Born of a desire to ‘rehabilitate’ Sydney’s rave and dance music culture, Rehab represents a simultaneous blast from the past and new direction for the scene. Moving away from the ever growing and dominant hardstyle and hardcore, Rehab is a new party platform for both still present genres like EDM and trance, and less heard rave styles like hard trance and hard house.

Now, I’m the first to admit that normally I’m a full blown hardstyle/hardcore aficionado, and whilst I love all types of music, it’s pretty rare I venture outside of those kind of parties. So it was with a little hesitance and uncertainty that I decided to attend Rehab. I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy myself, or if I’d be able to get comfortable outside my usual scene.

As it turns out, my fears were completely unnecessary. To put it simply, Rehab was a really fucking cool party and even though this was the debut edition, I can already see a big future ahead. I’ve always said that every culture needs variety and competition to keep it alive, and Rehab definitely represents this.

Taking place at Eleven Nightclub in Paddington, the party was split between two rooms. Upstairs was the ‘relapse’ room, hosting local EDM and trance champions such as Anna May, Rodman, Big J and Dejan. Here, the vibe was light-hearted and reminded me of a club from the movies, with couches surrounding a central bar. Whether you wanted to sit, drink and talk whilst enjoying the music, or simply get up and dance, there was plenty of room no matter what. I thought to myself that more venues should take the same approach when it came to layout. Watching people’s antics, giggling and pulling silly dance moves, whilst Anna May played, set a positive tone for the evening straight away.

Downstairs was the ‘clinic’ room, a dark rave den where the bass pounded away and the vibe was a bit more intense. Lasers seemed to pierce every corner of the room and from very early in the evening people busted out some serious dance moves. Hard dance and hard house local heavyweights such as Cayza, The Labrats, XDream and Amber Savage reigned supreme down here. Whilst it wasn’t exactly the music I was used to, I found myself increasingly comfortable down here as the evening progressed. When you’re as hooked on hardstyle and hardcore as I am, changing pace with hard trance seems a bit off-putting at first, but you quickly find yourself strapping on your rave shoes and going hard like you would normally.

In hindsight, it seems so silly I was worried about having fun. I found myself really enjoying the experience of branching out and exposing myself to music I wasn’t super educated with. The crowd was cool too, a really interesting mix that ranged from young kandi ‘neko’ kids, to older, obviously seasoned ravers. I even saw familiar faces from Masif, my usual haunt, who I never would have picked to be there. The atmosphere was really friendly with even complete strangers reaching out to make conversation, dance alongside me and just generally party like absolute champions.

A special mention is due to XDream for her set, my personal pick of the evening. I’d been a fan of her style for a long time before eventually working up the courage to speak to her and befriend her. Now that I know Jamielee personally and know just how much passion is behind everything she does, I appreciate her performances even more. Suffice to say that when I heard one of my all time favourite Zany tracks ‘Forentic‘ dropped during her set, all shit was lost. The vibe was infectious, everyone seemed to throw themselves into her set with gleeful abandon.

All up, Rehab was very much a breath of fresh air for Sydney’s rave scene. A big congrats is due to Caleb (AKA DJ Cayza), the driving force behind this party: you smashed it mate and should be very proud. I want to put a call out to all ravers in Sydney: come check Rehab out. Maybe you’re unsure due to being used to hardstyle, maybe you’re not familiar with the kind of music played. That’s ok, I was too. The whole idea behind Rehab is to encourage hardstyle/hardcore kids to branch out and experiment with other hard dance genres. Variety is the spice of life, and music is no different in this regard.

At the end of the day, what do you have to lose? The answer is nothing. What do you have to gain? Well, friends, awesome memories and great music obviously. Not only that, but you can to be there when this party spreads its wings and takes off. That’s a special kind of magic you don’t want to pass up on. So like Rehab’s official facebook page, stay tuned for updates and come check it out… Get rehabilitated!