Friday, December 16 • 9 pm
Shrek Rave is about what it sounds like: a rave based on Shrek, the cranky but ultimately lovable green swamp ogre of animated film and an extraordinary number of memes. It feels like something that only exists on the internet, but it turns out some things are real life, packed with dancing, sweating bodies in fantasy costumes that range from “wore a festive hat, what more do you want from me” to “hired performer at a kid’s birthday party” to “slutty executioner.”
Of course, it’s not just the crowd that makes the Shrek Rave; there’s a signature Swamp Water drink and some onstage shenanigans. A TikTok posted by a 2022 Shrek Rave attendee in Los Angeles shows Shrek slamming Lord Farquad into a folding table. The music seems to be the standard EDM fare, although we can’t rule out some surprise Smash Mouth being worked into the mix (but can you ever, really?).
For one of the weirdest, wildest online fandoms, it translates to the dance floor surprisingly well—so well, in fact, that Shrek Rave is just wrapping up its “Swamps Across America” tour. Seattle hosted Shrek Rave just a few short months ago at El Corazon, and it sold out pretty quickly. Then it hosted a Halloween-themed Shrek rave at The Showbox. Now, because it’s December, it’s Shrek the Halls, which is also the name of a 2007 TV special in which Shrek tries to do Christmas and Donkey, of course, just absolutely craps all over it, and somehow Shrek is the bad guy who needs to learn the reason for the season? Anyway, if you’re more of an Ogre Claus than an Ebenezer Shrek, maybe grab tickets to this thing before it sells out again.
