Words by: Caleb Katsakis
Art by: Rai Cade

It’s like stepping into another world.
Every time I set foot on the dance floor every wall falls around me.
It doesn’t matter if my feet are on floorboards, concrete, or grass.
Wherever the music moves, rhythms boom, colours glow, and people flow,
every location is the same.
Another world out of this world.
Where appearances don’t matter.
Fear
Judgement
Isolation
Everything falls away.
All that’s left
Are the sounds, beings, smoke, electricity, catharsis, and euphoria.
Picture this.
The week’s numbing debilitation only increases as Monday ceases to exist.
As if standing on a glacial mound surrounded by snow-laden mountains of
ice, you stride frostbitten through the seemingly endless frigid haze of the
passing day’s accumulated malaise.
You cannot see anything blinded by this suffocating white noise,
but you know where you’re going.
Because you can feel the presence of escape.
Because the week has fallen before your feet, and its successor beckons,
demanding your attendance at its exhibition of freedom.
When you finally step forward in this direction of celebration,
there is only an inexplicable warming escalation.
The aura of life pulling you closer as it grows stronger.
The goosebumps begin to recede from your skin and heat rises within.
With each passing step, the fog starts to evaporate.
Floating away like a grudge that has finally been allowed to let go.
The enclosing frozen structures follow suit. One by one each towering
reminder of constriction simply melts.
So close to the pulsating beacon, your illuminating haven.
The final step taken breaks all expectations:
In tandem with each lingering shattered chain,
the lifeless blank surface beneath you gives way,
revealing an ethereal adorned evergreen glade.
Flora beyond recognition and description,
just flourishing hues and astonishing forms taking shape.
Others exactly like you revel in this magnificent beauty,
greater than anything one could ever envision.

This is how I felt when I took my first steps into this glorious landscape.
Me and my family together on this spontaneous journey. Faced with nothing
but darkness and a faint glow accentuating swaying silhouettes.
The foreshadows spoiling what’s to come. Yet to me, the grooving trees in
their verdant garments seemed to be inviting us to join them in their joyous
festivity. We slipped through, following the notes and breeze that breathed
such vitality into the foliage. Emerging into the clearing, as if a treasure
chest lay open overflowing before us. A vivid cluster of neon flashes, mingling limbs, quaking beats, and above it all, cares stripped to the wind. There
could’ve been only 50 people dancing, but dancing under the safeguard of
moonlight, the brilliant stars, and the atmosphere of it all,
it felt like there were thousands.
Thousands of beautiful characters parading down this catwalk of the night.
We struck poses till our joints creaked, vogueing till our bones ached.
Not even the Sun’s awakening could phase us.
We were just there.
Living in experience.
Moving to the tune of the moment.
And just like then,
right now as I write these words,
placing all of the pure magic I encountered onto the page,
re-creating the fantastical reality that can never fall away,
I can rave on and on
until my light gives way…