As soon as you walked into the club you could tell something was different. As opposed to being greeted with hostility by a small paramilitary unit of bouncers, a group of fantastically dressed ushers warmly embraced each member of the dancing community with a meaningful and heartfelt hug. Beyond the doors of Christ Church Spitalfields a world of blissful enlightenment immersed you into a radical way of thinking. This was raving. But this was raving at 7am. On a Monday. Straight after breakfast, you were dancing away with no inhibitions, with the only thing propelling you forward being a sense of positivity.
We had arrived to Extend Your Weekend, the exclusive early morning event series presented by Lipton Ice Tea. Here existed a place, on a Monday morning, where people were allowed to party without a crushing sense of doom surrounding them the day after. In 2 hours time they would be at work.
In those brief two hours, crowds united not under a shared musical taste, yet through a collective desire to dance and celebrate all that is great about an uplifting sense of community, and that of a desire to contradict the notion that clubbing is a pastime available exclusively for those who can carry through till 2am on a Saturday night, when most people would be not far off waking up on a Sunday morning.
Surrounded by yoga stages, massage therapies, wholesome breakfasts and, naturally, plenty of revitalizing ice tea , the ravers danced jubilantly with an energy to suggesting they had no compromise to their fun. Such a wholesome view is a really important consideration for people who love to party, but who wouldn’t otherwise be able to with their work commitments or a desire to discover new ways of enjoying themselves beyond the conventional routes.
It is a brave step, but a step that all who embarked upon it enjoyed thoroughly, and sharing such an experience with so many like minded individuals gave each and every person in the audience a bolstered sense of identity, and a self confidence that there was a scene available for them.
Lipton Iced Tea provided the opportunity for this opportunity to take place, but what made it successful was the desire of the ravers to make every moment of it a memorable and meaningful one. Not a single person left that church without a smile on their face, which they understandably carried into work with a glow that suggested a fulfilled weekend, even if their weekend only started at 7am on Monday
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