Why does Shrek continue to haunt us, even at the NYS Fair? (Shrek Rave photos, commentary) – This is CNY - New York News Beep

Editor’s note: Tim Carter writes about the odd and bizarre things that make Central New York a singular place to live, like Syracuse’s inaugural Bird Thaw and the 800-pound butter sculpture.

We must acknowledge that “Shrek Rave” is an oxymoron, like “alternative facts” or “Justice Department.”

I can’t imagine this swamp-loving misanthrope hating anything more than being packed in with thousands of sweaty people for a rave. And yet, here we are at the New York State Fair on Friday night, coming to worship at the Church of Shrek.

About an hour before the concert, I start to see people wearing Shrek’s famous green ears, and Lord Farquaad’s red tunic, black tights, and flouncy red hat thing. A fairy godmother in her light blue dress takes a massive bite out of her burrito.

Shrek began as a children’s book, and it was, much like the noxious ogre himself, under-appreciated. It was plucked from near-obscurity by DreamWorks in 2001, and it grossed nearly $484 million in its first year, winning a BAFTA and Academy Award, and spawning several movie sequels and spin-offs, video games (like Shrek: Hassle in the Castle, Shrek: Extra Large, and my personal favorite, Shrek: Super Slam), and even Shrek, The Musical.

The well isn’t dry, either. We can expect a Shrek 5 reboot in 2027, and there are whispers of a Donkey spin-off in 2028. Movie studios, much like the fossil fuel industry, will extract as much as they can from this earth, even if it means destroying everything we love.

But the success of Shrek as a franchise isn’t enough to explain why Shrek continues to haunt our culture.

To understand why Shrek is big everywhere, and why Shrek Rave is a thing at all, we need to understand the meme culture of the early 2000s. Shrek memes appeared like barnacles thanks to the popularity of the movie franchise, explained local meme archaeologist Jakob Maier. They proliferated in part because Shrek represents the ugly, outcast, counterculture and the disenchanted. In other words, those who were terminally online in the early 2000s.

I’m not going to explain memes to you (cringe), but I will say this: meme cultures evolve and go through different aesthetic phases. They start with ironic displays of enjoyment: this thing we both secretly love? So stupid, right?

They can also spiral into the absurd or “deep-fried,” in which ironic references are layered onto each other until they form an unhinged and nearly undecipherable crust, such as the 2014 meme “E.” It shows the face of YouTube influence Mark Plier photoshopped with Lord Farquaad’s bowl cut and then grafted onto the body of Mark Zuckerburg testifying before congress.

But then, meme culture can find its way through the absurdist swamp and emerge on the other side of what could be called, Sincerity. Shrek has survived for so long and has lived so many lives that we must accept what we maybe knew all along: this is true love.

And this is how we get to Shrek Rave.

The music starts abruptly. Green lasers shoot into the sky. “All Star,” by Smash Mouth, with the electronic distortions of techno music (or “shrekno” music), kicks off the rave.

The DJ seems to be sprinting through her set. The second song is a synthy mashup of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” which I thought would arrive at later in the set. Where could we possibly go from here? I thought, foolishly.

Three massive screens played scenes from the Shrek films, along with deep-fried Shrek memes, on a 20-minute loop. Everyone cheers when the fairy godmother starts twerking. Shrek takes a bath in his swamp. Puss and Boots and Pinocchio do viral TikTok dances.

Now Shrek is the size of a cat, and he’s crawling on George Washington’s chest. Shrek is sprinting through the forest, surrounded by beams of light. He finds a pile of onions and just starts slamming them one after the other. They’re psychedelic onions. He starts tripping. Shrek is flying down a wormhole through space and time.

The DJ moves on from Smash Mouth to songs featuring the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fergie, Aqua, the Vengaboys, Benny Benassi, KRS-One, and Crazy Frog. Every so often, she uses a famous line from Shrek to drop a beat, reminding us why we’re here.

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(Chloe Trofatter | ctrofatter@syracuse.com) (Chloe Trofatter/Chloe Trofatter | ctrofatter@syracuse.com) Shrek Rave The Shrek Rave at the New York State Fair on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Chloe Trofatter | ctrofatter@syracuse.com) (Chloe Trofatter/Chloe Trofatter | ctrofatter@syracuse.com) Shrek Rave The Shrek Rave at the New York State Fair on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Syracuse, N.Y. (Chloe Trofatter | ctrofatter@syracuse.com) (Chloe Trofatter/Chloe Trofatter | ctrofatter@syracuse.com)

Given that rave culture began as an underground, drug-infused counterculture, it seems Shrek and Rave aren’t oxymorons after all. Rave expresses what music and cultural critic Mark Fisher called “party hauntology,” which was a blend of melancholy and hedonism, a desire for solidarity and self-obliteration from the economic downturn and diminishing future that looms behind the music.

Shrek Rave only heightens this contradiction. This is a rave without grit and sweat and broken glass. This is a rave with state troopers (further blurring the line between the rave and the riot). This is a rave that has been sanitized and hollowed by corporations and yet has still managed to keep some of its swampy, rebellious spirit.

If I were on drugs (which I’m most certainly not), the videos would form some sort of narrative, in which Shrek begins his life a simple ogre in his swamp, until his way of life is threatened, and he is pulled into a journey that ends with him becoming so famous that he transcends space and time, and he can see all the infinite versions of himself, and all the prayers and effigies that his followers have made for him.

The story ends with Shrek hurtling through space and time until he returns, once again, to his swamp, where he kicks open the door to his outhouse to start the entire process of life, death, and rebirth over again.

Why does Shrek continue to haunt us, even at the NYS Fair? (Shrek Rave photos, commentary) – This is CNY

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