Bass was bumping loud and proud as Cal State Fullerton’s Subculture Music Club hosted their second event of the semester, a pride-themed rave at the Titan Student Union Pub on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
These electronic-dance events have historically been a safe space for the queer community. Many pioneers in the genre, especially during the Chicago house movement of the ‘80s, entered the space as a reprieve from the AIDS crisis and the public homophobia surrounding it.
This history of providing comfort and safety is incredibly integral to the club, according to its president Evan Estes, a fourth-year political science major.
“That type of space goes hand in hand with subculture music,” Estes said. “A lot of subculture genres were cultivated by queer or black people.”
The club, founded by Jedrek Tran in spring 2024, provides a space for people in the alternative music scene to hang out, socialize and create community for many of the students on campus.
“It’s hard to find a lot of community at this school, so it made it really easy to streamline these kinds of events for these kinds of people,” said Elena Moreno, a second-year cinema and television arts major and the club’s historian. “It’s a niche community, for sure. But it’s big enough to have a pull, and we’ve seen that, I mean, it’s honestly shocked me how big it has gotten.”
This culture of acceptance and openness led to the idea of hosting a pride rave. With a lineup of five LGBTQ+ DJs, including the club’s own president, the energy of the event never let up.
“Subculture and alternative culture has to do with politics, and it has to do with absolutely everything that has to do with human rights and social justice and everything,” Moreno said. “I think that pride falls into that, because it’s something that we’ve had to fight for.”
Juno Kim, who performed at the rave under the name Just Juno, echoes these sentiments.
“Raves have always been about POC and queer identities. I think it’d be very ignorant to ignore that cultural root of raving,” Kim said. “I definitely would love to create and build a fan base or a community where it’s a safe space to be POC and queer, and there’s a lot of intersections between that.”
Holding a pride-themed rave at CSUF enables its club members to ensure that students’ safety in finding these events is a top priority.
“I really do love the scene, and I love DIY shows and everything. But it is a thing about safety, you know?” Moreno said. “As a woman, I’m not gonna go into anyone’s backyard.”
A sense of community bringing comfort and safety at the event was paramount to attracting both students and non-students. In today’s political climate, the club understands how important these types of shows are.
“It is absolutely important for us as a club to actively be counteracting the things that are happening as an assist in our larger society by creating shows and by creating places where people feel safe, where people feel like this is still alive,” Moreno said. “The people that attend our clubs are political embodiments. You look at them and you can tell they’re into a culture that isn’t in the mainstream, so that inherently makes them politicized.”