Raver Day at Disneyland: Best Festival Ever?

It’s strange, the looks you get driving down the freeway in Mickey Mouse ears, but the moment you turn into the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure, you seem to fit right in. Instantly, cast members welcome you as the prince or princess you truly are, and suddenly it’s not so weird to express your Disney fanaticism through pins, shirts, hats and other collectibles.

We get that same magical feeling at music festivals, especially during EDC and Burning Man, where dressing up is part of the experience. Zombie walking through your hotel lobby at 7am in full rave gear and shopping at the gas station wearing dust-covered fluffies always garners the most interesting stares.

If you’re like us, then you don’t care what other people think. Those dishing out the weird looks are actually the ones missing out. This was totally the case at the 12th Annual Raver Day hosted at Disneyland this past weekend, which felt like a festival all its own.

You’d think festivals and clubs were the only places to get your EDM fix, but the Mad T Party at Disney California Adventure offers the closest thing you’ll get to a rave.

Dressing Up

Everyone knows the best part of festivals is dressing up. It’s a chance for ravers to live freely and be whoever or whatever they want for the night. The same is true at Disneyland. Raver Day combines the best of DJ culture with all types of Disney character get-ups. We even saw Sulley from Monsters, Inc. decked out in a kandi mask!

Characters & Performers

Throughout the day, characters from our favorite Disney films walk around the park and interact with all the ravers, adding to the wonder of the experience. And they’re hilarious, like Cruella de Vil, who tried to take our Hello Kitty plush backpack for her own fur coat designs. They made us feel like we were in a fairytale.

The performers at EDC are just the same, dressed as clowns and running across the festival grounds putting on a show of their own. The characters and performers at Disneyland and EDC take us into an imaginary world that brings us closer to our friends and the music and enhances our overall experience.

Rides

Today’s mega-festivals boast Ferris wheels and thrilling carnival rides, and Disneyland is no exception. We had a blast on King Triton’s Carousel, and we think it would be the perfect addition to every music festival. There’s so much to do, see, and hear at EDC Vegas already, but make sure you give yourself enough time to hop on the rides and run through the funhouses. You won’t regret it. Now if only we can get them to play EDM on the rides at Disneyland; then we would be in heaven.

Meet-Ups

Cell phone reception at festivals sucks. Disneyland gets just as packed, with texts received and sent at dial-up speed. Skip the texts and use the old school rave meet-up mentality. Picking an exact time and location to meet your festie besties is by far the best way.

Raver Day has scheduled meet-ups throughout the day at the various castles and Disneyland landmarks like Pirates of the Caribbean and Star Tours. But the surefire way to find fellow ravers this past weekend was at the Mad T Party, where Adam Auburn was throwing down as the White Rabbit DJ.

Which leads us to…

Dance-Offs

You’d think festivals and clubs were the only places to get your EDM fix, but the Mad T Party at Disney California Adventure offers the closest thing you’ll get to a rave, where large dance circles pit old school ravers with today’s shufflers. The Mad T Party has become a place for kids to show off their tutting and krumping skills as adults and parents sip Long Islands from the House of Cards bar and watch in amazement.