If you like the music it's worth checking out. I only hit the Dubstep raves because I produce the music in my spare time and thoroughly enjoy hearing the bass through most of the clubs speaker systems - especially while rollin
I don't know about other places but here we kind of have a few different sects of the electronic community with some crossover between them. Psychedelic trance hippies, dubstep bro's, general ravers, and i guess those people that attend some big name artist when they come through but are completely unaware of the "local" scene.
Im more of a fan of something i can call a rave, the dubstep shows are alright, but im less of a fan of the dubstep crowd than the music. I love dubstep, its just the people that attend that bother me.
As far as psychedelic trance events go, it always feels like the same exact party with slightly different music. You play dubstep in a side area at a psy party and the psy dancefloor will usually clear if its good weird psychedelic dubstep. And to me, that is ok, because i watched a 20 by 60 foot room in a warehouse with like 400 people going fucking nuts. The people are alright, with the psy parties, its usually more the promoters than the people attending that give me a reason to complain. They don't really like the other scene, they want to segregate themselves off from the rest of edm to establish it as something significantly different. I have heard some non trance psychedelic music that would make some people flip their shit.... but it won't ever be played as a psytrance party. Dubstep room is there, and later into the night some weird IDM but that is all there is.
I consider a rave an actual elaborately planned all night event. If it ends at 3am, your probably at a club, and that is not a rave most of the time. Now doing a party in a warehouse with greater than a thousand people going nuts. No alcohol being served, just water. Also, its not segregated into any specific genre set. parties can be pointed in a certain direction in a way that is noticeable. I have been to parties that just got wild. Im not even going to make this story time. Things get crazy.
Scenes vary from place to place. I have found the rave scene to be a far more open environment. Guys might hit on you, which probably isn't something that happens to you all the time, you could be weirded out by that, but its not hard to rationalize an ego trip while rolling in realizing that even men want you. The burner scene is far more open. Good people, and the most nonjudgmental and accepting individuals i have ever met. Complete strangers treat you like friends you have known for years. Want to get naked and run around? go for it. Like to drink? Welcome to a society where there isn't money, and accept it as a gift, they will hand you as many as you would like and not ask you for a penny. If you eat drugs, do not go around asking people to sell them to you, do go around offering people candy, or have a long talk about existential things while walking around.... Check for regional burns and attend them... Its like walking into a different world for a long weekend. Lose yourself in it, its society without an ego.
I gave a loaf of homemade bread to a camp that served me,and probably many others some awesome soup with a warning that it might have been made with lard to grease the pan for any vegetarians, and they were like "there aren't very many of them" these people are the the best kind of hippies... Think open, accepting, and slightly dark sense of humor in many of them.
