“When will Disney start selling tickets for the 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash?” is a common reader question right now, especially after Disneyland announced dates for the Halloween party. We’ll try to answer based on what we know based on historical announcement dates, past demand, and more.
As with all of these speculative posts, we’ll start by underscoring the fact that Madame Leota is not employed by this blog, which is to say that we don’t have a crystal ball. No one can give you a definitive answer about when Disneyland will release 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party tickets. The same holds true for pretty much anything that hasn’t been officially announced, released internally, or leaked.
So if you’re the kind of person who thinks this type of prognostication post is a “waste of time,” then there’s nothing for you here. Consider instead subscribing to our free email newsletter for instant alerts, which will provide you an update when Disney announces the date that 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash tickets will go on sale or there’s another official update. (Just be warned–tickets will sell out FAST, so you’ll want to be ready to buy right away.) This post merely attempts to offer insight as to when that date will be based on past precedent and changes for 2024 in response the above reader questions…
While Disneyland hasn’t released full details, we now have a pretty good picture of what this year’s Halloween season will entail (see our full 2024 Guide to Halloween at Disneyland Resort for everything beyond Oogie Boogie Bash), with spook season kicking off on August 23––the first time ever it has ever kicked off that early, and essentially two weeks earlier than normal.
As is typical, the 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash won’t get going until a little after the rest of the Halloween Time festivities and fun. The good news–if you like the event, bad news if you don’t–is that Oogie Boogie Bash also starts earlier than ever and with a total of 27 event dates for Halloween 2024, which is 2 more nights than last year…
Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party will start in August for the first time in the Halloween party’s history. This year, the event will begin on August 25 (versus September 5 last year) and run through October 31, 2024. The limited-capacity, separately ticketed event will be held on 27 nights from late August through October, adding family-friendly fun for guests of all ages the opportunity during Halloween Time. See our full Guide to the 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party for every single date and all other details.
As for when tickets will go on sale, Disneyland has provided no official start date. Just that they’ll provide more details “in the coming weeks” about the event, including when ticket sales will start. So here’s where our speculation begins, based on the ticket sales for Disney California Adventure’s Halloween party each of the last few years.
Last year, Magic Key pre-sale tickets went on sale for last year’s Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party beginning on June 27. General public ticket sales were supposed to start on June 29 last year. However, technical difficulties essentially pushed that back for a couple of weeks until mid-July.
However, it is worth noting that Oogie Boogie Bash dates and details weren’t even announced until late June last year, almost exactly one week before pre-sales started.
This closely parallels what happened in 2022, albeit with the official announcement coming approximately two weeks earlier in mid-June of that year. (In comparing the years, that’s still over a month after the 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash dates were announced.)
Tickets went on sale for the 2022 Oogie Boogie Bash beginning on June 28 as a pre-sale exclusively for Magic Key holders. On June 30, the general public was able to purchase Oogie Boogie Bash tickets.
In 2022, there was also a multi-hour virtual queue to purchase tickets on both June 28 and June 30. It took us about 4 hours to purchase our party tickets on June 28. Some Magic Key holders had shorter waits, others reported longer times. The queue also crashed once or twice, and had issues with payment processing while we were checking out.
Some 2022 Oogie Boogie Bash nights sold out within days of going on sale, and ALL dates were gone by July 3, at which point tickets for Oogie Boogie Bash totally sold out.
Tickets went on sale later the previous year–on July 13, 2021. However, I don’t really think that’s relevant as Disneyland had just reopened and was racing to restore normalcy, which didn’t happen until mid-June. It’s frankly a small miracle that the Halloween party happened that year at all, it’s more of an anomaly and doesn’t offer insight or precedent. Nor do the 2019 or earlier Halloween events.
Our best guess is that 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash ticket sales will start no later than late June, just like last year and the year before that. However, with the announcement date moving forward, so too could the sales date. We definitely don’t expect sales to start within the next week, though. Honestly, we’d be surprised if sales begin in May 2024 at all.
