Temple Meltdown Brings Raves to Taiwan Temples With DJs at the Altar as Owners Give the Green Light

Temple Meltdown, a party collective, is bringing all-night parties into temples across Taiwan, with DJs playing from the temple altars. Most events run with permission from the temple owners, and some take place in abandoned temples. International media call it a temple rave, even though the organisers would rather it not be called a rave.

The collective was founded in 2023 by Andrew Dawson, 24, and Olivia Delacour, a British creative director. The two are a couple. Dazed describes the collective as specialising in dub, jungle and reggae, while the documentary that went viral shows DJs spinning hardcore techno and tearout dubstep from the altars. Before the party begins, Andrew Dawson lights incense, prays and makes offerings to the gods.

Taiwan has close to one religious site per square kilometre on average, according to Dazed. Temple owners say yes because of a Taiwanese folk belief around renao (熱鬧), or liveliness: the busier a temple is, the better for the gods.

Andrew Dawson says temple owners feel the parties bring energy to the temple, so "it's good for them and the gods too." Chu Chih-ming, an executive secretary at one temple, told The New York Times: "If it allows more people to engage with it, there's nothing wrong with that."

It started with getting caught at a school

Andrew Dawson told Mixmag Asia the original plan was to throw a party at a school, but they got caught. So they moved to a temple on the hill behind the school instead. They carried their sound system on a 15-minute walk up, called the caretaker's number posted at the entrance to ask permission, lit incense, prayed, and partied until morning.

The early gear was whatever they could get. The first speakers were borrowed from a friend. By the third party, they had found speakers and an amp dumped by the roadside. By the fourth, they had burned it out.

Andrew Dawson also shares that a friend with a "third eye" said she saw one of the gods dancing at the party, and partygoers say they feel safer than at a rave in an abandoned setting because the gods are watching over them. Sometimes, though, temple owners are startled because they did not expect the speakers to be that loud, and the organisers have to calm them down after the party.

From chilled daytime sets to the morning prayer drum

Temple Meltdown parties start in the daytime with ambient, reggae and house, then build in intensity after the sun goes down.

The New York Times reported from a party at the ruins of Shun An Temple in the hills above Taipei, where around 300 people turned up, locals alongside travellers from South Korea, Denmark, Britain and France. Around 3am, a police officer came up to check on the noise. The organisers promised to turn it down. He told everyone to have fun and left.

At another party near Fulong beach, as the sun came up at 6am, the temple caretaker opened the doors and beat the drum as part of the daily routine before prayers, and the music slowly faded out. Often, the cleanup after a party is not finished until 8 or 9am.

The temple parties went viral through a two-part YouTube documentary in The Scene series by Bruno Pruhs, a 24-year-old American creator, who summed it up to Dazed:

"They're not rebelling against tradition, they're remixing it."