Mumbai: Blaring trance music, smoke-filled dance floors and stoned youngsters are no longer confined to just Goa or farmhouses in Mumbai's outskirts. Nightclubs and pubs in the city are fast becoming hotspots for rave parties. The busting of a rave party in Juhu is perhaps only the tip of the iceberg, say police officials.

"Youngsters form a huge pie of the clientele. With higher disposable income and easy accessibility to high-end drugs, Mumbai is soon becoming popular," said a senior ANC official, requesting anonymity.

Rave parties are characterised by high entrance fee, extensive drug use, chill rooms and even open sexual activities in some cases, said a senior officer from the Narcotics Control Bureau, Mumbai, on condition of anonymity.

Apart from youngsters from affluent families, the upwardly-mobile people employed in BPOs and KPOs, film personalities, industrialists are also part of the clientele.

"Attendance can range from 30 ravers in a small club of tens. While techno music and light shows are essential for raves, hard drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) have become an integral part of the rave culture," observed a senior cop.

Most youngsters, who are a part of such rave gangs, say its their way to "de-stress" themselves. Once a patron enters the rave-chain, invitations of parties are passed on by word of mouth or through SMSes.

Social networking sites on the Internet are also used by organisers to get in touch with people interested in attending such parties. The entry fee for such parties ranges from Rs 500-Rs 2,000,which is paid either online using credit cards or in cash if the invitees are in direct contact with the organisers.
Source : DNA