Rave New World Revives Luton’s Rave Legacy

On 21 and 22 March 2025, the concrete expanse outside Marsh House Community Centre in Luton will pulse with the echoes of a bygone era, reimagined for today. Rave New World, a site-specific spectacle from Tangled Feet and Revoluton Arts, fuses aerial theatre, live music, and moving cars—including a London taxi that unfurls into a rig—to resurrect the defiant energy of Luton’s 1990s rave scene and its storied Exodus Collective.

Directed by Kat Joyce with text by local poet Lee Nelson and Katie Lyons, the show threads the tales of two women—Zia, a TikTok star adrift in 2025, and Clara, a cab driver shaped by the free parties of yesteryear—into a celebration of resistance and renewal. In a recent Q&A, Joyce and Nelson unpack the spark behind this production, offering a window into a work that’s as much about Luton’s future as it is about its past.

A Spark from the Source

The seeds of Rave New World took root in a collision of histories and hunger. “There’s a long answer and a short answer…” Joyce begins, tracing the show’s genesis to Tangled Feet’s pre-COVID explorations of rave culture—a lorry-bound concept stalled by circumstance—before a pivotal collaboration with Revoluton Arts’ Undercurrent programme brought it into focus. “Revoluton created a piece of work called Undercurrent which brought together an amazing archive of lived history of subcultures around the River Lea,” she explains. “They put out a commission to respond to the material and Tangled Feet were like BAM! Let’s collaborate!”

From there, the vision evolved with Pirates of the Carabina’s aerial taxi rig, shifting Clara from lorry driver to cabbie. “The short answer is there’s a reason rave is having a cultural moment,” Joyce adds. “It arose on the back of a decade of punishing neoliberalism in the UK that made a lot of people really miserable. We’ve had more than a decade of austerity plus COVID and people are really in need of those ingredients again—elation, joy, connectedness, a place to let loose, a way to feel part of something with a crowd…”

“The short answer is there’s a reason rave is having a cultural moment”

For Nelson, a Luton native, the pull is visceral and urgent. “Because that history is vibrant, pertinent, living relevant and… undertold…” he says. “Like the saying says… if you know you know… but more people need to know because the urge to spread hope is intensely human and currently fucking vital and this is, above all, a story of hope, of that last blessing/curse in Pandora’s box and right now it needs a vox…” Where Joyce sees a cultural resurgence, Nelson hears a cry from the present: “This story was being shared and told because the people and the times are calling it… crying out for it… its time is now and so it answered the screaming void in the air…”

Partying with Purpose

At its core, Rave New World frames partying as more than escapism—it’s a defiant act. “What Exodus did in the 90s was so powerful—bringing people together around a speaker stack built community bonds that still last to this day,” Joyce reflects. “It’s about creative resistance—partying hard in the cracks of a system that doesn’t seem to want to let you thrive.” She ties this to a timeless need: “People desperately need moments to connect, to feel joy together, to feel inspired, to imagine a different reality, to escape all the really hard parts of their lives that are making them feel isolated and oppressed.”

“That’s as true now as it was in the 80s and 90s during the Thatcher years when the free party movement really sprang into life.” In 2025’s digital sprawl, she sees a paradox: “So much culture and community is online, and the benefits of that are huge in terms of connecting people up across the globe. But it can still feel isolating if you don’t have those in-person moments of feeling joined together in a live collective moment.”

“This story was being shared and told because the people and the times are calling it…”

Nelson distils it to essentials: “Because connection gives hope and direction and those are two of the legs of the resistance tripod… the other one is anger, and we all know where that ones goes if it hops off alone… and hope needs positivity, and parties and dancing bring that and moving people move people…” For him, the show channels the 90s’ revolutionary spirit into a call for today’s youth—a beat-driven push against despair.

Bridging Generations

The story hinges on Zia and Clara, two women whose lives collide across decades. “Clara and Zia have lived through entirely different times—Zia is coping with an entirely different reality in 2025 to what Clara faced down in the 90s, and that’s been so meaty to explore,” Joyce says. “We’ve made Zia and Clara both quite headstrong women who aren’t afraid to speak their mind, so they both really challenge each other and that gives it a real crackle. Ultimately they discover the places that they join up, and it’s through the music.” Their clashes—born of Zia’s digital alienation and Clara’s analogue defiance—offer a dialogue on how activism evolves.

