For the past two years, Southern California Halloween and horror fans have been disappointed when the extremely popular Midsummer Scream convention was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
And though the minds behind the event were able to fill in the gap with smaller gatherings like Awaken the Spirits and Season’s Screamings in Pasadena last year, thankfully this past weekend saw the return of Midsummer Scream to the Long Beach Convention Center– and with it came all the delightful mirth and mischievous mayhem one would hope from this type of celebration.
Upon entering the Long Beach Convention center over the weekend, Midsummer Scream attendees were thrilled to find the usual spooky decor and festive photo ops (like the creative Haunted Mansion one pictured above) tied in with the Halloween and horror themes.
The Museum of Halloween (adjacent to the convention center’s main lobby) was a must-stop destination for anyone interested in the history and memorabilia of the holiday.
The main exhibit hall floor of Midsummer Scream was decked out in spectacularly supernatural decorations promoting other local Halloween experiences like the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride, Shaqtoberfest, and Reign of Terror. I also saw a giant inflatable Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters and a cool Alien-themed photo op location presented by the Mystic Museum.
Pixar fans couldn’t resist snapping photos of this gruesome take on the Pizza Planet truck, complete with human-eating aliens and a poor Woody doll trapped in the hatchback.
And speaking of Disney, legendary Imagineer Bob Gurr was on hand at the Haunted Orange County booth to sign autographs and pose for photos.
In the dimly-lit Hall of Shadows, attendees could check out a variety of walk-through experiences and haunted mazes. A lot of creativity went into putting together this year’s array of attractions.
But one of the most popular spots at Midsummer Scream is of a much cuter nature: in the Black Cat Lounge, guests can meet furry friends who are all up for adoption.
The most high-profile of the panels at this year’s event was undoubtedly the Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights presentation, featuring creative director John Murdy and Guns ‘N Roses musician Slash, who has contributed original music to a number of mazes at that event over the years. For more on the announcements coming out of this panel, be sure to visit our news post on the presentation.
After the Halloween Horror Nights presentation, I was given the opportunity to chat with John Murdy for a few minutes, so I followed up on some of the elements of the panel, as you can see in the interview video above.
On Saturday evening, Midsummer Scream threw its big after-hours “Deadly Disco” party, which featured a live DJ, fun games like ping-pong and cornhole, and even nonagenarian Disney Legend Bob Gurr boogieing down on the dance floor. A video I posted of Gurr dancing on Twitter has caused quite the buzz in the Disney theme park communities:
Cosplaying is another wonderful tradition of conventions like Midsummer Scream, and I spotted a number of Disney-related costumes like the Hitchhiking Ghost, Hollywood Tower Hotel bellhop, and Winifred witch pictured at the top of this post. And while she’s not terribly scary per se, it was also cool to see a Redd pirate from Disneyland walking around the exhibit hall floor.
Some of the vendor booths around Midsummer Scream also showed their Disney Parks love, like this one from Topher Adam of ImAFoolishMortal.com.
On Sunday I stopped by the Podcast Lounge, where our friend Jeff DePaoli of the Dizney Coast to Coast podcast hosted a fascinating panel discussion with actors Omri Katz and Vanessha Shaw from Disney’s cult 1993 Halloween movie Hocus Pocus.
And while Midsummer Scream was a tremendous amount of success, I did hear a few complaints– evidently on Saturday it was taking up to three hours for regular (non-“Gold Bat” VIP) attendees to gain access to the convention center. It also got to be pretty hot in the building’s main lobby, and none of the water fountains were working. These were some significant issues that put a damper on an otherwise exciting weekend. As a side note, I missed the presence of Knott’s Scary Farm, which has been promoted by both a panel presentation and a booth at Midsummer Scream in years’ past.
Those grievances aside, it sure seemed like everyone in attendance was beyond elated to be back at Midsummer Scream.
Midsummer Scream is held annually at the Long Beach Convention Center in Southern California. For information on upcoming events, be sure to visit Midsummer Scream’s official website.