At the Anaheim Convention Center in California, there are no small bags. Of course, there are no paper ones, since here plastic is king. The D23 convention (from August 14 to 16) is the event that the Disney company, with all its branches (Disney Channel, Disney+, Star Wars, Marvel, Hulu, theme parks, cruises, clothing, cards…), holds every two years in the southern part of the state, in the same city where it hosts its first park, Disneyland. Every 24 months, the craziest fans of the mouse factory travel here, dressed in honor of their favorite characters, to learn about the company’s news, take thousands of photos, and shop, shop a lot. Because the plastic bags from the merchandising stores are really huge. The more, the better.
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For D23, the sky is the limit—in imagination, space, spending, costumes, cared for to the extreme. Disney knows the devotion of its followers and organizes three days, a long weekend, of events. There are no official figures, but media like The New York Times estimate more than 100,000 attendees; each ticket costs 99 dollars per day (85 euros). On Wednesday, there is a Disney-themed baseball game; on Thursday, VIP park visits, dinners, and events. Then the party begins, which for three days fills the convention center of this city an hour south of Los Angeles, with 170,000 square meters.
Four stages with a total of 60 themed panels (ranging from how National Geographic documentaries are filmed to talks for the 35th anniversary of Beauty and the Beast, but also costume contests or themed areas for series like Scrubs or The Simpsons), pin trading zones (pins cost up to 350 dollars, more than 300 euros, each), Lorcana card spaces, brand stores like Crocs or Pandora, or stands to take photos on sets from The Devil Wears Prada or Only Murders in the Building, with the famous Pixar yellow balls or the Grammy awards won by the company.
Additionally, the nearby Honda Stadium hosts the day’s main exhibition at the end of the day, attended by about 13,000 people. It is the biggest attraction, with which the convention also earns the respect of the press. On Friday, the presentation of Disney’s audiovisual novelties takes place, where the first images of Frozen 3 and the new Star Wars were shown, and the third installment of Zootopia was announced, for example. Saturday focuses on parks and cruises, where a new area called Villainville was exhibited at the Orlando park and the world’s first The Lion King attraction at Disneyland Paris; Sunday was the proclamation of the so-called Disney Legends, a podium of 329 people that this year includes actors like Anne Hathaway and Dwayne Johnson, singers Jonas Brothers, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and the company’s former president, Bob Iger.
D23 — which takes its name from the company’s initial and the year of its founding, 1923 — is designed for fans. In fact, its official name is D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, that is, the ultimate event for Disney fans, and it is part of a fan club created in 2009 by Bob Iger, then president of the company, which has been holding this big event since 2010. But over time it has also become a showcase for the company itself, for its novelties, and to reveal some of its always desired secrets (for example, there is a whole area at the convention where archives are shown). Hence it is key for its workers, who have the opportunity to present years of work, which is not always something as public as a series or a song. Also to gain visibility: these days, some of them have protested at the convention center doors asking for salary improvements.
Among those who highlight their work, for example, are the imagineers, the name given to the “imagination engineers” who create Disney park attractions. Valencian Pasqual Sebastià is one, a designer among them. Although his office is the Los Angeles park, he has a girlfriend in every port. “Yes, I have participated in the creation of at least one attraction in all the resorts worldwide,” he explains at the stand dedicated to attractions coming to the parks, where you can see what the Coco attraction in Disneyland California will be like, for example, or the new developments from Marvel or Star Wars.
These years, Sebastià — who defines himself as a senior sequence designer and ride animator, something like an animator and attraction designer — and his team are shaping the world’s first The Lion King attraction, which will arrive in Paris in some time (undetermined; they never reveal this data). Each attraction can take about five years to create, and a team of between 400 and 500 people, “and even thousands,” explains this Valencian engineer, “with designers, civil engineers, architects, painters, artists…”. For them, being here is educating about what they do, and satisfying the curiosity of many fans. “Our followers always want to know what comes next,” he admits.
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In fact, Anaheim is the epicenter of the Disney world these days by combining the convention with park entry. With about 350,000 inhabitants, two stadiums, a convention center, and a modern train station that connects it to the city in just over half an hour, it is the most important city in Orange County (south of Los Angeles) and lives off park tourism all year round. What was a small town formed by half a dozen German families in the mid-19th century is today the tenth largest city in all of California and, according to Forbes, with its three million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, it is already the seventh economy in the entire US. D23 leaves a cascade of millions in it, with visitors coming from all over the world ready to spend and buy.
Hence one of its biggest attractions is the stores. Huge, small, of all prices and kinds, but with something in common: the lines. In them, you can buy sweatshirts, t-shirts, dolls, posters, magnets, and everything related to the brand. The cheapest items cost around 15 dollars (13 euros); the most expensive are art prints designed by Disney creators that exceed 80,000 dollars (70,000 euros). The average price of a sweatshirt is around 80 (70 euros); a backpack, 120 (103 euros). There are items, like the limited edition Princess by Surprise dolls (only 2,500 exist) that cost 180 dollars (155 euros).
All the stores are different, of course, so you have to go from one to another in search of the desired item. For many of them, the virtual queues to book a physical appointment (that’s how modern lines are) open from five in the morning. “And today it is impossible to get a spot all day, we’ll see the other days,” said Summer on Friday, the manager of the largest one, with items only available in that store or in some park, whether California, Paris, or Hong Kong.
Loaded with bags, three friends came out helping each other adjust wigs and hats (they had taken about two hours to get ready), Jessie from Oregon; Lyn from Arizona; and Tori from California. They were modernized new princesses, with “dresses made by an artist, reinterpreted,” they said. After months planning the visit, they estimate they will have spent about 6,000 dollars (around 5,500 euros), estimating high: just in the store, they had 600. “We love putting it all on, and coming here and dressing up with other people who really get into the character,” said Jessie, dressed as Snow White. It is not her first convention. And yes, they will repeat.
The couple formed by Michelle Hernández and Mario Rivera caught attention at the entrance of the convention center, elegantly dressed in hand-painted suits. She had sewn her own skirt and her father-in-law, she said, had hand-drawn the map of Neverland from Peter Pan on it. The Californians live an hour and a half north of Anaheim, and prefer to commute every day (with their corresponding suit) to save money on the area’s prohibitive hotels. “It’s expensive, very expensive,” they said. “We’ve been planning these suits for about three years,” they recounted. They also already have plans for the Star Wars convention that will come to the city in early April. Of course, they already have tickets, bought as soon as they were released. They did well: although there are more than eight months left, they are also sold out. The fan phenomenon spreads its tentacles, and its dollars, with increasing strength and anticipation.
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