Shrek Rave has brought the swamp to Brooklyn.
On a recent Friday night at the Brooklyn Monarch, a music venue in East Williamsburg, party-goers arrived in ogre-inspired costumes and the 1999 Smash Mouth hit “All Star” rang through the speakers.
An obsession with “Shrek,” especially among millennials, has been an on-again-off-again joke on the internet since the film debuted in 2001. The memes and gifs from the movie, which often depict the characters in silly and sometimes explicit contexts, are hard to miss on social media. Now, the online fandom has evolved into a real-world party known as Shrek Rave.
The party first took place in Los Angeles, and after its success, the host, Jordan Craig, decided to make it a bicoastal event. Fake vines, plush thrones, posters and fake apple trees served as party props. Large cardboard cutouts of Shrek were sprinkled throughout. And serving as the backdrop for the entire night was a large screen behind the stage showing different Shrek memes and videos on a loop.
“I’m just excited to meet people who share the same love for Shrek as we do,” Rob Troiano, 22, said while rocking green face paint and a foam chin. “It’s just a stupid, nonsensical thing that we can all embrace.”
Tap the link in our bio to see more swampy scenes with photos by @strange.victory
