‘The Parties Are Not as Wild’

The all-night, word-of-mouth and often drug-drenched”raves” of a few years ago have gone mainstream. The hypnotic techno-pop marathons are increasingly common outside the major cities and are attracting younger party-goers and promoters, including ALBERT “KEEBLER” ROBLES, 16, of San Bernardino. A student at Eisenhower High School, Keebler talked with DANIELLE MASTERSON about his entrepreneurship and about what does and doesn’t go on at raves today.

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I don’t go to high school dances. The only one I’ve been to was a winter formal. But most kids don’t go to high school dances that much anymore.

I started throwing parties and raves in October of 1995. I started because a friend asked me to pitch in money for a party and I just did it. After that, I just started doing it on my own. The way it works is a few investors put their money up for a party. We’re not always just in high school. Some of the investors are older. Different types of people invest. It’s just a matter of making money. Like, on a good night, you can make about $8,000. A good crowd and a good location can help you make a lot of money.

I like both parties and raves, but raves are expensive. We usually charge $10 to $20 for admission. A rave can cost up to $20,000 to throw. In the past, ravers would find an abandoned warehouse or building somewhere and set up and tell everybody where they’re going to be at. That was the style back in 1992. In 1996, the DJs are more legit. A good rave will fly in DJs from Chicago, New York or England. That’s too expensive for me to hire those kinds of DJs and to have a party run all night.

We look at our group as a team. We rent a lighting system, provide the DJs with security and rent a location. The big thing now is that a lot of locations are requiring insurance. That’s the difference between now and the past. The parties are not as wild.

There are a lot of parties where people have guns and get shot, but that usually happens outside. And that never happens at raves. People just go for the music at raves. They have great lights to trip you out, especially if you’re on acid. At a party, hardly anybody does acid. The main thing at parties is that girls do speed. People you never expected to do speed use it.

I’ve never had any problems with guns or fights because I have a lot of security and people are body-searched and go through a metal detector before coming in. People don’t really do drugs or drink once they’re on the inside of the party because they can’t get it past security.

It’s important to have a catchy theme that will draw people. You need an attraction or a gimmick to get the crowd. Last time I had a party, I hired [a stripper]. She didn’t work our crowd very well because we were too small. She’s used to really big crowds. We only had about 400 people. The main thing is you have to advertise in advance. You can stress out worrying if people are going to come if you advertise too late.