Raving gets really lonely as you age

I’m 38 and raving has gotten pretty lonely in the last year. A couple years ago our festival group was over a dozen people, then it was seven, now it’s three. And of those three, I’m the only one who can make it more than one day.

It’s impossible to date, too, unless you accept that your partner is just not going to dance with you. I’ve never met an attractive, single, age-appropriate person who doesn’t view raving as a red flag and sign of immaturity. That might be different if I lived in Berlin or New York but in most of the country, 30-somethings are pretty committed to their 10pm bedtimes and early morning workout classes.

I didn’t do any of this in my 20s, so it’s not as though I can tell myself I had a good run that’s naturally coming to an end - I feel like I’ve barely gotten started and now everyone wants to bail.

I don’t mind going alone and that can offer its own benefits. But I miss having others to dance with and resent that everyone I know is slowing down faster than I am.