RE-CON 2013: RAVEEEEE

Imagine it's 2013 and you're at the Whitlam Leisure Centre in Liverpool, Australia to attend an under-18 rave festival.

You've got white lads coming from Campbelltown, inner Western Sydney suburbs and Penrith rolling down. Polynesian lads from Campbelltown, Blacktown, Mount Druitt and Penrith. Asian lads from Cabramatta, Fairfield and Bankstown. Middle Eastern lads from Bankstown, Lakemba, Merrylands and Granville. Youth adlays across Greater Western Sydney were showing up.

And you could tell exactly what suburb someone was from just by the influence across their fit.

Nike Air Max Plus on almost every single feet. That part was universal.

Henleys, Le Coq Sportif, Russell Athletic, Superdry, G-Star Raw, Gant, Champion, Lonsdale, Versace, Nike and Adidas tees. Canterbury shorts. Nautica, Lacoste and Ralph Lauren polos. Nike windbreakers. Champion and G-Star Raw jumpers and hoodies. Big logos, top to bottom.

We Asians loved our Super Dry and G Star Raw apparel. Those were heavy and, honestly, super high quality compared to the other brands.

Anyways. I made those ethnicity differentiations in the most politically correct way I could. However, they wouldn't be an accurate capture of what it was actually like back in those days. F*bs, acronym for Fresh Off the Boat, was proudly claimed by the Polynesian brothers and sisters. Wogs, historically a derogatory term aimed at olive to brown-toned people, particularly Mediterranean communities, was proudly claimed by our Lebo brothers and sisters. These weren't insults anymore. They were identity and essentially a form of armour.

Unfortunately, RE-CON only ran for a couple of years before it was completely gone, due to its low popularity. That leaves nothing behind but memories of the youth adlays who were there.

Thank you to Jnoodles Photography and Jeremy Nools for permitting the use of these photos.

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