Nocturnal Bliss: 18 Years of Dancing in the Dark

“How many Nocturnal Wonderlands have you been to?” was a question we asked dozens of Headliners at this past show, and no one’s response beat Christina Whiteaker’s.

“Eighteen,” she said without missing a beat. “I got engaged at Nocturnal 1997.”

Christina, 42, and her husband, Royce Whiteaker, 39, got engaged only five months after first meeting, and they have been to every single Nocturnal since. “The couple that raves together stays together” may be a cliché nowadays, but it’s hard not to believe it after hearing their story. Their raving resume spans nearly two decades, and the secret to their longevity in the scene can be summed up in one word: balance.

The Whiteakers now live in Crestline, California, with their two children: Chase, 14, and Jillian, 11. If you’re scared you’re going to have to stop raving once you have children or reach a certain age, take notes from these two veteran ravers below.

Royce proposed to you at Nocturnal ’97; what was that like? Did you know it was going to happen?
Christina: No, not at all! We were cuddling in each other’s arms, sitting on the grass with our legs crossed, kissing and hugging, and he just looked at me…
Royce: I just looked at her, and it just kind of hit me all of a sudden: I either ask her right now, or I’m never going to find another person like this. It was the energy, the good vibes of where we were at, and how wonderful the place was, that I did it right then and there.
Christina: The connection we had since the day we met was instant. I told my mom two weeks after meeting him that if he asked me to marry him, I would. We got engaged three months after we met, and two months after that, we were married. So within five months of us meeting, we were married.

And now you’ve been together almost 20 years!
Christina: Yeah, it’ll be 18 years this year! Our wedding anniversary is October 24.

Did you ever consider renewing your vows at EDC?
Royce: We actually renewed our vows at Nocturnal.
Christina: It was ‘08. We wanted to do it 10 years later, but it wasn’t at the NOS Center then, so we did it the next year. Our friend DJ Loveday performed the ceremony. We had 60 friends all around us on the grass, and it was right next to the exact same spot where he proposed to me. I was dressed as a fairy, and he was all kandi’d out; it was really amazing.

What were your early raves like? What memories do you guys have of those first shows?
Royce: One of our favorite DJs was DJ Mind Controller.
Christina: Once when we were going to see him, we drove all the way out to Melrose to find that the party was in Realto, and that we had passed it on the way. We got to a farm, parked next to a tractor and walked inside, and Mind Controller was spinning in front of this giant wall of speakers. After we heard him, he changed everything for us. We started following him across state lines, and once, we went to Anaheim to see him spin for an hour, and then left. He really added to why we were in the scene so much.
Royce: We also go to raver day at Disneyland every year. Back when we first went in the ‘90s and it was something that they frowned on, they wanted to shoo us out of the park. Now you go there, and they have a few designated areas. It’s worlds different than what it was.

Coming from the old-school scene, what do you think about raves nowadays?
Christina: We still love it. We have friends that still go, and they’re crotchety; they complain about the scene and the party, and we’re like, then don’t go! There are people that won’t go until they hear the lineup, but we don’t care. We can go to a party not knowing anything; we just love it for what it is, and the people in the scene.

Is it difficult balancing raving with children?
Royce: Not at all. Our kids have grown up watching us get ready to go to shows, and they’ll say, “Oh, maybe you should wear this,” or “I think this looks really cool.” It’s as much a part of their life as it is ours, and they think it’s great. We take our family to festivals, too.
Christina: It’s the norm to them. As long as you’re paying your bills and your kids have everything they need, then there’s no reason why you can’t do it all.
Royce: What I’ve seen is that people who decide to quit partying or quit raving do so because they go in too deep; they don’t understand a balance. It’s just like anything else: You can overdo it. You can overdo going to clubs. You can overdo shopping and blow up your credit card.

What does raving mean to you?
Royce: It’s a spiritual thing for us. It’s a way for us to share in the energy and the magic of the moment. PLUR is a very tangible feeling, and we have a sense of unity and love and respect and peace when we go to a party. It doesn’t matter if it’s 300 people at an underground, or 100,000 at a massive. It’s very spiritual for us—always has been and always will be.

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