When 100,000 adults dress up as Disney princesses: D23 pumps millions into Southern California

At the Anaheim Convention Center in California, there were no small bags. Of course, there were no paper ones either, since plastic is king here.

D23, which ran from August 14 to 16, is the convention that Disney, together with all its branches and brands (Disney Channel, Disney+, Star Wars, Marvel, Hulu, theme parks, cruise lines, clothing, trading cards, and more), holds every two years in Southern California, in the very same city that is home to its first theme park, Disneyland. Every 24 months, the most devoted Disney fans make the pilgrimage to the convention, dressed as their favorite characters, eager to discover the company’s latest announcements, take thousands of photos, and shop, shop, shop because the plastic bags handed out by the merchandise stores were truly enormous. The bigger, the better.

For D23, the sky was the limit, whether in imagination, scale, spending, or costumes, which were crafted and detailed to the highest degree. Disney is well aware of the devotion of its followers and organized three full days, a long weekend, packed with events. There were no official attendance figures, but outlets such as The New York Times estimate that more than 100,000 people attended; each ticket cost $99 per day. On Wednesday, there was a Disney-themed baseball game; on Thursday, VIP park tours, dinners, and special events. Then the real celebration began. For three days, the convention took over Anaheim’s convention center, a 170,000-square-meter venue located about an hour south of Los Angeles.

Four stages hosted a total of 60 themed panels, covering everything from how National Geographic documentaries are made to talks marking the 35th anniversary of Beauty and the Beast. But that’s only part of the attraction. There were also costume contests, immersive spaces dedicated to shows such as Scrubs and The Simpsons, pin-trading areas where individual pins can sell for as much as $350, Lorcana card game zones, brand stores from companies like Crocs and Pandora, and photo opportunities on recreated sets from The Devil Wears Prada and Only Murders in the Building. Visitors could also pose with Pixar’s iconic yellow Luxo balls or see Grammy Awards won by the company on display.

In addition, the nearby Honda Center hosts the day’s marquee presentation each evening, drawing around 13,000 attendees. It is the convention’s main attraction and the event that also earns it coverage from the wider press. Friday was devoted to Disney’s film and television slate, with first looks at Frozen 3 and the next Star Wars film, as well as the announcement of a third Zootopia installment. Saturday focused on theme parks and cruise ships, with Disney unveiling a new Villains-themed land at its Orlando resort and the world’s first Lion King attraction at Disneyland Paris. Sunday was reserved for the induction of the latest Disney Legends, the company’s hall of fame, which now includes 329 members. This year, actors Anne Hathaway and Dwayne Johnson, the Jonas Brothers, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and former Disney chief executive Bob Iger joined the ranks.

D23, named after the company’s initial and its founding year, 1923, is designed for fans. Its official title is D23: Ultimate Disney Fan Event, and it grew out of a fan club launched by Bob Iger, then Disney’s CEO, in 2009. The convention has been held since 2010. Over time, however, it has also become a showcase for the company itself: a platform for unveiling new projects and revealing some of Disney’s closely guarded secrets. One section of the convention, for example, is devoted entirely to the company’s archives. That makes the event particularly important for Disney employees, who have the opportunity to present work that may have taken years to develop and is not always as publicly visible as a television series or a song. It is also a chance to make themselves heard. During this year’s convention, some employees demonstrated outside the convention center to demand better pay.

Among those eager to highlight their work are Disney’s imagineers, the “imagination engineers” responsible for creating the attractions found in Disney parks around the world. Spain-born Pasqual Sebastià is one of them. Although his home base is Disney’s Los Angeles operation, his work has taken him everywhere.

“I’ve helped create at least one attraction at every Disney resort in the world,” he explains at the pavilion showcasing future park attractions. There, visitors can preview projects such as the upcoming Coco ride at Disneyland in California, along with new developments tied to Marvel and Star Wars.

These days, Sebastià, who describes himself as a senior sequence designer and ride animator, is helping lead the team behind what will be the world’s first Lion King attraction, slated to open at Disneyland Paris at an undetermined date in the future (Disney never reveals this information). Developing a single attraction can take around five years and involve a team of 400 to 500 people, “and sometimes thousands,” says the Spanish engineer, including “designers, civil engineers, architects, painters and artists.” For them, D23 is an opportunity to explain what they do and satisfy fans’ endless curiosity. “Our fans always want to know what’s coming next,” he says.

Anaheim, in fact, became the center of the Disney universe during the convention, as the event coincides with visits to the theme park. Home to around 350,000 residents, two major sports stadiums, a convention center and a modern rail station that links it to Los Angeles in little more than half an hour, it is the largest city in Orange County and relies on theme-park tourism year-round. What was once a small settlement founded by a handful of German families in the mid-19th century is now California’s tenth-largest city. Visitors arrive from around the world for D23, bringing with them a steady flow of spending that injects millions of dollars into the local economy.

Which is why one of the convention’s biggest attractions is its stores. Large and small, expensive and affordable, they all share one thing: long lines. Visitors can buy hoodies, T-shirts, figurines, posters, magnets and virtually every kind of Disney-branded merchandise imaginable. The cheapest items cost around $15, while the most expensive are original artworks by Disney artists, some priced at more than $80,000. A sweatshirt typically sells for about $80, while a backpack costs around $120. Some collectibles command even higher prices, such as limited-edition The Princess Diaries dolls, of which only 2,500 have been produced and which sell for $180.

Every store is different, of course, ensuring that visitors have to make a pilgrimage from one to the next in search of the item they want most. For many of them, virtual queues to secure a shopping slot open as early as 5 a.m. “And today it’s impossible to get a spot for the rest of the day. We’ll see what happens over the next few days,” said Summer, manager of the largest store, which carries items available only there or at Disney parks such as those in California, Paris and Hong Kong.

Emerging from the store laden with shopping bags were three friends helping one another readjust wigs and hats. It had taken them about two hours to get ready. Jessie, from Oregon; Lyn, from Arizona; and Tori, from California, had come dressed as modern reimaginings of Disney princesses, wearing “outfits created by an artist and reinterpreted,” as they put it. After months of planning the trip, they estimate they will spend around $6,000 altogether. On that first shopping trip alone, they had already spent $600.

“We love dressing up, coming here and being surrounded by other people who really commit to their characters,” said Jessie, dressed as Snow White. It is not their first D23 convention. And yes, they plan to come back.

Michelle Hernández and Mario Rivera, a married couple, were hard to miss at the entrance to the convention center, impeccably dressed in hand-painted outfits. Hernández had sewn her own skirt and, she explained, her father-in-law had hand-drawn a map of Neverland from Peter Pan across the fabric. The California couple live about an hour and a half north of Anaheim and choose to commute each day, in a different costume every time, rather than pay for the area’s notoriously expensive hotels.

“It’s expensive, really expensive,” they said. “We’ve been planning these outfits for about three years.”

They have already started preparing their costumes for the upcoming Star Wars convention, which will arrive in Anaheim in early April. Naturally, they bought their tickets as soon as they went on sale. It was a wise decision: even with more than eight months to go, the event has already sold out. Fan culture is extending its reach and its spending power further than ever, and earlier too.

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