majoring in computer science, explains that “It really is your choice. I saw tons of sober people who weren’t on anything. You can’t prevent people from doing drugs at a major music event, it’s been that way since major music events started. And it’s not just EDM. The same goes for rock, hip hop, everything. It’s just a part of the way things are, and to overlook that is a very  ignorant mindset.” In the event that you do choose to partake in drugs, you probably would have done so regardless of the rave.

The rave experience has many components to it, but as DVC student Danielle Powers, 19, psychology major, says, “The people you are with can make or break your experience, and I encourage everyone to share the experience with people that are truly special.”

This is it. The beat finally  drops, the crowd goes mad, and you feel as if this could never end.

If anything, it was truly unforgettable and unlike anything I have ever experienced. What more can you ask for?