For many Australians, there is nothing that epitomizes high summer more than the doof (for those unacquainted with the local dialect, doofs are outdoor dance parties similar to raves). Although pioneering parties like Rainbow Serpent and Earthcore are no longer running, festivals like Esoteric, Wild Horses and Rabbits Eat Lettuce have stepped into the breach, pulling in thousands of punters looking to dress up, drop acid, and lose their minds to psytrance for a few days.
Smaller, underground doofs are advertised to limited social networks and usually fly under the radar. Larger doof festivals, however, are professionally promoted, feature international artists, and evince a typical and replicable psychedelic aesthetic. Whether a semilegal gathering of mates or a festival with five stages and 15,000 punters, doofs are meant to offer an escape from the day-to-day worries of work, rent, bills, and general late-capitalist precarity. To many, they’re also an opportunity to temporarily take part in a genuinely horizontal set of social relations, and to experiment with new ways of being together where exploitation and oppression are absent. Whatever the flavor, the combination of electronic dance music (EDM), entheogens, and nature is potent and popular.
Cultural studies scholar Susan Luckman explains that “the term ‘doof’ resonates in Australia with sub-cultural capital,” which means in practice that many doofers understand their scene and its values as a way of life and not merely an opportunity to get wasted on the weekend.
The principles of Peace, Love, Unity and Respect (PLUR), which emerged from the 1990s US rave scene, are fundamental to Australian doof culture, and many participants see doofs as a vehicle for personal and social…
Auteur: Paddy Gordon
