What does PLUR mean? Kandi and the PLUR handshake

PLUR stands for Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. It's the set of values ravers have used since the early 1990s to describe how people are supposed to treat each other at a party.¹ It's also the reason ravers trade beaded bracelets called kandi.

What does each letter in PLUR mean?

There's no official definition, but the usual reading is:¹

• Peace: letting go of conflict and bad feeling.
• Love: goodwill toward the people around you, often shown with hugs.
• Unity: welcoming everyone, whatever their differences.
• Respect: tolerance, without judging people.

The ideas borrow from the 1960s peace-and-love movement and, for "respect", from Black and hip hop culture.¹ Some ravers add a second R, for Responsibility, and write it PLURR.¹

Who came up with PLUR?

Most accounts credit the New York DJ Frankie Bones, who ran the Storm Raves.²⁵ The story is that a fight broke out at one of his parties, and he took the microphone and told the crowd to show "peace, love and unity" or he would "break your faces".¹

The details differ by source. Wikipedia places the speech at a Storm Rave in Brooklyn in June 1993.¹ Bones himself, in an interview with Insomniac, says it happened at a Back to Basics party, and First Avenue dates it to 24 July 1993 at an underground party in the Bronx.²³ Bones says the message is older still: he dates "Peace Love Unity" to 4 July 1990, when it was painted on subway cars, and says it was first called PLUM, for Peace Love Unity Movement.¹² The fourth word, Respect, is usually credited to a raver named Laura, who changed the M to an R.¹²³

What is kandi?

Kandi are bracelets, and sometimes necklaces or cuffs, made of brightly coloured plastic pony beads.⁴⁵ They started in the Southern California rave scene in the early 1990s, and the name may come from the candy necklaces they look like.⁴ People who make and trade them are called kandi kids.⁴ Handmade kandi is the norm, and some ravers see buying it in a shop as missing the point.⁴

How does the PLUR handshake work?

Two people trade kandi with a four-step handshake, one step for each word:⁴

1. Peace: both make a peace sign and touch fingertips.
2. Love: each makes half a heart with their hand, and together they make a whole one.
3. Unity: clasp hands, palm to palm.
4. Respect: keep hands clasped while one bracelet slides from one wrist to the other.

People often say the four words out loud as they go.⁵ One common convention, which we've only seen in one source, is that kandi on your right arm is for trading and kandi on your left is yours to keep.⁴

How do you make kandi?

You need scissors, elastic string and pony beads.⁶ For a simple "single", cut about an arm's length of string, thread beads in whatever pattern you like until it fits your wrist, and tie it off with three knots.⁷ Bigger cuffs are built in rows using stitches such as multi-stitch, flat peyote and x-base.⁴

Can you bring kandi to festivals?

Usually yes, but check each festival's prohibited-items list. In August 2014, Mad Decent Block Party in Brooklyn banned kandi bracelets and necklaces, with organisers saying they implied drug use. Insomniac's founder Pasquale Rotella publicly defended kandi at the time.⁸⁹ Our festival rules guide collects what each festival allows.

Is PLUR still a thing?

Yes, though it's argued over. In February 2023 Insomniac filed to trademark PLUR for clothing.¹⁰ Commentators pointed out that catchphrases like this usually can't be trademarked, a petition against the filing collected more than 10,000 signatures, and Frankie Bones backed Insomniac's move, which split opinion further.¹⁰¹¹ Bones himself calls PLUR "the raver manifesto" and says people have always made fun of it.² Some writers say the scene's growth into a commercial industry has worn the ethos down.¹²¹³

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