There’s only one Baltimore dance floor where you’ll likely see Pikachu, the adorable, red-cheeked mouse mascot from Pokémon, full-body head-banging this weekend to rib-shaking bass.

As the city thaws out from the snow, megafans of Pokémon — the animated phenomenon from Japan about capturing animal-like creatures and training them for battle — will sweat it out Friday night at Baltimore Soundstage’s Poké-Rave dance party. Many will don creative, homemade costumes, ready to dance and thrash to pulsating, Pokémon-inspired electronic dance music (EDM).

“For somebody who doesn’t know what they’d be walking into, to sum it up in one word: Energy. Straight energy,” said Ventis, aka Chris Butler, Poké-Rave’s headlining DJ. “It’s probably going to be some of the most fun you’ve ever had.”

The fun doesn’t have to include dancing. Attendees can play video games, retro and new, on flat-screen TVs in a lounge area or get crafty at a bracelet-making station. Later in the night, a cosplay contest will determine the best-dressed Pokémon characters, with the winners receiving free Soundstage tickets for a year.

Will it be the orange dragon-like Charizard? The fluffy Eevee? The powerful, purple Mewtwo? The world of Pokémon is so vast, with its human characters capturing and training so many different creatures for battle, that the costume possibilities are nearly endless.

“The creativity always stands out most. I’ve seen people come dressed as Poké balls!” said Butler, referring to the trademark red-and-white sphere used to catch the creatures.

Ventis, Half Hack3d, Beast and the rest of the DJ lineup will provide the night’s soundtrack, which will blend EDM’s many subgenres like dubstep, drum and bass and house with sounds from Pokémon and video games.

Pokémon works well with EDM, said Half Hack3d, aka Andrew Parker, because its narrative stories are full of highs and lows, which calls for a wide range of music and melodies. It gives a DJ and producer a lot to work with.

“It’s like, ‘This is really high paced, this is really creepy and mysterious, this has got some ominous chords,’” he said. “It’s just a soundscape journey.”

Pokémon’s continued longevity and relevance is a marvel, the DJs said. What started in the mid-’90s as a GameBoy video game has endured for decades, spawning TV series, movies, social media crazes and seemingly endless colorful merchandise.

“You see so many different kinds of people — people that spend thousands of dollars on costumes,” Parker said.

But in the case of Poké-Rave, Pokémon is merely the common entry point that brings a group of people together, Butler said. Above all else, 18-plus dance parties like Poké-Rave are focused on building an inclusive community through a shared interest — and one that isn’t drinking.

“It’s all about self-expression and giving people a place to fully let go for the night,” said Mike O’Brien, Baltimore Soundstage’s marketing director.

For those on the fence about a rave, Butler said this isn’t what you see in the movies, where attendees have “their nose turned up and they’re a bit on edge,” he said.

“When you go here, they’re not strangers in a sense, they’re more like friends you haven’t met yet,” Butler said, “because whether you look to your left or right, front or back, everyone is just on the same wavelength of good vibes.”