Fast Fashion at Music Festivals: You Don’t Need a New Outfit | Raveival

Fast fashion brands have made it easy and affordable to purchase new rave outfits for every event, but the real cost shows up in our bank accounts, mental health, and the environment. These brands reinforce the “for the gram” mentality to pressure customers to frequently purchase new clothes from them. The mentality leads to ravers believing that a feed-worthy festival post needs to feature a new rave look. Unfortunately, this social media culture suggests that a public-facing digital photo album is more important than other aspects of our lives such as our wallets, sense of self, and environmental footprints. 

The Financial Cost of Buying New Rave Outfits for Every Festival

When thinking about what fuels the “for the gram” mentality, fast fashion companies are part of the issue. These brands drive constant consumption with their frequent new styles and continuous “drops.” With low prices, buying fast fashion may seem affordable, but low prices means low-quality. The fashion is not built to last, leading to you needing to replace it frequently. This constant cycle of buying and discarding clothes costs you more money over time. The smarter option is to invest in high-quality staple items that you can wear over and over again.

To avoid wasting money on fast fashion, you can cycle high-quality, secondhand rave clothing through your festival wardrobe with Raveival. Raveival’s buy and sell festival fashion marketplace helps you save money with affordable pre-loved looks that you can resell to earn back your money.

How fast fashion brands use social media to Affect our Sense of self

Fast fashion brands use social media marketing to make their customers feel that in order to be “enough” you need to buy their latest products. They want us to think that to look as good as their models, we need to open our wallets. This type of marketing perpetuates and capitalizes on unrealistic beauty standards. Our sense of self is affected as we shift our focus to trying to impress others with new outfits rather than exploring and creating our own aesthetic.

Raves have been, and always will be, an opportunity to piece together our own looks, make fashion with upcycled materials, and wear outfits that come from our imagination (rather than from a website). We have strayed from our creator culture as we have become inundated with social media marketing that tells us who we are and what to wear. 

The Environmental Impact of Festival Fast Fashion

The “for the gram” mentality paired with festival fast fashion leaves us drowning in fashion waste.

Every festival season, nearly 27 million brand-new festival outfits are purchased, and one-third are worn only one once.

Festival wear overconsumption leads to significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change. We already have enough clothing on our planet to clothe the next 6 generations of people; therefore, all mass produced rave wear is extremely unsustainable.

The fashion industry’s water impacts are huge too. To manufacture just 1 cotton t-shirt, 2,700 liters of water is required.

This is enough drinking water for an adult to survive for 3 years! And that’s crazy when we consider that about 1 in 4 people on Earth don’t have access to clean drinking water. 

What You Can Do Instead

We may never be able to fully break free from the “for the gram” mentality. It is a lot of fun to wear unique outfits to festivals and share our fierce looks on social media. Nonetheless, here are 3 things we can do to challenge the harmful “for the gram” mentality.

1. Choose Pre-loved

The most sustainable product is the one that already exists. You can mix and match with what you already own, shop your friends’ closets, throw a rave wear swap, or purchase secondhand rave clothing from Raveival’s pre-loved accessories, bodysuits, and sets.

2. Repeat Outfits with Confidence

You looked great in that outfit the first time you wore it, and you will look great in again. Your unique style has been curated by you. Cherish it!

3. Live for the Moment, Not the Gram

Remind yourself that the most important part of the festival (and more broadly, life) is being present, spending time with friends, and enjoying the moment. Not showing off to social media followers that you did something cool.

Fast Fashion at Festivals: FAQs

Where can I find sustainable rave outfits?

The most sustainable outfit is the one that already exists, making pre-loved rave clothing the most sustainable festival fashion choice. Raveival is your one-stop-shop for all your sustainable rave wear needs, from rave tops and festival dresses to rave boots and hydration packs.

Why is fast fashion bad for the environment?

Fast fashion companies frequently release new styles while encouraging their customers to purchase clothes for short-term uses. The constant churning of clothing consumes vast amounts of natural resources and leads to massive amounts of overconsumption and fashion waste.

Fast fashion is often made of polyester, a plastic-based, synthetic fabric that harms marine ecosystems by shedding millions of microplastics during the wash cycle. Fast fashion brands also often use recycled polyester, which is even worse for the environment because it sheds 55% more microplastics than regular polyester.

Where can I find affordable rave outfits?

You can find affordable festival and rave outfits on Raveival, the website to buy, sell, and slay secondhand rave clothing. On Raveival’s rave wear resale marketplace, you’ll be able to find all your favorite festival brands for a fraction of the original retail price. With Raveival, you can save money on affordable rave clothing and feel good about your sustainable fashion choices.

Interested in learning more about festival wear’s environmental and social impacts? Check out our blog post Festival Fast Fashion.

By: Christen Fuentes and Jack Miller