All types of Goths attend, including classic, cyber, lolita, neo-victorian, and steampunk.
Hearse owners and pirate-loving people are also attracted to the event. Phantom Coaches is a local hearse club that had some members attend in their hearses, old ambulances, and flower cars.
I see some people there regularly, like sisters Green Orchid and Mistress Xian. The event is sort of a reunion for them, as they live in different states. Mistress designs and sews dresses with a new theme each year. This year the dresses were fitted with electroluminescent wires, so the skirts actually lit up and became fields of green or purple stars. You could spot the girls from quite a distance at night.
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| 2009 with Haunted Mansion wallpaper design in the skirt (not well seen here, sorry.) |
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| 2010 had a Little Miss Muffet theme with embroidered spiders on the skirts |
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| 2011 electroluminescent starfield |
Lyn is another regular that I seek out to photograph due to her magnificent wardrobe. I didn't happen to see her this year, which was disappointing.
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| Lyn 2010 |
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| Lyn 2009 with Hilary and ? |
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| Mary Poppins and me, Scary Mary Poppins |
This year, I dressed as a gothic Mary Poppins. By mid-day, my hair and makeup were a hot mess, but people enjoyed my dead parrot umbrella and my hat of black daisies and rotted cherries.
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| Queenie and Tightrope Girl Roxie Rot |
But the best outfit I saw was "Tightrope Girl" from one of the stretching portraits in the Haunted Mansion. I neglected to get her name, but here she is with artist Queenie and her rendition of the scene. (EDIT: Thanks to a comment here, I found out her name is Roxie Rot.) There was also another Tightrope Girl, but I found the first girl had the perfect face for this character.
I met John Fair, the creator of Killhouettes there. He came in from Arizona and he kindly gifted me with these postcards he is holding. I'm a big fan of Killhouettes, as you may recall from this post.
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| John of Killhouettes gives a sly wink |
The photo above was taken at The Black Market, an event held at a nearby hotel the day before Bat's Day, where vendors sell Gothic wares such as clothing, jewelery, books, art, dolls, hair accessories and hats. Bat's Day is actually a 3-day event, and encompasses a meet-and-greet dinner, a concert and dance, the Black Market, a costume ball, and the big day at Disneyland.
This devilish guy is ready for the Swinging Wake masquerade ball held after the Black Market.
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| Founder Noah K, flanked by his girlfriend Melissa and his mother |
Since Bat's Day happened to fall on Mother's Day this year, Noah brought his mom along. You can barely see it, but Noah is wearing the Bat's Day hat, which is formed from a Mickey Mouse hat that has special plastic bat wings snapped onto it, and a patch that changes each year. Clever idea, yes?
