Meet the Ravers, The Kandi Kouple
Midway through Bass Canyon 2023, with the sky filled with lasers and the floor occupied with pashminas and inflatable couches, my eyes were blessed to see a duo layered in pony bead crafted kandi from head to toe.
Meet Tim and Vince, aka, The Kandi Kouple.
Tim and Vince (The Kandi Kouple) have been headbanging together for nine years. When they both began raving at 16 in their hometown of San Jose, California, they each had their own introductions to the scene, but they found each other after getting more familiar with what sort of music and crowds they preferred.
Timberly’s first EDM experience was at the 2008 Electric Daisy Carnival in Los Angeles, California. Her cousins surprised her with a ticket for her birthday, and she attended her first rave after only turning 16 the day before EDC. Looking back at her first rave, she remembers it as “a secret magical experience.”
Her partner, Vincent, had a different introduction to the rave scene, which started in San Francisco because of his older brother. Vincent met his first rave family thanks to his sibling, who taught him about the rave scene through movies and “old school” DJs. Outside of the informative lessons they shared with him, he was brought into the underground rave scene of San Francisco, “…where you had to get a flyer, to get a flyer, to then get a location to an undisclosed warehouse in a sketchy area.”
The two continued to develop their own tastes in the rave scene until they became classmates at the same trade school in San Jose.
Vincent and Timberly remained friends for three years before deciding to go on their first date in 2013. It was not until 2015, however, that the couple decided to attend their first festival: the Electric Daisy Carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Not only did EDC Las Vegas mark their first festival together, but it was also the first festival they made kandi to trade. And as you can see from the photo I snapped of them at the Canyon rim, they have become kandi-making masters since they first began spreading the love in 2015.
Vincent sees kandi as more than just a bracelet.
“Kandi is the physical embodiment of PLUR—, it allows you to talk to and meet so many new and beautiful people.” – Vincent Sandoval, 2023
Vincent remarks that he sees much less kandi compared to back in his first years of raving, and how he desires to keep that side of EDM culture alive.
The couple began their kandi skills as many new kandi makers do: singles with no words, or if there were letters, the limited number of beads allowed them to write only small phrases. Vincent adores his past kandi trades because, as he made more intricate pieces, he saw an excitement brought to those he traded them to, and it sparked his desire to make progressively bigger and better cuffs. Watch their YouTube tutorials here!
Now, in 2024, The Kandi Kouple is sporting bigger and better pieces and brought the same energy to this year’s Bass Canyon 2024.
Timberly shares the same feelings as Vincent regarding the cuffs and the people it leads them to connect to. She is thrilled to see the EDM scene prospering and is confident that kandi is still alive and will continue to flourish within the scene for years to come.
By the time they arrived at EDC in 2015, the couple had listened to every genre of EDM and wanted to indulge in the scene as much as possible. While going from stage to stage, the couple mentions they fell in love, specifically with the Basspod and Wasteland stages.
At Basspod, they saw “…a young Excision… and the earlier years of head-banging bass music.” After falling prey to Excision’s irresistible headbanging cult, they were some of the first to learn that Excision was making his own carefully curated festival, prompting them to buy a ticket for the inaugural Bass Canyon 2018.
Years later, the couple still attends Bass Canyon and now uses it partly as a parental retreat after having children together. Nevertheless, still treasuring kandi making, the couple reflects on their kandi trades from Bass Canyon by posting them on their Instagram.
Timberly and Vincent would like to share their advice for new ravers. Timberly suggests the short and sweet,
“PLUR doesn’t live at the rave, it’s within us, and the more you share it, the more you inspire others to do the same.” – Timberly Sepulveda, 2023
Vincent had many pieces of advice for old and new ravers, but the main one was this:
“As for baby ravers, never forget PLURR: Peace, love, unity, respect, responsibility. Yes, it actually has two r’s, and without respect and responsibility, peace, love, and unity can’t exist. Don’t forget PLURR, and your rave career will be as amazing as mine has been.”
This couple is on the top for people I believe embody PLURR, and I have enjoyed watching their journey over the past year. Here’s to many more years of good vibes to you, Tim, and Vince!
The Kandi Kouple: Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
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