In 1997, 20,000 ravers arrived at Nocturnal Wonderland—the electronic music festival founded by Insomniac's Pasquale Rotella. They were met by gates and barbed wire. Rotella had paid the Native American tribe leaders who held claim to the land, but evidently the armed men at the perimeter hadn't received their share of the dough. Still, Rotella was not to be stopped. Instead of going home, he crashed a car through the gate and the partygoers streamed in, dancing til dawn in the futuristic utopia Insomniac had created for them. "It was the most colorful, psychedelic, beautiful thing I had ever seen" recalls DJ Dan.So much has changed since that all-night party on the SoCal reservation; fashion, technology, even the way we dance. In a new documentary called Dancing in the Dark, Moby, Rabbit in the Moon, 12th Planet, the Crystal Method, and more electronic legends that spun at the early Nocturnal Wonderland festivals take you on a journey through the evolution of rave culture to the worldwide phenomenon it is today. Watch the trailer above, and look out for the full documentary dropping on Thursday, August 27, 2015 on Insomniac.com.
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