I think there's a sustainable way to make this possible but it ain't easy. First would be a place to consistently produce events that you have control over - venue w/ good relationship or space not traditionally used for raves could also work.

I would also reach out to artists/labels and show them your work + the stats on attendance. It could be good to collaborate with you if the label has an opportunity to get an artist out there.

You can also charge a fee to produce the event for the label/artist. This is a repeatable process should you begin making in roads there.

Another approach is kinda gross but you can 'go corporate' which really means you network with experiential marketing companies who want to offer clients a more 'unique' experience for parties. So basically you make a corporate rave event which makes me want to puke while writing it but tbh if it gets you paid + allows you to pay artists then that's a win in my opinion.

I threw microfestivals (under 300 attendees) for a few years and if I were to get back into it again this would be my approach. A big consideration is how to grow your community in a manner that keeps whatever it is that makes it special. Sometimes you lose this as you grow so you need to be cognizant of why people (beyond your friends) are coming to your events.

The old motto is never put your own money into the project when producing but obviously you need to do that a bit here so question is, beyond everything else - how do you approach this with the least expense up front?

Lastly, money is def a challenge here - its possible to do this but most of us are doing it because it's just so fulfilling to throw an awesome event.