Disney fans at Expo D23: “As if we were all part of a big nerd sect”

An the breakfast buffet at the Marriott Hotel in Anaheim, Southern California, it’s not uncommon to see someone with Mickey Mouse ears on their heads. After all, the hotel is within walking distance of Disneyland, the legendary first amusement park that Walt Disney personally opened here in 1955, less than an hour south of Los Angeles, where souvenir shops have been an integral part of the business model from the very beginning. But when someone in a complete Snow White costume is sitting at the next table with an omelette and coffee, and a little later a group of Stormtroopers in white “Star Wars” armor crosses the lobby, then you get the feeling that it might not be an ordinary weekend after all.

Right next to the hotel is the Anaheim Convention Center, an unadorned event complex where the D23 Expo takes place every two years in autumn (and this year for the first time since 2019 due to Corona). The event with the rather enigmatic name, which alludes to the year 1923 when Walt Disney founded his company, is the reason for the numerous costumed hotel guests: the gathering of the official Disney fan club D23, one of the most unusual major events in the not poor entertainment industry.

Events where fan enthusiasm and the desire to disguise meet commercialization and marketing are of course not uncommon. The San Diego Comic Con and countless offshoots or imitators are the best, well-established example of this. But the D23 Expo is a very special case, after all, a single group can be celebrated here. And uses the opportunity to promote new products properly and, ideally, to sell lots of merchandise.

Harrison Ford and Jamie Lee Curtis

The focus of the three-day events again this year were two shows lasting several hours, in which upcoming productions were presented, some of which will be shown in cinemas or on the Disney+ streaming service a few weeks later, but sometimes only next year. Hundreds of fans, in the rarest of cases particularly young fans, are already waiting in front of the gates in the middle of the night to get the best seats in the end, and finally sit tightly packed in an exhibition hall to see a few exclusive excerpts, new trailers or posters , which are almost always released on the Internet a few hours later.

You pay up to 279 dollars for a three-day ticket at the D23 Expo (those who also have a gold membership in the fan club, which also has to be paid for, get a discount), and a corresponding amount of effort is made to offer the audience at least spectacular added value. Harrison Ford comes by personally to give a genuinely moved first look at the new Indiana Jones film. Jamie Lee Curtis, who will have a small role in Haunted Mansion (based on the Disneyland haunted house), causes enthusiastic cheers without saying a word. And as a self-deprecating gag, Marvel boss Kevin Feige had an “Avengers” musical number composed exclusively for the event in Anaheim, which will be brought to the stage with a real band and dancers.

Being offered things that can only be experienced on site seems to be only one reason for making the journey to Anaheim. Every second speech from the stage emphasizes that anyone who is a D23 member belongs to the big, happy Disney family, and – as the company has presented itself since the days of company founder Walt Disney – it is just one absolute “happy place”. Fired up by enthusiastically friendly employees, similar to those you know from neighboring Disneyland, there is a sense of togetherness (or at least they claim to be) that the fans seem only too happy to indulge in. Which doesn’t mean that Disney CEO Bob Chapek, who has been leading the company since 2020 and has since acted in many respects without luck to the point of being controversial, is greeted with unmistakable boos from the audience.