Ruh Roh! Let’s go rave!

Jinkies! Scooby-Doo and drag fans packed the Marquee Ballroom on Oct. 25 for the Scooby Doo Rave, featuring performances and a costume contest hosted by Yas! Halifax. 

Zara Matrix, the rave’s producer and host, graduated from Dalhousie University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in community design. She has been a drag queen for over eight years and an event producer with Yas! Halifax, an LGBTQ+ event planning company, since 2020.

“I’ve always wanted to do a Scooby-Doo rave,” Matrix says. “My [childhood] bedroom was painted the Mystery Machine colours, and Scooby-Doo just seemed like the perfect Halloween drag dancing party combo.” 

Maritime drag queens Dahlia Dior, Bambi Shot and Mya Foxx performed at the event. 

Shot, a New Brunswicker who’s been doing drag for the past eight months, performed in Halifax for the second time at the rave. 

“New Brunswick drag is a lot more niche and a lot smaller,” says Shot. “There is just so much diverse talent in both places, so it’s hard to compare. But I love coming to Halifax because there’s so much exposure.”

Foxx took the stage in a blow-up Scooby-Doo costume. 

“I love any opportunity to be dumb and stupid when performing, and what’s more fun than Scooby-Doo?” says Foxx. “So absolutely, I had to say yes when [Matrix] asked.”

Foxx will make history as the first Halifax-based, Inuk drag queen to compete on Canada’s Drag Race when the show’s sixth season premieres on Nov. 20. Foxx is hosting watch parties for the show’s new season at Stardust Bar + Kitchen on Barrington Street, where she also hosts weekly drag brunches.

“We’ve been crying for some East Coast representation for years, and to have a Nova Scotia queen. We’re overdue,” says Foxx. “For me, there’s pressure going into it because I’m representing a whole province … I am going to make them proud.” 

Rave attendees wore outfits inspired by the characters of the popular cartoon in hopes of winning the event’s costume contest. Contest judges invited over 20 people on stage to compete in the lip-synch contest, including three Mystery Machines, lots of Scooby-Doos and some well-dressed Velmas and Daphnes. 

The winner of the lip-synch costume contest was “Velma with the beard,” also known as Aaron Jordan, who performed “Baby” by Justin Bieber.

“I don’t really have a lot of friends. So just getting out of my comfort zone and being here, it’s awesome,” says Jordan. “Everyone’s really complimentary on my costume, and I’m just like, ‘Thank you so much.’ It’s such welcoming vibes.

“I feel so beautiful and so trashy at the same time. Everyone saw my booty.”

Jordan took home $100 from the contest, which he says he’ll probably spend on food for his cat, Homer Simpson. 

Abbey Lacey and Madeleine Bates are graduate students in the master of fine arts program at the University of King’s College. They came to the event last minute after it was mentioned in their friends’ group chat.

“This is epic, for lack of better words,” says Bates. “The music is absolutely bumping.”

Lacey and Bates are drag fans and are looking forward to the new season of Canada’s Drag Race.

“I heard Sami Landri from Dieppe, Nouveau Brunswick is going to be a contestant. I love her,” said Lacey. “I grew up in Moncton, which is right next to Dieppe, as much as Dieppe tries to forget that. We have a little bit of hometown solidarity with Sami Landri.” 

For Bates, it’s “about time” to see some East Coast queens in the spotlight.

“We’ve always known that there’s talent over here and that our queens are it.”