The Best Events You Should Plan Your Disneyland Trip Around In 2024

For Disney Park fanatics, special events at the parks make frequent visits even more special. While things like Oogie Boogie Bash (the Halloween party) happen yearly, others, like After Dark events, change. Even with the beloved holiday standbys, activities like character interactions or food offerings make them worth seeing time after time.

There's a good chance that no matter when you plan your trip to Disneyland, it will coincide with at least one of these special events. Even if you aren't planning on going to something like the aforementioned Halloween party, you can still enjoy much of the season throughout the park.

However, if you're up for some extra-ticketed fun and want to attend one of the park's special events, there are quite a few to consider before making your journey to the Happiest Place on Earth. Here are the big ones you should plan your Disneyland trip around in 2024, in order!

Disneyland After Dark events aren't just stay-up-late-at-the-parks parties. These are themed, extra-ticketed events that celebrate various franchises or things that make life magical — like love. After Dark events occur once the park has closed for the night. Guests can experience Disneyland with far fewer visitors and (most importantly) much shorter queues.

Running from mid-January to mid-February on select nights, these after-hour events celebrate love with tasty treats and our favorite Disney romances. In 2024, there will be eight Sweethearts' Nites offered. In step with the theme, photo areas will be modeled after some of Disney's greatest love stories, like "Tangled" and "Lady and the Tramp." You can even go boogie down with Stitch and the rarely-seen Angel (his girlfriend) in Tomorrowland.

As is the case with most Disney Parks special events, there is also a parade for Sweethearts' Nite. This royal cavalcade features some of the studio's most beloved princesses and princes on horseback, yet another celebration of quintessential Disney love. And yes, plenty of love-themed snacks will keep your hearts all aglow.

A new Disneyland After Dark theme, Disney Channel Nite, is meant to reignite the kid in all of us. With the return of stars from the channel's Renaissance in the early 2000s, Millennial and older Gen Z'ers will geek out. Why not go and live your best "Camp Rock" style life? You can even attend a pep rally and relive those "High School Musical" musical fantasy moments. After all, we're all in this together.

Like any good After Dark event, there is a dance party, this time hosted by none other than Phineas and Ferb. There will also be guest star sightings by other "Phineas and Ferb" characters — perhaps Perry the Platypus? Plus, as is the standard for After Dark parties, there will be a bunch of exclusive, themed photo ops. You can roar it out with "The Cheetah Girls" or find out what dreams are made of with "Lizzie McGuire."

You also can't forget the snacks — a staple for any Disney Channel binge. However, it'll be a missed opportunity if the chili cheese nachos at Café Daisy aren't somehow related to Rufus the naked mole rat.

Sith, Jedi, and porgs — oh my! Another new celebration at Disneyland is the Star Wars-themed festival, Season of the Force, which will not incur additional tickets outside of day admission. Rides like Space Mountain will be transformed into Hyperspace Mountain and there will also be limited-edition food and merchandise. Disneyland Paris held a Season of the Force in 2018, offering Disneyland a blueprint for their iteration.

Running between April 5 and June 2, you'll see the Star Wars themes played up for Earthlings and citizens of Batuu alike. It's no coincidence that May 4 (May the Fourth Be With You) falls during the festival. At the event, Disneyland will also unveil the new ride scenarios for Star Tours — The Adventures Continue, which were teased earlier in 2023.

Since this is the first time the Season of the Force will take place at Disneyland, not all details have been publicly released. So, wait in anticipation we must for what's to come.

Once you're ready to depart a galaxy far, far away and head back to Earth, get ready for the bold colors of Pixar. Over in California Adventure from mid-April to early August (you read that right), the park is all about Pixar Fest, making its return after previously spreading joy in 2018. Beloved characters and themes from the studio's various properties will be out and about with special nighttime shows and parades. Just watch out if you smell strawberries — you don't want to mess with Lotso.

This year's Pixar Fest will have a new parade to commemorate the festival. Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration! will unite characters from all over the Pixar-verse.

Don't use up all your emotions during the day, though. It wouldn't be a Pixar party without some waterworks. Together Forever — A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular is bound to make even the stingiest fan misty-eyed, with the fireworks show featuring new scenes (presumably from properties that debuted since the last Pixar fest). So, you may want to embrace your inner red panda and go with the (tear) flow.

While the Gospel music performances in February are only on two nights, June has an entire month of musical celebrations. Even Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln will have an exhibit on Black American heroes like Frederick Douglass. Black Music Month allows guests to taste specialty food and beverages that reflect Black culture. The celebration's menu items include the BBQ Hot Link Sandwich and Strawberry Cheesecake Funnel Cake Fries à la Mode at California Adventure.

The month's theme is Celebrate Soulfully, though that extends far beyond the musical tributes throughout Disneyland Resort. Even Downtown Disney is in on the fun. Each night during the festival, the Downtown Disney LIVE Stage showcases musicians from a range of musical genres. And if you miss the first set or two, don't worry. Four sets are performed each night, with up to 17 groups playing. You could potentially go every night and see different acts each time.

Over in California Adventure Park, you'll discover the Dia de los Muertos tradition of Celebration of Coco Plaza de la Familia. This event takes over the Paradise Gardens with "Coco" characters, traditional Mexican cuisine, and plenty of music for the whole familia. Dates for Plaza de la Familia largely overlap with the Oogie Boogie Bash parties and the overall Halloween aesthetic for autumn. It runs from early September into early November.

While not as all-encompassing as other festivals, there are still quite a few things to do when "Coco" takes over Paradise Gardens. It won't take you all day to enjoy everything, but you can pop over here for some specialty food, celebration merchandise, live entertainment, and photo ops. Keep an eye out for Dante; he's usually around for a goofy tongues-out selfie moment. So grab some Elote and get ready to say "cheese!"

As a Disney Parks fanatic, there are elements of both U.S. parks that make visiting them so many times extra exciting. Special events held between Walt Disney World and Disneyland keep things interesting year after year.

Several of these events, like Oogie Boogie Bash, are annual traditions that don't change a ton every year, giving guests a good understanding of what to expect. However, Disneyland is always cooking something new to give folks like Magic Key holders (the park's annual pass program) an excuse to return.

When applicable, the recommendations are buffeted by personal experience. When that isn't possible, and the events have happened before, we turned to frequent Disneyland attendees who write about their experiences in well-known Disney expert publications. However, a few of these events, like Season of the Force, haven't happened before. In that case, we had to rely on information provided to publications from Disneyland, filling in the blanks with lived experiences of other such events.