Midwest Rave Culture Archive launches in Chicago

A digital archive to preserve Midwest rave culture is being developed in Chicago.

Orchestrated by Aria Pedraza, the Midwest Rave Culture Archive seeks to gather a collection of music, photos, videos, flyers, and more digital keepsakes “in service to Midwest Ravers” from the ‘90s to the present day.

Among the reasons for the archive listed in an Instagram post are the need to “move away from the apps” as well as preserve fading materials and memories.

“Aside from a permanent, unified, and growing collection – we’ll never be able to capture ‘everyone’ at one party, on a panel discussion, in a social media post, in a book, in a film. Those end, an archive doesn’t”, reads the post.

In an interview with the Chicago Reader, Pedraza explained that the project is “really about mass participatory efforts. It’s not from one perspective, and that’s something that’s different for this subculture. It’s not a blog; it’s not an opinion.”

Pedraza worked with mentors DJ Lady D and Viva Acid founder Luis Baro while also taking advice from archivists associated with the National Public Housing Museum and Maxwell Street Foundation.

As the Chicago Reader points out, the archive will be “catalogued and stored in the cloud by the Internet Archive as well as backed up locally”.

Midwest Rave Culture Archive hosted a launch party and fundraiser in Chinatown’s Ping Tom Memorial Park last Saturday (5th July) with appearances from Chicago locals DJ Phil, DJ Manny, Hieroglyphic Being, Pedraza’s father, DJ Smack, among others.

The archive has also launched a GoFundMe, which is looking to raise $5.5k.