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Sleeping Beauty Castle during Disney Channel Nite at Disneyland.

Recently, Disney updated the ‘After Dark’ page of their website and quietly confirmed the return of three after dark themes returning in 2025. They are Sweetheart’s Nite, Star Wars Nite and Pride Nite. All three ran multiple dates in 2024, however, there’s one notable absence from the list - Disney Channel Nite.

While not outright confirmed by Disney, it does appear as though Disney Channel Nite failed to make the cut for 2025. It’s no surprise, really. The event only ran for two dates in 2024 and both took an abnormally long time to sell out. While my wife and I had a great time during our experience at the event, it’s no surprise Disney decided against a repeat, as that’s usually an indication of a lack of interest on the guest’s part.

Looping back to the three that did make the cut, the only confirmation was that they were returning. There wasn’t any information as to dates, price, and activities released. However, there is plenty of historical data to look back on to summarize. But first…

What are After Dark Events?

If you’ve never heard of Disneyland After Dark events, they’re after-hours, hard-ticketed events held during the first half of the year at Disneyland. By ‘hard-ticketed’, I mean they’re not included with your regular park ticket and you’ll need to purchase an event-specific ticket in order to attend.

On event nights, Disneyland park will close early to regular park guests, usually at 9pm. Guests with an event ticket are allowed entry into the park three hours prior to start time and are given a wristband. If a guest doesn’t have one, they’ll be asked to leave once the park closes.

Aside from Oogie Boogie Bash, which isn’t generally considered part of the after dark line up, the events run for four hours, from 9pm to 1am. During the party, guests are treated to special photo opportunities, rare character appearances, dance parties, parades, specialty food and drink options, event merchandise, and more.

Now, let’s take a look at Disneyland’s 2025 after dark line up and what they entail.

Sweethearts Nite

First, we’ll discuss Sweethearts Nite, as this will be the first after dark event held in 2025. Sweethearts Nite takes place on select nights in late January and February, with the final event usually taking place on or shortly after Valentine’s Day.

In 2024, tickets for Sweethearts Nite started at $139 and topped out at $169, with dates closer to and on Valentine’s Day commanding the higher end of the pricing spectrum. During the event, the main attraction were rare character appearances and meet and greets, including Indiana Jones and Marion.

Sweethearts Nite has been a mainstay since Disney started running after dark events in 2019 and has gotten more and more popular every year. Tickets sell out quickly and typically go on sale in November. I expect expanded dates this year, still throughout the months of January and February, though.

Star Wars Nite

Star Wars Nite has been another popular addition to the after dark line up over the years. Year after year, it’s usually the event with the most dates and they often coincide with “Season of the Force”, a separate event that takes place during the day in Tomorrowland and Galaxy’s Edge.

In 2024, Disney ran multiple event nights, more than prior years, throughout the months of April and May. Like Sweethearts Nite, tickets topped out at $169, however, started much higher at $159. And unlike prior years, it look an exceptionally long time to sell out.

You could argue that was because prices were higher and there were more dates, and you wouldn’t be wrong. Those aspects certainly played a part, but I feel it had more to do with the lack of any substantial changes made to the event and guests (locals, namely) grew tired of it.

The event did eventually sell out, making its return in 2025 an all-but-certain reality, which has now proven to be accurate. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney ran fewer nights next year. Look for tickets to Star Wars Nite to go on sale in February 2025.

Pride Nite

Returning for its third year, Pride Nite has been quite successful for Disney, offering the LGBTQ+ community and their allies their own night of celebration. Historically speaking, there aren’t many dates offered for this event, with only two in 2023 and 2024, respectively. However, based on its past success, I expect that to change in 2025.

At past events, Pride Nite featured rare character appearances, photo opportunities, specialty menu items, a pride parade (cavalcade style) down Main Street U.S.A, a Ohana dance party featuring Lilo and Stitch, line dancing at the Golden Horseshoe Saloon, and more.

June is pride month, and Disney will likely continue to hold Pride Nites in that month. Following the usual two month in advance sales pattern, expect tickets for Pride Nite 2025 to go on sale in April.

Will There Be a Fourth After Dark Event?

The presumed exclusion of Disney Channel Nite leaves an open slot for a fourth after dark event, which begs the question as to what it’ll be, assuming Disney even wants to do one. It seems as though Disney is desperately trying to create an event that appeals to nostalgic millennials, with Throwback Nite in 2023 and Disney Channel Nite in 2024, and just haven’t been able to nail it down, so-to-speak.

With March being the spiritual halfway point to Disneyland’s Halloween season, they could take another crack at a Villains Nite, like they did in 2022, to piggyback on the ever growing success of Oogie Boogie Bash. Disney likes to make a big deal out of the “Halfway to Halloween” celebration, so running Villains Nite events during that period could be a great way to drum up additional hype.

While I don’t necessarily believe this to be the case, as millennials have been cash-cows for Disney in recent years, there’s the argument that Disney could be moving away from nostalgia-related events and towards something recent. What that would be, exactly, remains a mystery.

As stated above, though, I don’t think that’s the case. Nostalgia is big business across multiple industries. But none, in my opinion, know how to capitalize and deliver on it better than Disney. They just need to iron out the theme and its marketing, and tickets will undoubtedly sell fast.

Of course, considering 2025 is Disneyland’s 70th anniversary, which will undoubtedly be a year-long celebration at the park, it’s possible Disney is simply applying the nostalgia elements (and budget) to that rather than holding a singular event, and then launch another Disney Channel or Throwback-style event in 2026.

Either way, we won’t know for sure what Disney is doing until they themselves make the announcement. However, I don’t see a reason why they wouldn’t announce the return of Disney Channel Nite with the other three if they had any intention of holding it.

That being said, I do believe the three announced after dark events are all we’re getting, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I would rather Disney increase the amount of nostalgic-related elements of an after dark event to the park’s daily offerings during the 70th anniversary, than to have to pay additional money to see it.

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