MAY 1, 2025 | ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | By Max McKee
No Expectations is a show like no other. You won’t find their events on Ticketmaster, you won’t find them playing pop music and you won’t find them playing in venues that you’ve been to before. But you will find a community there.
Over the past six years, No Expectations has built itself up as a passionate group of renegade rave promoters (unauthorized, underground dance parties) that feature artists from across the country. With roots in the San Diego, Calif., underground, the shows are loud, flashy and active.
Built by LGBTQ+ and BIPOC communities, the emphasis behind every event is to keep people and places safe – harm reduction staff are on site, and the importance of consent is strictly stated in their messaging. Despite the underground nature, the shows consistently draw large crowds of people eager to see what they’ve got next.
On Friday, April 25, No Expectations planned on hosting the eighth installment in their 00 series, 008: Lawless in Denver. The show would start at 10 p.m. and end at 4 a.m., featuring five different artists in a secret location not disclosed until the night of the show. By the time presales had ended, over 350 people had purchased tickets for the event.
Signing up for their Textline, by texting “NoExpectations” to 55444, returns a link where you can buy tickets in advance of the event. At 7:50 p.m., those in the chat received a text with a link and a passcode. Clicking the link takes you to an all-black webpage, which opens up to a page with instructions, maps and photos of how to access the event.
The first checkpoint is the parking lot nearby, where all concert-goers are instructed to arrive. From there, a short walk leads you to a balloon and trail of glowsticks, which guide you the rest of the way. Following the path, you pass through drainage ditches, under roads and eventually end up in a large storm drain with staff checking tickets. Show your ticket, or pay $20 in cash, and you’re in.
Water pools on the ground and you see bright red lights illuminating the walls in the distance. You pass the first aid table, and as you get to the end, you see a wall of speakers that fill the tunnel.
But just as the music began at this show, disaster struck and it stopped. The lone police car parked off the road earlier in the night had turned into more than five. Some were confused, but word quickly spread around: it’s time to leave. As the party-goers flooded away from the show, the staff quickly began clearing the tunnel. It didn’t take long before groups of officers with flashlights began walking down and managing the scene.
No arrests were made and no fines were issued, according to Viper, one of the organizers of the event, but it was still a blow. They’ve dealt with police before, but this time was different. This time, the officers were directly looking for who was responsible for the show.
“This one hurt,” Viper said in an Instagram direct message. “We’ve never had to end a show before it started. There’s a lot that needs to happen before we try to throw another event. However, our team is resilient and willing to do what we need to.”
Other events in the area have also seen an increase in police presence. One officer on the scene revealed that they had known about the show from Facebook in advance of it starting, although the scale of the show was unexpected for them.
There are fears that this could impact the underground music landscape in Denver. After putting a stop to the No Expectations show, the officers had plans to break up another rave happening later that same night.
No Expectations remains determined to push forward. The community that they built was their first concern, and it’s who they put shows on for. “If not us, then who?” wrote Viper.
