It’s enough to keep any avid raver busy–and any caring parent terrified. After all, indiscriminate sex and drugs are as synonymous with dance culture as shaved chests and tight T shirts, and doing either in a foreign country courts a whole new set of dangers. Despite the perils, the number of globe-trotting ravers is rising every year, creating a new breed of tour company specializing in “Adventure Travel Party Scene” packages. The leader in the field is BringItOn! Travel. Like Hiptrips.com and Experienceibiza.com, BringItOn is a largely Internet-based American company that caters to twentysomething clubgoers. It operates under the motto “On the beach ’til 7 p.m. In the clubs ’til 9 a.m.”
Dozens of European travel agencies, particularly in England and Germany, have been targeting club kids for more than a decade. Now America is jumping on the party plane, cashing in on the growing interest in electronic music and DJ culture. “They struck upon an important niche,” says Kenton Williams, 27, a software salesman who bought a package tour to Ibiza last year. “A lot of people in their 20s work very hard all year and want to guarantee that their vacation is gonna be absolutely happening. For a tour operator to say, ‘We’ve got what you are looking for in terms of top-notch music, top-notch clubbing, top-notch beaches…’ I mean, what more could you ask for?”
The new agencies certainly know how to bait the hook. BringItOn’s rock-bottom, student Ibiza package runs $1,299, and that includes inside info on all the best clubs as well as a room for six nights and air fare (for $200 more, it will throw in a VIP ticket to the biggest party on the island and a disco bus shuttle from airport to beach to club). The company is now looking to lure twenty-somethings to parties in Thailand; Whistler, British Columbia; and Berlin. “Potential travelers ask, ‘Are there gonna be crazy, naked girls there? Are the clubs going all night?’ " says company founder Taariq Lewis, 27. “I say yes, and the answer is always ‘Good. Then I’m there’.” And the party line on party drugs? “It’s up to them what they want to do,” says Lewis. “We make sure everyone gets insurance [which includes medical] and signs a waiver saying we’re not responsible for their behavior.”
Once the party’s in motion, it’s easy for ravers to forget that drug laws can be exceedingly harsh overseas. The U.S. State Department is quick to remind travelers that they can be sentenced to death for dealing large amounts of narcotics in Thailand, and it’s been reported that tourists can land in jail for a year if they’re found with more than seven tabs of ecstasy. Partygoers tend to gravitate to towns and islands accustomed to unin-hibited holiday behavior–but even these aren’t without risk. Ibiza has long been a liberal haven for decadent revelers–the drinking age is 16, and ecstasy is readily available there at $10 a tab, one third the going rate in New York. Since tourism makes up 80 percent of Ibiza’s gross domestic product, the conventional wisdom is that the government looks the other way. But even Ibiza has been trying to clean up its image, doubling its drug-related arrests last year.
Local hospitals, meanwhile, are left to deal with overdoses and the bad side effects of bootleg drugs. “It doesn’t surprise me,” says Jeffrey Bernstein, a doctor at the Florida Poison Center in Miami. “If I walked into a South Beach club on any given night, I would venture to guess that 80 percent of the people are on ecstasy.” Many popular club drugs, including ecstasy, can come in unpredictable doses. Hospitals near party-heavy areas of Thailand, such as the island of Phangnga, have special drug-overdose wings.
Yet the soul of a rave vacation is still the music. That’s what draws people in and helps forge a sense of community–whether it’s the sounds of commercial house music, the hypnotic draw of progressive trance or the frenetic beat of two-step garage. The holidaymakers love the booming, electronic party sounds supplied by DJs who travel on a circuit year-round, dropping into the newest hot vacation spot, wherever it may be. “It’s an international crowd and some drunk English lunatics,” says British DJ Fatboy Slim. “There is a certain magic and madness about it all.” To bottle that magic, promoters, record companies, clubs and travel agencies stay in tight contact. “There is always something happening,” says Lewis. “If I had enough manpower and resources, I could book these vacations year-round, with barely a slow spot between them. Then there are the up-and-coming places: Morocco, Iceland… It’s everywhere. Now all we have to do is keep up.” And hope the music never stops.
