I noticed the old house across the street became quieter than usual. It was tucked away
on a quiet back road surrounded by trees as old as the city itself. The usual cars in
the parking lot of the property suddenly became empty. The usual patrons of the business,
a cooking school, no longer made their exit through the bright red front door. Instead,
they were replaced by groups of alternative looking teens. "They smokin wee" I thought
to myself. The place must be abandoned. Perfect for a rave.
Salt Lake City is currently experiencing a real estate and gentrification craze. People
are moving here at the highest rate we've ever seen exacerbating the problem. It's not
common that you see abandoned buildings here. When they are abandoned, they are either
actively being demolished or they are heavily secured and monitored. A rundown building
is like gold to an SLC real estate developer. To my surprise, this property had
no locks, no cameras, no security, no signs telling me not to enter and plenty of space.
Gold for an SLC raver.
I figured they would secure the building and demolish it soon so I had to act immediately.
I called Rachel on the phone to tell her the news. She was THE person to call when you
come up on a find like this. After a brief call, she immediately drove to the property to
meet me and scope it out. No questions asked.
Inside it smelled like asbestos and mildew. We crept across the creaky wooden floor and past
the crumbling dusty interior towards the stairs. In the bedroom at the top of the stairs we
found a room with red paint smeared across the walls made to look like blood. It was an obvious
prank by the aformentioned teens meant to scare off intruders, or simply to display their
quirky edge.
"Ah the weed room." I said walking in. If I was 15 I would have killed to have a smoke spot like
this.
"Oh yeah this is totally a smoke spot." Rachel said observing the various pieces of makeshift
art and weird scare tactics pasted on the walls.
We made our way outside and found an old workshop building behing the house. The mildew smell here
was even stronger than inside the home but the layout and size was perfect. The room was wide open
and had a couple skylights on the slanted ceiling. This is where we rave. Rachel and I moved some
desks around to make sure the arrangement would work and revealed a massive commercial printer
that was used to print engineering blueprints. The ground was littered with dozens of old
blueprints and schematics. I kept a handful for future reference.
Seeing all we needed to see it was time to get to work planning a pop-up rave. It had to be close
knit and discreet. The building was sandwiched between two apartment complexes so pulling this
off would be a challenge. Just before we could leave we heard footsteps shuffling through the fall
leaves, getting louder as they approached.
"Shit!" I mouthed to Rachel. We scurried behind a wall and waited to see if they noticed us. We held
our breath and stayed motionless. The footsteps kept getting closer. I could hear two people talking
as if they too were checking out the place. They were just a couple steps away. "Well if they don't
already know we're here they will surely find out in a moment." I thought to myself. I eased myself
out from behind the wall and casually began walking towards the door where I heard the couple and made
myself seen.
"Oh hey didn't see you there." I stepped out and immediately greeted the strangers startling them instead!
"Oh jeez you scared us!" The man said beginning to calm down. "Sorry! This is my friend Rachel." I motioned
behind the wall where Rachel, taking her cue, casually stepped out as well. Rachel greeted the strangers.
"Did you guys used to come to this place as well? It's a shame they're tearing it down." The man questioned.
I thought about how awesome the rave would be. All my friends and hardcore members of the blossoming diy
rave scene. This would be the first time I attempt anything like this. We could play anything we want!
All the music that we can't play even for the diy ravers! The weirdest of the weird!
"No we just saw the place and wanted to check it out." I smiled at them and we made our exit.
-Sticky
2/8/2024