Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) used in comb. with a relevant n. to indicate a gathering or get-together.

[1865		Harper’s Weekly 5 Aug. 490/2: Arrangements were made for the Saengerfest, which will be celebrated at Philadelphia in 1867 [DA]].
[1870		N.-Y. Trib. 15 June 5/5: Second Day of the Schuetzen Fest [DA]].
[1880		Daily Inter-Ocean (Chicago) 1 June 7/6: The bundesvost was located at St. Louis for the next two years, and the same city was chosen for the bundesfest next year [DA]].
[1893		Chicago Trib. 10 July 4/1: A volksfest was given yesterday for the benefit of the German Old People’s Home [DA]].
1904		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 17: Mr. James Britt will start his chirpfest at Boston next week.
1907		J. London Road 178: The mobs and the hoboes had a talkfest, fraternized, sang songs, and parted.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 284: What of you two burleys breaking my husband’s arms, then seeing him home and holding a love-fest with him.
1915		C. Sandburg letter 9 Aug. in Mitgang (1968) 103: On various beer-fests Masters has told me of your aversions to throwing the bull.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 105: Royce might be too tough for anything but a Coney Island spiel-fest.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 140: You will get 11% on your kale in this fun-fest.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 257: Christopher opens it up again during this slugfest in mid-ring.
1929		D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 34: We had a talk-fest.
1931		P. Stevenson Gospel According to St Luke’s 204: It made Ethelbert furious, sometimes, to watch them [...] using old Herakles as a sort of punching bag in their kid-fests.
1937		J. Archibald ‘Crash on Delivery’ in Flying Aces Nov. 🌐 It took the combined efforts of Captain Howell [...] and a few other pilots, to keep the two from a fist fest.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 118: I was always on the lookout for new records to pep up those wax-fests of ours.
1954		Kerouac letter May in Charters I (1995) 412: We have a songfest and a hundred and two school children gather around to listen.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore 84: Hopfest – 1. A ‘party’ of drug addicts for the purpose of indulging in narcotics. 2. A narcotic spree of a drug addict.
1960		E. De Roo Big Rumble 52: He and Mike had a music fest.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 135: Hollywood, notorious sin-fest capital of the world.
1974		Birmingham (Ala) News 10 Mar. 27: The San Jose, Calif., streaking fest began Friday night and lasted into the early morning hours on Saturday.
1989		P. Munro Sl. U. 78: I just got back from the beach. What a skinfest!
1991		B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 129: The panicky pace of the last couple of weeks accelerated into one big tremblefest.
1991		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 9: sweatfest – an overcrowded dance or party.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 148: [E]ach afternoon the players would sit around reading the pre-match hype-fest out loud’.
1998		Guardian 23 July 24: He’s soon off in search of the ‘suckfest par excellence’.
1999		Guardian Weekend 21 Aug. 53: The rest are at raves, snogfests and go-karting tracks.
1999		Indep. Information 4–10 Sept. 21: His act is more of a pleasant ramble than a rat-a-tat-tat gagfest.
1999		Indep. Rev. 8 Oct. 12: You’d be forgiven for assuming that this is another gross-out gunk-fest.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 92: Sweeney’s whipped ’em into a frenzy, man, it’s a fucking passionfest out there.
2000		Guardian G2 18 Jan. 12: A couple from Manchester have a weekend birthday shagfest.
2000		Indep. Mag. 22 Jan. 14: The legendary drug fests.
2000		Indep. Rev. 14 Mar. 4: Pubs around the country prepare themselves for the all-day licensing swigfest.
2000		Indep. Rev. 17 May 11: A hilarious German splatter-fest with a body in a trunk.
2000		M. Amis Experience 92: This would become the era of the late-night carbofests, the two-hour supersnacks.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 185: Having a freaknasty bronco-bucking-bonkfest in the backdoor of boy toy Lil Kim.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 324: She wants to eschew indie cheapies [and] sexploitation yukfests like Exit to Ecstasy.
2007		Guardian G2 18 June 3: Will Glastonbury be a mudfest?
2009		P. Temple Truth 289: They were supposed to be ata party talkfest.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 160: It [i.e. a radio show] was schmaltz-fest.
2012		Slate 17 Dec. 🌐 Do you want gun control that works and isn’t just a symbolic wankfest or not?
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 168: [A]ll the hookups and smashfests of my life.
2015		J. Stahl OG Dad 166: Overreacting to this perv-feast I bang my hand on the table.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 231: ‘The op-ed pages are a bloke-fest’.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 141: According to kitchen gossip, it’s a traveling hump fest.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 53: Marilyn returns [...] Cast and crew applaud. The lovefest lasts three hours.

2. used with a relevant n. as an intensifier.

2012

M. Lacher On the Bro’d 7: Derek [...] asked Maryann to make us some food. ‘We gotta have some breakfast burritos, babe.’ She had some kind of bitchfest.