What is Light Gloving?
The Electric Daisy Carnival is coming up and soon the streets of Las Vegas will be thronging with more than just the usual eclectic sights and sounds: soon rave culture will return to Las Vegas for three days and nights of pulsating electronic dance music (EDM), crazy costumes, and “light shows” performed by artists wearing gloves outfitted with LED lights.
Light gloving is an essential part of the rave culture. Not only does watching a “light show” allow a raver to take a break, have a seat, and enjoy a moment of wonderous joy in the midst of the chaos of any EDM event, light gloving has become an art form in and of itself and lends itself in particular to the philosophy and ultimate “hippiness” of the culture. A light show is a gift. And light gloving is a skill not easily mastered.
RaveReady.com reports that light gloving has “morphed into a legitimate form of dance” that has even been seen on television dance shows and competitions. Light gloving is a type of dance, and thus has no rules for performance; all a person needs to get started are a pair of white gloves and 10 LED lights for each fingertip. There are five primary light gloving techniques: tutting, conjuring, liquid, finger rolls, and flailing.
According to LA Weekly, “Some naysayers believe gloving emphasizes the illegal aspect of rave culture — the drugs — and would prefer it went away. One of the country’s largest rave promoters, Insomniac, has banned it altogether.” The best light glovers are celebrities in the rave culture, and most events have not banned light shows.
The Electric Daisy Carnival, or EDC, is an Insomniac event. Never fear, there will always be glovers outside the venue at events in which the stunning dance form is banned.
Lim, a notorious light glover sponsored by light company Emazing, told LA Weekly, ”Our goal is to show the world that gloving has evolved from this rave thing into a respectable art form.”
What is light gloving? Watch the video below, which features another of Emazing’s sponsored glovers, “Skittles.” Those who feel light gloving is only appreciable while under the influence of drugs obviously aren’t paying attention!
