2024 Disneyland Special Events Calendar Released – See All Dates!
In a surprising move, Disneyland just made a massive set of announcements that provides guests will their full calendar of special events at Disneyland in 2024. They shared a wide-ranging look that includes everything from big announcements of new Star Wars and Pixar festivals to the holidays to specific changes coming to a scene in the return of the Fantasmic! show.
Typically this news would be released over several months throughout the year as we got closer to the various holidays and celebrations. Disney shared that over 300 days at the Disneyland Resort next year have some sort of special event planned in addition to the normal great offerings
Today we'll dive into the highlights of this 2024 Disneyland special events schedule and discuss the specific takeaways from the calendar on what we can expect and what will be missing from 2024. Read on for our analysis and all key Disneyland 2024 events.
Disneyland Special Events 2024 Calendar
Disneyland has announced the following dates for 2024. There are also additional other dates that were previously announced by Disneyland including the Half Marathon Weekend that is coming up in January. You can see all of these dates in our when to visit Disneyland crowd calendar page. Now, here are the dates that were just announced by Disney.
These announcements also come as the Disneyland SoCal ticket deal officially goes on sale tomorrow. Combining that with the Disneyland spring 2024 child deal will make for a great discounted trip.
They announced dates for Lunar New Year, a new Pixar Fest, Celebrate Gospel, Anaheim Ducks Day, Season of the Force (a Star Wars festival), Halloween, Dia de Los Muertos, and the Holidays. Be sure to scroll all the way down past the dates to see our analysis of the news and for what is most newsworthy!
Click the button below to get a FREE printable download of all of these dates and the best specific dates to visit with low crowds in 2024!
Other big news includes the fact that there will be a couple of notable changes coming to Fantasmic! with a key popular (or maybe divisive) scene being removed, that Pixar Fest will include a brand new parade in Disney California Adventure and details on the time frame for the opening of new restaurants in Downtown Disney.
Each of the below dates are notable and new as is the fact that Disneyland is launching a new Star Wars-themed celebration and bringing back the popular Pixar Fest celebration with a new parade and updated fireworks in 2024. Scroll down for how these details fit into the overall calendar.
These events will cause Disneyland to close early on some dates. See those in our new page on those closures!
Disneyland Lunar New Year will take place from January 23, 2024 through February 18, 2024. This celebration honors Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean traditions. This year the celebration rings in the Year of the Dragon with Asian-inspired food and beverages, vibrant décor and Mushu leading the way in “Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession.” Read all about the prior Disneyland Lunar New Year offering here.
The celebration will not include the popular World of Color segment this year as the show is not going to be running during that period as we reported in our Disneyland Ride Closures report here.
Disneyland has also announced that they are bringing back Pixar Fest which last ran at the resort back in 2018. The festival will run from April 26 through Aug. 4, 2024, and feature a new daytime parade in Disney California Adventure and returning updated fireworks in Disneyland Park.
The 2024 “Celebrate Gospel” concerts, an annual tribute to Gospel music featuring award-winning artists and choirs from across Southern California, will be headlined by Marvin Sapp (on February 17) and Tasha Cobbs Leonard (on February 24) performing at the Fantasyland Theatre.
In celebration of the Anaheim Ducks Hockey Club's 30th anniversary, Anaheim Ducks Days at Disney California Adventure Park will be a two-day event taking place in Hollywood Land from February 22-23. The event will include a celebratory cavalcade, a fan zone with themed activities and photo opportunities, and appearances by current and legacy team players.
The fan-favorite Disney California Food and Wine Festival will be returning from March 1-April 22, featuring festival marketplaces with foods and beverages inspired by the Golden State as well as cooking demonstrations, special entertainment, and the return of Soarin' Over California for a limited-time. See our guide to the Disney California Adventure Food and Wine Festival for everything you need to know!
Season of the Force at Disneyland Park will be running from April 5 to June 2, with the return of Hyperspace Mountain, themed food and beverages, special merchandise, and more inspired by the Star Wars stories. Guests can explore new adventures on Star Tours – The Adventures Continue and get a new perspective of the fireworks from Galaxy's Edge.
Halloween will be celebrated at Disneyland from August 23 to October 31st, featuring attraction overlays, themed foods, spooky decor and character costumes, and more fun experiences. See everything you need to know about Halloween at Disneyland! The beloved Oogie Boogie Bash parties will also be returning to the parks during the Halloween season, featuring rare characters, villain treat trails, and special entertainment.
Plaza de la Familia will run from August 23 to November 2, celebrating the bonds of family and the traditions of Dia de los Muertos, featuring storytelling and music from the film Coco. See everything you need to know about Plaza de la Familia!
The holidays at Disneyland will be starting November 15, featuring holiday decor, attraction overlays, themed foods, special entertainment, and more, as well as the Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure. See everything you need to know about Christmas at Disneyland and the Festival of Holidays! The holidays will run until some point in January 2025. No end date has been released yet.
