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The PLUR Handshake, Step by Step

  • Before you go
  • 4 min read

Peace, love, unity, respect — the four-beat handshake that moves a kandi bracelet from your wrist to someone else's, plus the extra moves some crews add.

PLUR stands for peace, love, unity, respect. It is older than most of the festivals it gets said at, it has been argued about for twenty-odd years, and it is still the reason a stranger will walk up to you at 2 a.m. and offer you something they made. The handshake is how the object moves: four beats with your hands, then the bracelet slides across.

If you only learn one thing before your first festival, learn this — and learn the part that comes before it. Ask first. The handshake is a shared thing, not something you perform on someone. People who reach for a wrist without asking are the reason anyone has to write a page like this.

You will see regional and crew-specific variations. Some people add a beat, some skip straight from unity to the slide, some spell the letters out. None of that is a test. Mirror what the other person does and, if it falls apart, just say “here” and hand it over. Nobody has ever been mad about that.

Once the trade is done, the etiquette keeps going: read trade etiquette next, and decide which arm is which in trade arm vs keep arm.

How it goes

  1. 1
    Ask first

    "Do you want to trade?" is the whole opener. Say it before you reach for anything, and hold your own bracelet where they can see it. If they say no, say no problem and keep moving — a no costs you nothing and you are not owed anything.

  2. 2
    Peace

    Both of you make a peace sign — index and middle finger up — and hold the fingertips against each other for a beat. It is a touch, not a tap and not a high-five. Everything about the handshake is slow enough that the other person can back out of it at any point.

  3. 3
    Love

    Each of you bends a whole hand into half a heart. Thumbs meet at the bottom, fingertips at the top, and the two halves close into one heart between your hands.

  4. 4
    Unity

    Press your palms flat together, then interlock your fingers. This is the beat that actually connects your hands, which is why the next one works.

  5. 5
    Respect

    With your fingers still laced, slide the bracelet down off your wrist, over the join, and onto theirs. If they are trading back, they do the same in the other direction. Then let go.

  6. 6
    Follow their lead on the extras

    Some crews add moves — a fist bump on the end, a spelled-out P-L-U-R, an extra beat before the slide. There is no canonical version and nobody is grading you. Watch what the other person starts and mirror it; if you lose the thread, laugh and just hand the bracelet over. The object is the point, not the choreography.

Next

Trade Etiquette: Ask First, Never Pull — The rules that keep kandi trading good: ask before you touch, take a no as an answer, never pull a piece off someone, and remember you never owe a trade.