A rave (from the verb: to rave) is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance music scene when DJs played at illegal events in musical styles dominated by electronic dance music from a wide range of sub-genres, including drum and bass, dubstep, trap, break, happy hardcore, trance, techno, hardcore, house, and alternative dance. Occasionally live musicians have been known to perform at raves, in addition to other types of performance artists such as go-go dancers and fire dancers. The music is amplified with a large, powerful sound reinforcement system, typically with large subwoofers to produce a deep bass sound. The music is often accompanied by laser light shows, projected coloured images, visual effects and fog machines.
Fuelled by the emerging dance scene, and spearheaded by acid house music and underground bands such as The Prodigy, many of the "acid house" parties were held in squats during the late 1980s. Well known locations such as the "Dole House" (Peckham), the abandoned bus station and the squatted children's home in Camberwell known as Groove Park had crowds of over a thousand. Full Moon parties were organised at Groove Park by Pete Marland (who went on to start the dance scene in Western Ireland in the early 1990s) and multiple events went on for over a year as an Art Collective sanctioned by locals. The Times' first colour supplement carried an article about the dance scene at Groove Park, though some of the organisers did not want to be photographed. While some raves may be small parties held at nightclubs or private homes, some others have grown to immense size, such as the large festivals and events featuring multiple DJs and dance areas (e.g., the Castlemorton Common Festival in 1992).