THE CABARAVE SUBCULTURE

The subculture I have chosen to study is a bit of a mish-mash of styles. As it is a relatively new group still finding its feet, it is yet to have a name, so, for all intents and purposes I am going to call it “Cabarave”. This is a term coined by My Bad Sister (a band who epitomise this subculture) as a name for their festival shows throughout 2012, I will go into more detail about this act later.

Cabarave is a subculture that started amongst the underground youth scene in Bristol and East London, I say both because these social groups are connected through rave collectives and the social circles brought about by this, although I do think that Bristol was possibly the true beginning. As my last sentence suggests, people within this group are avid rave-goers, attending or throwing many a warehouse or squat party, many of them actually living in squats, particularly in Bristol, the UK’S squatting capital. As with most ravers, drugs are often taken particularly Ketamine but uppers such as MDMA and ecstasy pills are also taken most weekends at parties.

The music favoured consists mainly of dance music, such as Drum n Bass, Jungle, Ragga, Dub, Glitch, and Clowncore, underground and old-school Hip-Hop, Reggae, Balkan and Gypsy Punk amongst others, though music tastes within this group are often very broad spanning many genres as long as the music is original and interesting, this means no mainstream David Guetta style dance music or “Simon Cowell” pop, unless it has an amusement value. Music artists in favour at the moment include Die Antwoord, Squire of Gothos, Ed Cox, and Foreign Beggars to name but a few, though I should mention that quite a lot of people within this subculture either mix or produce their own music, particularly the men but not exclusively.

“Cabaravers” are often quite creative people, usually making and selling their own jewellery, clothing and artwork or being some kind of performer, be it singing, dancing or cabaret, or even all of the above. As well as being DJ’s the men are regularly involved in the party organisation business, owning large soundsytems and forming rave collectives which throw both legal and illegal parties, or having stages at festivals, sometimes renting out the sound systems to others for profit, though it is quite often the case that this is not their main job, more of a side-line business.

Moving on to their appearance, I would say that they are the product of an amalgamation of many different styles. There is a definite chav influence with a lot of old school sportswear being worn and the obligatory Nike Airmax trainers, Dr Martens or other big stompy boots are the alternative to this. But there is also a gypsy punk influence with large gold creole earrings and voluminous skirts. En mass a strong circus theme is visible with bold, bright colours and patterns, often worn to clash, polkadot pantaloons, and crazy headgear, quite often large floral headpieces. Oversized boxy jackets are another must have along with large amounts of jewellery, particularly gold chains or anything wacky. Basically the theme here is outrageous, eccentricity and colour are tantamount to the Cabaraver, I feel I should mention here that the Bristol look has more of a scruffy side to it than their East London counterparts.  The hairstyles have a punk influence, often dyed bright colours sometimes with shaved sides and/or the occasional dread here and there. The makeup of a Cabaraver is bold; Barry M eye shadows in an array of colours are worn in theatrical styles, face paint is also frequently used.

 

There are some men within this group who also like to dress outrageously though this tends to be more of a minority, with most men favouring the “Jimmy Saville” look, which involves wearing a lot of 1980’s and 1990’s sportswear such as shell suits in an assortment of colours, large adidas (old logo) sports jackets and only the freshest of trainers. Hairstyles range from the standard short back and sides to the modern mullet.

The ethos of the Cabaraver is to not care what people think, be as crazy as you want, and wear outlandish outfits, their political views are fairly anarchistic but not to the extent of the punks, though a hatred of David Cameron and the Tories is ever present (and wisely so). Though, as I have said, politics is not always at the forefront of their minds, they are wisened up to the propaganda of the mainstream media, but this does not get in the way of having fun, the key ingredient in the Cabarave scene.