What has struck me the most though is the feeling of community. My favourite venue has all the usuals, same staff and same organisers each week/month - easy to make a good set of friends who tend to be fairly interesting.
Saw them in Sheffield in November, very good as well.
The rave scene is alive and kicking I can confirm - it may be in a different guise and to a fewer amount of people but it is still there.
EDM has helped destroy it, a toxic genre if you ask me, full of terrible songs and DJs not much better...