Bats Day in the Fun Park, also known as ''Bats Day'', ''Goth Day'', ''Goth Day at Disneyland'', ''The Spooky Trip to Disneyland Resort, CA.'', ''Bats Day in the Park'' and ''Bats Day Out'', started in August 1999 as a joint effort between the promoters of the goth, industrial, and deathrock

clubs Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

Absynthe and Release the Bats. It has become an annual three-day event taking place in

Anaheim, CA Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

near

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...

. In previous years, the events commenced on the weekend before Labor Day. Since about 2008, Bats Day event weekends have usually happened on the first or third weekend in May.

Events

For several years, Bats Day in the Fun Park had six events: * The Bats Day Black Market - A large gathering of vendors selling darkly-inclined items, including clothing, music, artwork, books, collectibles, toys, and other original genre items. * The Bats Day Ghoulish Gala (originally called The Bats Day Creepy Cocktail Party) - This event typically happens the night of the Black Market, and is a catered hors d'œuvres cocktail party with a

raffle A raffle is a gambling competition in which people obtain numbered tickets, each of which has the chance of winning a prize. At a set time, the winners are drawn at random from a container holding a copy of each number. The drawn tickets are che ...

. * The Nightmare Before Bats Day Dinner - A full sit down

dinner Dinner usually refers to what is in many Western cultures the largest and most formal meal of the day, which is eaten in the evening. Historically, the largest meal used to be eaten around midday, and called dinner. Especially among the elite ...

. * The Bats Day Dark Park Festival - A live music and DJ event festival geared to the Dark Alternative Subculture. This event was added in 2008. * The Bats Day Happy Haunts Swing Wake: A Costumed Celebration - A new event as of 2011, this is a costumed gala event where attendees are required to dress as the

undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if alive. Most commonly the term refers to corporeal forms of formerly-alive humans, such as mummies, vampires, and zombies, who have been reanimated by supe ...

or their favorite Disneyland

Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displa ...

character. Creativity is celebrated, and

costumes Costume is the distinctive style of dress or cosmetic of an individual or group that reflects class, gender, profession, ethnicity, nationality, activity or epoch. In short costume is a cultural visual of the people. The term also was tradition ...

and

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

from all time periods are encouraged to attend and celebrate the afterlife. This event happens Friday night, the start of the weekend of events, and is a catered hors d'œuvres cocktail party for the first hour, with a raffle, DJs and live entertainment. * Bats Day in the Fun Park - The Big Spooky Trip to

. Bats Day patrons dress in their Gothic attire for the annual visit to either Disneyland Park or

Disney California Adventure Park Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...

, depending where the event is being held. There are other scheduled events and gatherings on this day, including a large group picture in front of

Sleeping Beauty Castle Sleeping Beauty Castle is a fairy tale castle at the center of Disneyland and formerly at Hong Kong Disneyland. It is based on the late 19th century Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany. It appeared in the Walt Disney Pictures logos from 198 ...

, group pictures at the Haunted Mansion, and a photo

scavenger hunt ''Scavenger Hunt'' is a 1979 American comedy film with a large ensemble cast which includes Richard Benjamin, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gordon, Cloris Leachman, Cleavon Little, Roddy McDowall, Robert Morley, Richard Mulligan, Tony R ...

History

The event started as a relatively small goth "meet up" event of about 80 people from two dance clubs, Absynthe and Release the Bats. It has grown to include more aspects of the goth subculture. Other dark subcultures represented at the event include

Horror punk Horror punk is a music genre that mixes punk rock and 1950s-influenced doo-wop and rockabilly sounds with morbid and violent imagery and lyrics which are often influenced by horror films and science fiction B-movies. The genre was pioneered b ...

, Halloween,

Rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the South. As a genre it blends the sound of Western musical styles such as country with that of rhythm and blu ...

, Psychobilly,

Black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...

, Steampunk,

Hearse A hearse is a large vehicle, originally a horse carriage but later with the introduction of motor vehicles, a car, used to carry the body of a deceased person in a coffin at a funeral, wake, or memorial service. They range from deliberately a ...

Societies, Industrial and EBM. Noah Korda, a graphic artist and club promoter in Los Angeles, is the organizer of the event. The event draws people from not only the local area but all over the world, including New Zealand, England, Brazil, France, Germany and Mexico. It has evolved into a family friendly event as well. Parents in this subculture are able to bond with their children at the "Happiest Place on Earth" more comfortably at an event such as this one, whereas they might be regarded as out-of-place on any other weekend at Disneyland or other

theme parks An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

. An article on the event appeared in the June 2009 issue of Gothic Beauty Magazine. Though there are rumors that this event occurred due to the success of a similar event called 'Baumaus', the two clubs promoting this event claim that they had no idea that 'Baumaus' ever happened. Bats Day in the Fun Park helped solidify and push the ''DisneyGoth'' community into the public eye. The event turned 20 years in May 2018 and is going back to its roots of just a park meet, for the time being.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bats Day In The Fun Park Music festivals established in 1999 Goth festivals Disneyland Goth subculture Electronic music festivals in the United States Articles containing video clips Haunted Mansion Industrial music festivals Disney California Adventure

Events

History

See also

References

External links