Nelson sees a shared fire beneath the surface: “It’s the same energy, just different ways of beaming it out… being online makes finding your people easier but maybe harder then to do anything real-world… the parties, people were there for real but the connection was harder to sustain… with the best bits of each… who knows what we can do…” Audiences might glean a lesson here—not just in Luton’s activist lineage, but in how yesterday’s beats could fuel tomorrow’s battles.

Beyond the Glow of Nostalgia

The team is adamant about sidestepping the nostalgia trap. “We talked a lot about nostalgia—it’s lovely but it’s a dead end that can’t catalyse change,” Joyce notes. “Zia challenges Clara directly on this—yes you had a lovely time in the 90s, but how does that help me now? For us, I think we found the answer in passing down a lineage of music and emphasising the importance of coming together collectively.” She roots this in a primal truth: “Yes, the landscape is different, but (as Glenn would say) the feeling of dancing together as the sun comes up is eternal, humans have been doing it for thousands of years.”

“We all have the potential to tap back into that. The digital landscape is a huge distraction, but also a really powerful tool to get people together in the same place.” Nelson echoes this with poetic urgency: “…yep, just that. The impulse is eternal. The need in us deep and abiding… human animals riding the heart’s repeating beat… power unknown and untapped…” For him, Rave New World isn’t a wistful glance back—it’s a spark for now, ignited by Luton’s past.

Marsh House’s Living Echoes

Staged outside Marsh House—once an Exodus hub, now a community anchor—the site itself is a character. “Marsh House is such an inspiring place and holds such important memories for so many local people—it comes up time and again in the Undercurrent archive,” Joyce says. “It’s also right at the source of the River Lea, which runs all the way to London, and right by Wauluds’ Bank which is an ancient neolithic site. People have been gathering at the site of Marsh House for millennia. We start our show with a number about us all being ‘here at the Source’ to ‘get reconnected, remade and reborn.’”

Nelson feels it in his bones: “You can feel it up through your feet… and in the air… earth beneath and sky above… and you in between…” The concrete slab transforms into an amphitheatre, framed by a Bob Marley mural—a fitting crucible for a story of rebellion and renewal.

A Sensory Surge

The show’s theatrical arsenal—aerial feats, a taxi-rig, and the mystical Voxes—amplifies its emotional core. “Aerial is such a powerful tool in the kit,” Joyce explains. “You can use it to make someone seem incredibly powerful, or incredible out of control (we do both!) Very early in our R and D we knew we wanted to use aerial to dig into all those feelings of ‘coming up’—think how often the 80s and 90s lyrics talk about ‘take me higher / lift me up’. That feeling of exaltation is a spiritual core emotion at the heart of rave culture.” With Aminita Francis and Guy Connelly’s score, plus break and street dance from a local chorus, it’s certainly a full-body experience—visceral, soaring, and grounded in Luton’s beat.

Luton’s Heartbeat

Embedding the show in Luton was non-negotiable. “The show wouldn’t have been made without all these local perspectives,” Joyce asserts. “They run right through like a message in a stick of rock. As a writing team we spent hours delving through the Undercurrent archive, digging into the deep history of radical politics and subcultures here.” Feedback from local audiences and youth shaped Zia’s character: “The character of Zia is entirely built from the young people we’ve got to know in Luton over a period of years, in local schools and through working with the excellent Next Generation Youtharder Theatre.”

Nelson, born and bred in Luton, brings it home: “I was born and grew up here… learnt my art from those that were making art here already… went to these parties back then… learnt not to give up and that if you want it… build it yourself… it’ll last and it’ll sustain you and you pass it on… that’s this show… it says ‘now it’s your turn’ and passes on the energy and the tools and, perhaps most vitally, says ‘yes… you can do it… we did… and we are just you a while back…’”

The Pitch from the Cab

For fun, I asked how they would pitch the show to a cabbie – and the lovely pair were kind enough to indulge me. Joyce: “It’s got a banging soundtrack. It’s got spectacular levels of circus skill. It’s got real cars. The story is cracking. It’s going to be a completely unique event—if you live in Luton it’s right on your doorstep—and it’s going to be worth jumping on the 40-minute train from London for. It’s a show that leaves you in a place to party (and we’re making sure there’s a party happening afterwards, so stick around and have a good time).”

Nelson cuts to the chase: “Not liking what you see around you? Want to do something…? Come and find out that you already did and can again…” For Luton locals and curious folks within a train ride (and beyond!), Rave New World is a night to feel the past roar into the present—outside, under the stars, to the beats echoing.

Images: Greta Zabulyte