Key Takeaways From Disneyland Set of Announcements
One of the most exciting parts of this announcement is the news of a brand new parade for the return of Disneyland Pixar Fest! This is great news as Disney could have simply just brought back the Pixar Play Parade that ran during the original Pixar Fest in 2018. This new parade may incorporate similar parade floats we saw in that parade but there will also be a focus on the new Pixar films as you can see in the Turning Red float above. We can't wait to hear more about this new Disneyland parade. You can read more about the new Pixar “Better Together” parade here.
It feels like a very positive sign that Disney California Adventure will once again have a daytime parade. Really helps to deliver a full day experience at that park and generally improves the atmosphere in the afternoon as it gives guests a big thing to be excited for.
Another notable part of this 2024 lineup of announcements is the fact that Disneyland has extended the Halloween season by starting it in August rather than waiting until the first week of September. This is a smart move as Disneyland Halloween has easily become the most popular holiday of the year with sales for Oogie Boogie Bash selling out at an unprecedented rate this year.
Now that Halloween will start August 23rd rather than the first week of September, this gives guests an additional few weeks of Halloween time. I am hoping this also means we will see MORE Oogie Boogie Bash ticket dates so that way everyone who wants to experience Oogie Boogie Bash has a chance to. If you are looking for less busy times of the year to visit Disneyland Halloween in 2024, the kickoff for the reason of late August would be the perfect time to go.
Season of the Force is a special event that will take place in the Spring to celebrate May the 4th and will bring returning favorites to the resort like Hyperspace Mountain. But the noteworthy part of this announcement is the inclusion of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in the celebration.
As we discuss in our article on the big mistake Disneyland made with Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the timeline that Disney is set on in the land often limits how the land can participate in special events like decorating for the holidays but also cuts down the opportunity for fun character interactions.
During Season of the Force, “galactic music” will accompany the fireworks show which can easily be seen over the spires behind the Millennium Falcon. I hope this is the first of many moves to begin incorporating the land into the annual park celebrations but also a push towards letting go of the canon of the timeline and bringing more fun characters into the land.
As for Tiana's Bayou Adventure, no specific date was mentioned for 2024 and the announcement from Disney just reads that it will open “later in 2024.” Likely, we will not see Tiana's Bayou Adventure open until fall or even as late as winter at Disneyland. This is in line with our predictions that I just wrote up. It's interesting that Disneyland is still going to be “late 2024” while generally they are promoting 2024 which likely means we will see the Magic Kingdom version open earlier in the year as predicted. Read more about when we think this Splash Mountain retheme will open in our article.
One entertainment option that is missing from this lineup is the return of a nighttime parade for Disneyland in 2024. Neither Paint the Night Parade nor Main Street Electrical Parade were mentioned. We would’ve loved to have seen Paint the Night return for 2024 but based on not being included here it is less likely that we will see either parade return as their return will be billed as a top part of any celebration.
It leaves open the possibility of seeing that favorite parade or the Main Street Electrical parade held in another upcoming celebration. The Paint the Night Parade debuted during the 60th Anniversary so it would be fitting if it returned to Disneyland during the 70th anniversary which will take place in 2025. We last saw Paint the Night during the 2018 Pixar Fest so it would have been nice to see it return as part of the 2024 Pixar Fest but we can only hope it will return sometime in the future as this was one of Disney's best nighttime parades.
Interestingly the Magic Happens Disneyland Parade was also not mentioned in the release, though we had expected that parade would return in 2024. We are still waiting for a confirmation there from Disney. The last they said was that the parade would return without sharing any specific date when the parade run ended back in October.
What are you excited to see out of the 2024 lineup of Disneyland events?
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Are they not doing Sweethearts nights in February?
With all the dates of the special events being announced for the year, it would have been a great service to your readers if you created an online printout that we could print at home with all the events and dates.
You ask a great question! We already have a printable in the works and coming soon with this information. You can sign up to get that printable and a best specific dates to visit in 2024 to avoid the crowds here!
This is so helpful. Thank you. Does this mean no Sweetheart night in feb?
You can read all about the likelihood of Sweetheart’s Night 2024 at Disneyland in our guide to Disneyland After Dark.
Any thoughts about when Pride Night will be happening?
We don’t have details on that at all yet, but anticipate that we will receive them very soon.
You didn’t mention the Disneyland Halloween Half-Marathon Weekend, Sept 5-8,2024, which was recently announced on runDisney. Was it not included in the 2024 event calendar released by the Disneyland resort ? Thank you!
We did mention the runDisney Half Marathon weekend, but yes that runDisney Halloween weekend is also upcoming!
What about Christmas parties ?
Disneyland doesn’t actually host any after hours Christmas parties. There was previously the Merriest Nites event but that only lasted one year. You can read more about all the Disneyland Christmas offerings included with the ticket here. You can also read about the Walt Disney World Christmas party here.