5 Weird Things We Saw at Shambhala 2025

From leather-bound poultry to intergalactic dance parties, BC’s biggest electronic festival delivered a new level of strange this year.

By Johnny Papan

Published on August 11, 2025

BC’s premier electronic music festival Shambhala offers something a little different every year. No two experiences are ever the same – many swear by the festival’s power to give you the experience you need and not necessarily the one you expect. It’s part of the magic.

Shambhala gives people the opportunity to let loose, explore new sides of themselves and, most prominently, get weird. Walking around the festival grounds will always have you surrounded by fun costumes, funny signs, charming and unconventional behaviour and more.

We had a blast finding Shambhala weirdness in 2022, 2023 and 2024, so here are 5 of the weirdest things we saw at Shambhala Music Festival in 2025.

Hypnotic Hiney Hole

Butts can bring forth a range of human emotions, including lust, laughter, and horror. It all depends on the time, place, context and (ahem) hygiene. One thing not expected when peering into a proverbial brown eye, however, is a trippy visual odyssey. This butt had a kaleidoscope crafted into its bunghole, giving those daring enough a quick psychedelic peep.

Trading Posts Are Wild

Trading posts are scattered all over the Shambhala camping grounds. They’re a fun place to discover and exchange odd little trinkets, leaving festivalgoers with little souvenirs to take home. Trading posts are almost always decorated like fever dreams, with things like this wild dinosaur guardian keeping watch on all the gifts being left for Shambhala attendees.

Longwalk Shortdock’s Alien Army

Vancouver-based producer Longwalk Shortdock has been a Thursday-night Shambhala mainstay for quite a few years. His over-the-top stage persona, blended with his cosmic bass assault, makes for a great pre-party ritual, welcoming early birds to the fest before everything opens up on Friday. This year, Shambhala was greeted with a barrage of these extraterrestrials during his set.

Shootin’ Hoops

The creativity never ends when it comes to Shambhala. This patron wanted attendees to practice their free throws with a basketball hoop. Shambhala is the only place in the world where you can see someone dressed as a lampshade being coached on their free throw in the middle of the day with gnarly dubstep being dropped in the background.

Kinky Chicken

One of the most beautiful things about Shambhala is the blend of different communities. Sun-kissed hippies, raver-kids, furries, and a very loud and proud BDSM community are just a few in the mix. This kinky chicken was more like a chokin’ chicken with its leather-clad apparel and signature ball gag cluckin’ around at Fractal Forest.

With a festival as stimulating as Shambhala, it’s hard to capture everything. This is just a small taste of the plethora of beautiful weirdness scattered around the festival. What weird things did you see at Shambhala 2025? Let us know!