My very first day back in NYC (after spending 8 months in a little New Mexico town with a population of 7,000) I went to a three day techno festival called Electric Zoo.

Talk about culture shock! 30,000 people gyrating to techno music for 12 hours a day.

I wasn’t sure what kind of crowd I’d meet here, but it didn’t take long to figure out. The very first booth at the front gate was this one.

Having never been to a techno festival before, I didn’t really occur to me that everyone here would be on drugs. There were the shroomers,

the dosers (sitting inside a drop of acid),

and the rollers

Since I don’t do drugs (anymore), I tried to hang out with this lady.

When she found out I didn’t have a pug, though, she totally ditched me.

For some reason, everyone at this event was part of a group. There were the neon people

and people who liked to show the bottom half of their ass cheecks

There were also a lot of nationalities being represented, including Americans

Israelis

and Native Americans

Then there were people I don’t quite now how to describe. Like disco ball folks,

guys dressed like teddy bears

or other furry animals

And then there were the people pretending to be babies.

There were also a lot of folks carrying around animals above their heads, like the hot flamingo guys

the pluto people

the shamu folks

and the lone zebra guy

There were also a lot of people obsessed with tigers, like these two ladies who were being dragged around all night on a leash

and this guy, who put a giant tiger head over his crotch

I usually fit in just about anywhere I go, but this was one clicky group! I finally got desperate and pretended to be on drugs so people would talk to me. These glasses were a perfect way to advertise which drug I was currently on.

Would you believe my little trick worked?! I danced with this guy and his friends for while.

A couple hours into our dancing, though, I totally forgot I was supposed to be really really into tracers. When I told my new friends to stop twirling glow sticks in my face, they realized I was an imposter. I’m such an idiot!

I ended up hanging out with the Count for a little while

(you know, the guy from that cereal that has no nutritional value whatsoever)

but even he ditched me to go dance with Tony The Tiger (which I did not get a picture of unfortunately)

By the end of the last day, I’d just about given up on making friends. Until I saw this guy