Urban vibes in a rural setting: a study of the bush doof scene in Byron Shire

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to consider the politico-cultural significance of the Australian ‘bush-doof’ for contemporary youth. The bush-doof is a localised form of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) party held in a bushland setting. It is argued that the bush doof provides a space for young people to reject forms of commoditised and over-regulated night-time leisure associated with (semi)urban environments. Associated with this is an expression of a shared ecological consciousness that finds its primary form of articulation in the rural setting of the bush doof event. In framing the experience of young doof party goers, Maffesoli’s concept of neo-tribe is used as a means of situating doof parties as opportunities for temporal bonding and sociality. Although neo-tribe has previously been used in studies of EDM, such work has often focused on urban settings. In this article, however, we argue that neo-tribal theory can also be effective as a means of understanding the experience of EDM in regional and rural settings. More specifically, we demonstrate how in its rural manifestation of the doof party, EDM also functions as an important marker of identity and fosters young people’s need for belonging and communitas.

KEYWORDS:

• Bush doof
• rave
• rural
• youth
• neo-tribe

Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank the young people involved in this study for taking the time to tell us about their experiences of participating in bush doofs. Our gratitude also goes to the two anonymous reviewers who helped to improve an earlier version of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All participants were between 19 and 22 years of age, four identified as male and four as female. Three were currently living in the Byron Shire, one in Nimbin and four had lived in the area but since moved to Queensland. Given the sensitive nature of the research topic, participants were not forthcoming in sharing information about their cultural and family background, which is a methodological limitation of this study.

2 In Australia, the legal age for attending nightclubs is 18 years.

3 Byron Shire has become an important mecca for music festival enthusiasts. Some of the more popular annual festivals such as Splendour in the Grass (held in the winter month of July) and Falls Festival (held over New Year’s Eve) are targeted specifically at a younger audience and span over several days with the opportunity for onsite camping. The longest running and world famous Blues & Roots Festival takes place over the Easter long weekend and generally attracts a wide range of participants both locally and internationally.

4 An ‘esky’, abbreviated from ‘eskimo’, is an Australian brand of portable cooler which has over time become part of the Australian vernacular to generically refer to portable coolers and ice boxes.

5 A ‘corroboree’ is an inter-tribal gathering in Australian Aboriginal culture. The term has been appropriated by bush doofers and is now widely used to refer to a ‘tribal’ or ‘sacred’ experience in doof culture (St John 2005).