Peace, love, unity, respect. Strung one bead at a time.

purePLUR is about the part of the night that happens between sets: the kandi you made by hand, the stranger you traded it with, and the crew that gets everybody home.

Design a single, free What PLUR means

EDC Orlando this weekend. Your kit, the handshake and pocket cards to print.

Tap a bead.

EDC Orlando, November 6 to 8

Three nights at Tinker Field. Here is what to know before the gates, and a kit list for the kandi side of the weekend.

Before you go

Where: Tinker Field, downtown Orlando. Box office and will call are across the street at Lake Lorna Doone Park.
Gates: 1 PM each day. Music runs to midnight.
Who: Everyone is 18 and up. Bring a photo ID. Drinks are 21 and up.
Water: Bring an empty bottle. The refill stations are free. Sealed water from outside is not allowed in.
Bags: Expect a full search at the gate. Check the bag rules on the official EDC Orlando site the week of.
The app: The Insomniac app has the map and set times. Download both before you go, because signal inside is thin.

Your kandi kit

Make an EDCO 26 single

Pocket cards: eight to a page with the handshake and a line for your handle. Cut them out and hand one over with each single. In Kandi Stack, the EDCO 26 starter is on the Shelf tab.

Kandi Stack

A free kandi designer that runs on your phone. No account, and your pieces never leave it.

String the single on screen, bead by bead, with letters, charms and secret Morse.
Get the exact bead list and how much cord to cut, so the real one comes out right.
See it in daylight, under stage light and under blacklight before you buy a single bead.
Share a card of it, or print trade tags with your handle to hand out with your kandi.
Log who you traded with, what for and where, while you still remember their name.
Plan a festival's worth: how many of each, the shopping list, cord and packing.

Open Kandi Stack

PLUR

Peace, Love, Unity, Respect. It is the handshake you trade kandi with, one word for each move.

Peace 1

You each make a peace sign and touch fingertips.

Love 2

Curve your hands into half hearts and join them into one.

Unity 3

Press your palms flat together and lace your fingers.

Respect 4

Hands still joined, one of you slides a single off your wrist, over both hands, onto theirs.

Kandi 101

Kandi is handmade beaded jewelry, mostly chunky plastic pony beads on stretchy cord, that ravers make, wear and give away. It has been part of the culture since the 90s.

Single: One strand. The one you trade.
Stack: A forearm full of them.
Cuff: A wide, woven piece, built up row by row.
Perler: Flat pixel art from fuse beads, usually a pendant.

Make a single

Pony beads (the standard 9 mm kind), about 1 mm stretch cord, scissors, and a dab of clear glue.

Cut the cord long and tie one bead on the end as a stopper.
String your pattern. Most wrists take 19 to 22 beads.
Untie the stopper, bring the ends together, tie a square knot.
Glue the knot, slide it inside the nearest bead, trim when dry.

If you don't know the knot, tie it a lot.

Stretch it a few times before you wear it. Better it lets go on your table than at the rail.

Trading

Trades are offered, never demanded. Nobody owes you their kandi.
No thanks is always fine, in both directions.
Never trade away a piece somebody asked you to keep. Some of them carry a night with them.
You never have to trade at all. Wearing what you made is enough.

Look out for each other

The best trade of the night is still a water. Drink before you are thirsty.
Take breaks from the crowd and the heat. The set will still be there.
Wear earplugs. You want to hear the next one too.
Pick a meeting spot before the crew splits up. The phones will not work when you need them.
If somebody near you is not okay, get the medics. That is what they are there for.

From DanceSafe's health and safety guidance, dancesafe.org.

Where PLUR came from

Four words that started on a Brooklyn dance floor and ended up on wrists everywhere.

1990Adam X of the Storm Rave crew in Brooklyn reportedly paints Peace Love Unity on a train car.
1993A fight breaks out at a Storm Rave. Frankie Bones takes the mic: If you don't start showing some peace, love, and unity, I'll break your faces. It sticks.
90sRespect becomes the fourth word, championed by Laura La Gassa. PLUR spreads on flyers and party merch across the country.
90sHandmade kandi turns into the way to pass it on: a single you made, traded hand to hand with the handshake.
2011Electric Daisy Carnival, born in Los Angeles in the 90s, adds an Orlando weekend.
2026EDCO 26 at Tinker Field. Bring a few singles that you made yourself.