On a Saturday morning in October, Park Jihyun woke up at 5:30 a.m. to go raving in Seoul.
And much about her prep routine was counterintuitive.
Instead of shimmying into a miniskirt, the 29-year-old pulled on a pair of running tights. Instead of slipping her feet into a set of precarious heels, she slipped into running shoes. And in lieu of hailing a cab to the party, she ran from her apartment to the venue in Yongsan-gu, arriving after an hour-long, 5-mile jog, ready to hit the dance floor.
“It’s just random people who meet for the first time. But as we start dancing together, it becomes crazier as time flies,” Park says.
Since launching in May, the Seoul Morning Coffee Club’s Coffee Rave has become a viral success, drawing hundreds of like-minded Seoulites from the comfort of their beds to dance at daybreak.
Attendees, who have paid 20,000 won (about $14) for their ticket, start trickling in at 7 a.m., and line up for their drink of choice, often an iced Americano or a matcha. By 8 a.m., the DJ is pumping out hypnotic bass beats for an enthusiastic crowd of revelers who are jumping in unison in the clear, bright light of day, with nothing but caffeine to fuel their booze-free rave.
“It’s a fresh start to the day,” founder Park Jae-hyun (no relation to Park Jihyun) tells CNN. “Even though it’s very early in the morning, everyone looks excited and happy, even without alcohol.”
The concept of sober raves is not new. New York-based outfit Daybreaker and Morning Gloryville in London have been throwing these kinds of raves f
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