The demo scene is dying, but that's alright

Summary

The Demo Scene is Dying, But That's Alright Autumn 2025 The demo scene was recently proclaimed a UNESCO Living Cultural Heritage in Sweden, following several other European nations. As a scener, I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. It's amusing on some level, there's maybe even a bit of pride involved, but also fear that it might bring unwanted attention to a Good Thing, because Good Things are always at risk of spoiling when receiving too much attention. Then again, such worries are probably unfounded. Despite being a living cultural heritage, the demo scene is - all things considered - slowly approaching its demise. The Scene Isn't Dead The scene - incorporating the cracking scene of the 1980s and early 1990s - has been declared dead several times over since the late 1980s. Some claimed the Amiga would kill it, others that the PC would destroy its soul or that the Internet would rob it of its essence. This is to be expected: In a subculture - which is what the scene is - there's typically going to be elders lamenting the changing of the old ways, and newcomers eager to bring their own ideas into the mix. Except... That last part might no longer apply to the scene. Examine photos from a late 1980s rave party and they'll show a bunch of young people partying hard. Fast forward in time and look at photos from a 2025 rave party, and the concept remains basically the same, but there's now a different bunch of young people partying hard. When performing the same experiment on the scene, there's close to zero teenagers among 2025 demo party attendants. Look closer and it becomes evident that many of the 2025 attendants are in fact the very same persons as the teenagers and twenty-somethings appearing in party photos from 1989. Some subcultures are regularly replenished or revived, whereas others are not. The scene seems to fall distinctly into the latter category: With few exceptions, most active sceners - even those who create demos for modern gaming PCs - belong t...