If knock-off designer bags are illegal, this is immoral.
Walking up to the 40-foot long line slithering out of the Convergence Station entrance, you have already begun your ascent into the dancehall heavens of Meow Wolf’s first midnight immersive party. An assorted array of leather, sparkles, fishnets, and pom-poms wobble in the night air as hundreds of attendees shiver in the 14-degree weather. As your bones begin to quake, you look down at your black shirt and pants feeling abhorrently un-dazzling.
In the next moment, a lovely group of leprechauns standing just behind you in line holds out a shimmering packet of stick-on jewels and a miniature jar of face glitter. As you gratefully accept, slather on the glitter, and pop on the body gems, you look around and observe that the more your appearance stands out, the more you feel like you fit in. Let the Danceportation begin.
A giddy swell of technicolor dream fairies welcomes you as you glide through the atrium and onto the first of three dancefloors. The emo-punk rhythm thumping from the 10-foot tall speakers blasts past you as you examine the first of many extravagant phenomena. The first door to your right reveals a life-sized castle bursting through the floor with such a luster that Cinderella would have traded her shoes, her prince, and her tiara to AirBnB it. Between the palace pillars, a swarm of guests buzzes up the gravel encrusted stairs and towards the rainforest region of the behemoth building. Here, early aught’s pop booms through the radios placed strategically around the three-level room. In striking contrast with the thumping music, you find yourself wading through a delicately delightful array of nautical biomes, savannah terrains, and grassy plains nestled inside everyday technological gadgets such as cassette tapes and electrical control panels. The miniature worlds invite you to stay a moment - or a millennia - but pulsing neon lights catch your eye, and you proceed to infiltrate a room marked “Do Not Enter.”
You would have been better off staying away. Behind the door is the Chuckiest Cheesiness you’ve ever seen. If knock-off designer bags are illegal, this is immoral. With rat paraphernalia decorating every crevice and corner, the meticulousness shining through in the first two rooms glares back at you in this fast food-oriented bonanza. The quantity and quality of new ideas blitzing across the Meow Wolf space thus far makes this animatronic wasteland even more disappointing. You exit up the nearest staircase before a rat’s tail sprouts out of your soul.
A shiver of excitement rolls down your spine as you waltz into a cityscape at the vertex of Blade Runner and Total Recall. The masters of reality engineering have outdone themselves as electronic dance music (EDM) whips past your eardrums and the art surrounding you represents a quantum leap forward in techno-futurism. By maximizing the potential of physical space as a versatile piece of imagineering equipment, Danceportation designers have facilitated the creation of millions of magical worlds whose only confines is the creative capacity of the Convergence Station visitors.
Author: Eboni J.D. Freeman
Date: Sunday February 27, 2022 (12:00 a.m. - 4:00 a.m.)
Venue: Convergence Station
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