Spring Awakening Music Festival (SAMF) was an annual electronic dance music (EDM) festival held in Chicago. The festival started at a theater in 2008, moved to Soldier Field in 2012–2015, and to Addams/Medill Park in 2016–2018. In 2019, the festival moved to the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was not held in 2020, and the 2021 event was held in October at Addams/Medill Park. The 2022 festival was scheduled to be held at the United Center on July 8–10, but was subsequently cancelled.

A rave is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance music scene when DJs played at illegal events in musical styles dominated by electronic dance music from a wide range of sub-genres, including drum and bass, dubstep, trap, break, happy hardcore, trance, techno, hardcore, house, and alternative dance. Occasionally live musicians have been known to perform at raves, in addition to other types of performance artists such as go-go dancers and fire dancers. The music is amplified with a large, powerful sound reinforcement system, typically with large subwoofers to produce a deep bass sound. The music is often accompanied by laser light shows, projected coloured images, visual effects and fog machines.