water, heat and rest

A packed room in Bangalore in April is not a neutral environment. Add a few hundred bodies and no airflow and the floor runs far hotter than the street outside.

Drink water, steadily. Not a litre in one go, which does its own damage. A glass every hour or so, more if you are dancing hard. Every venue in the country is required to give you drinking water. Ask for it.

Get off the floor before you need to. Twenty minutes outside or in the smoking area every couple of hours resets you more than you would think. The set will still be going.

Eat something before, and something after. Dancing for six hours on an empty stomach is the single most common reason people fold at 2am.

Know the signs of overheating. Stopping sweating, a pounding headache, confusion, feeling suddenly cold in a hot room. Any of those, get out of the crowd, get cool, get water, and tell someone. Do not push through it.

If you take anything, heat and dehydration are the risks that put people in hospital, far more often than anything else. Cool down and hydrate regardless of what you have or have not taken.