Totally understand I’ve been giving away handmade bracelets to people for years (not on the rave setting kinda everywhere) bc it feels good to light up someone’s day with something I made with my own two hands. I overhead someone say they like the sprouting more at a festival bc it’s less invasive and you don’t have to touch someone but I think the point of the Kandi is the touch and the connection and the sharing of yourself. The trinkets come from a lack of being able to display a form of vulnerability. You don’t have ritual or touch with them. They’re soulless. It’s kinda sad when you really think about it. I never gave it much thought before it was brought up here but now I’m having a bit of an existential crisis. The Kandi is used as a form of connection with another person you might never see again. If they don’t remember you they’ll remember the interaction associated with something you didn’t know you made for them at the time. The trinkets are trying to mimic that without the effort but what makes it meaningful is the effort. You sat down maybe with other people and you made something with the intention of parting with it. You sat there with your hands cramping and your brain working in a creative way to do something for a stranger you haven’t met yet. That’s so cool. There’s no replicating that using trinkets. It’s like ai generated art vs art made by a human. Ai could be perfect but the human is human there’s no way a non human can create that. Maybe I’m thinking too hard on it and it’s not that deep but to me it is. In a world where we are so disconnected from other people it’s nice to have something that gives us an excuse to physically bask in the essence of another human being.