The month-long festivities will take place across the city in cemeteries, theaters, secret locations, and the Hollywood Bowl
Janelle Monáe and the Wondaland Arts Society are bringing back her month-long, city-spanning Halloween bash to Los Angeles.
Wondaween 2025 kicked off earlier this month with Cinespia, which took place at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Oct. 11, and will continue with Monáe Manor at the Los Angeles Haunted Hayride.
Monáe will also host a “spine-tingling evening of creative conversations on horror” alongside guests Danny Elfman, Akela Cooper, and Janelle’s costuming team Sasha Glasser and Alex Navarro at USC’s Eileen Norris Cinema Theatre; a game night at the Spare Room on Oct. 23; and a screening of Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs on Oct. 27 at the Fine Arts Theatre.
The Hollywood Bowl will also feature Tim Burton‘s The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert on Oct. 25 and 26 with Elfman singing as Jack, Monáe as Sally, Keith David as Oogie Boogie, Riki Lindhome as Shock, and John Stamos as Lock.
The seasonal spectacle will reach its untimely ending the night before Halloween at a secret location with only 1,000 unfortunate souls allowed entry (if that’s you, sign up at the mailing list at the Wondaween website for your chance to attend). Monáe will lead the night as host and a press release bills the macabre evening as a “costumed celebration with surprise DJ sets throughout the night, unlimited rides, bites, progenys, and vamps from all around the world.” The gathering will most likely also see Monáe reveal her annual costume: In past years she’s played the headless bride, “Flyyyrene” (a reference to the fly that topped Mike Pence’s head during the 2020 debate), The Fifth Element’s Diva Plavalaguna, and E.T.
“Halloween is such a happy space for me. It has been since I was a kid. It opens a larger conversation of how do we become agents of joy? How do we become agents of happy? How do we become agents of imaginations?” Monáe told The Hollywood Reporter last year. “I’m just doing what I want to see more of. Bringing Halloween experiences and creative experiences is heart work, not hard work. I do this because my heart needs it.”