It’ll probably happen consistent with last year (and the year before that), hopefully minus all the technical difficulties. Since the announcement did come over a month early, I wouldn’t be surprised if the sales dates moved forward by a couple weeks.
But really, there’s not much sense of urgency–unless there’s a truly massive price increase, Disneyland will have zero issues selling out all dates of the 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash. This is a big part of why Disneyland has always started sales of Oogie Boogie Bash tickets later than Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Walt Disney World–there’s no rush since every single night sells out every single year.
To that point, expect difficulties buying Oogie Boogie Bash tickets. Not to scare you, but last year there was a multi-hour virtual queue during Magic Key presales, with all tickets during that exclusive window selling out before everyone in line had a chance to buy. The following week during the general public sales false start, there was also a multi-hour virtual queue–very few people were able to complete transactions before the queue closed due to technical difficulties.
Two weeks later, there was once again a virtual queue for the second attempt at general public sales. Every single night of Oogie Boogie Bash sold out on that day, and before everyone had a chance to buy. We know someone who was in all three of those virtual queues, wasting 12+ hours in the process, who was shut out of tickets completely. That’s massively bad luck, but it did happen!
We are expecting this year to go smoother because how could it not?! (Famous last words.) Nevertheless, there will be multi-hour virtual queues, of this much we are certain. Just hopefully not the technical difficulties…and maybe a tad less demand? Or at least a bit more supply thanks to 2 extra nights!
Once again, if you want to be notified ASAP when Disney announces the sales date for tickets to the 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash, subscribe to our FREE email newsletter for updates. If you don’t do that, we highly recommend visiting the Disneyland website daily for updates, as you will absolutely want to be ready to purchase tickets on day one when sales start. Also again, not trying to scare you–just trying to set realistic expectations after hearing from tons of readers in the last few years who waited to purchase and got shut out.
We will certainly be buying our 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash tickets ASAP, and strongly recommend you do the same if you know you want to attend this year’s event. Even if demand isn’t as strong this year, the Halloween parties will likely sell out during the first week of sales at the latest. That’s par for the course with Oogie Boogie Bash!
That’s why we were hoping for more party nights and, honestly, are a bit disappointed that Disneyland opted “only” for 27 nights of Oogie Boogie Bash. Yes, that’s the most ever…but it’s only 2 more nights than last year despite the Halloween season being 2 weeks longer. Our prediction was 30 nights of Oogie Boogie Bash in August, September and October 2024.
We also said that it wouldn’t surprise us if there are as many as 33 parties. In looking at the calendar, it seemed like 33 nights were possible if they really stretched and crammed in more dates during the off-season. Instead, they added August nights but took a random week-long break between the September 3 and 10 parties, which makes no sense to me.
Having 30+ parties could’ve really helped relieve some of the pressure on the high-demand event. It also seems very doable during the late August and early September off-season. I’m surprised Disneyland didn’t get more aggressive on that end of the calendar!
Ultimately, we’re looking forward to the 2024 Oogie Boogie Bash…assuming we’re able to score tickets! We’ve really enjoyed the first few years of this Halloween Party, and are still hoping that Disneyland will continue to build on that success and scale it up. But with last year selling out in record time–and probably enough demand to sell out the entire event 2 to 3 times over–there probably isn’t a ton of incentive to add anything else (unless it increases capacity, in which case…).
In our view, Oogie Boogie Bash is great–but still falls short as compared to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in every regard except characters (which are very, very good at Oogie Boogie Bash). In particular, fleshing out the parade and adding one more piece of cornerstone entertainment–ideally, a stage show or another new Halloween edition of World of Color–would really help elevate the event. However, there’s also the reality that Disneyland does more for Halloween as a whole, and most of that is included in regular admission–so Oogie Boogie Bash and Halloween as a whole at Disneyland Resort is pretty good, all things considered!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
YOUR THOUGHTS
When do you think OBB tickets will go on sale? Same date as last year, or a bit earlier since the announcement came earlier? Or later since Disneyland knows every single date is going to sell out, even if they were to release tickets on August 25? Did you attend last year’s Oogie Boogie Bash? Do you disagree with my assessment of the Halloween Party? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
