How Universal Studios Fan Fest Nights Grew Out of Halloween Horror Nights [EXCLUSIVE]
Find out how Universal Studios Hollywood's premiere fall event shaped Fan Fest Nights.
The spring season brings with it the first-ever Universal Fan Fest Nights event at Universal Studios Hollywood which is a unique, fandom-focused event taking place within the footprint of the theme park and the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles.
The separately ticketed event allows guests to cosplay and be part of the immersive, in-world experiences inspired by Star Trek, Back to the Future, Dungeons & Dragons, One Piece and Jujutsu Kaisen anime, as well as new events taking place inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Super Nintendo World.
RELATED: Universal Studios Butterbeer Season 2025 Is Here With New Treats That You Won't Believe
To find out what inspired this experiential event, NBC Insider spoke exclusively to Stephen Siercks, the Senior Director of Entertainment Production at Universal Studios Hollywood, to find out how Halloween Horror Nights informed this idea and how they were able to bring in such diverse properties to launch Fan Fest Nights.
Halloween Horror Nights was the proof of concept for Fan Fest Nights
For 19 years, Universal Studios Hollywood has celebrated Halloween Horror Nights annually as a celebration of all things spooky from film, television and supernatural lore. It's frequented by celebrities and tourists alike each year. Much like the theme park itself, the HHN event has always celebrated fan favorite characters and properties across studios ensuring that fans get a broad sampling of what the genre has to offer.
After perfecting their partnerships across two decades of event creation, the creatives at Universal Studios Hollywood decided to expand the HHN concept into other areas of passionate fandom, including science-fiction, anime, gaming and fantasy.
"Fan Fest Nights builds on the legacy of Halloween Horror Nights where we're able to drop our guests into the middle of these environments and stories and let them explore them from a seasonal entertainment and content standpoint," Siercks said of the idea of expand into new areas. "The fans have told us they want more, and we certainly wanted to give them more, so that's what really first created the idea of Fan Fest Nights. And then tapping into what types of experiences our guests and fans would want to have with this seasonal event led us very quickly to the genres."
RELATED: Want to Cosplay at Universal Studios Hollywood's Fan Fest Event? Here's the Rules
Creating unique spaces for each brand within the park, Siercks said they integrated Back to the Future: Destination Hill Valley into the famed studio backlot, used a soundstage to build a quest for Dungeons & Dragons, used existing park space to create a Star Trek adventure, folded in new experiences inside The Wizarding World of Harry Potter and Super Nintendo World, and leaning on the expertise of Universal Studios Japan for their anime experiences.
Having worked with outside studios for years in the development of their Universal Studios theme park areas, Siercks said they were able to pitch and then work with their "incredible partners" in developing the Fan Fest Nights experiences.
"Being able to continue building on the legacy of working with brands, working with partners on Halloween Horror Nights and furthering that into Fan Fest Nights in the way that we've been able to, is a natural progression for us," he explained. "It also allows us to continue building a foundation of how we bring these worlds and experiences to life, tapping into the fandoms, tapping into the genres, but also continuing to innovate the experience around it as well."
How Universal Fan Fest plans to evolve like Halloween Horror Nights
Real human performance is a huge part of HHN events, especially in Haunted Houses and Scare Zones where the scares are visceral. Siercks said in building out their Fan Fest Nights sections, they've also looked to casting calls that take into account the performer's existing love for the properties so they can help keep authenticity high.
"We had an overwhelming amount of support and energy for these roles and these fandoms. Not only did the talent bring their all from a performance standpoint, they also brought their passion for these genres to the audition process as well," Siercks said of the pool they hired around. "It's really exciting for us to have the caliber of talent that we have, but also the level of fandom we have in our casts as well."
And there's even crossover with their HHN performers.
"We're very fortunate to have a large percentage of returning performers year to year for Halloween Horror Nights, and we're certainly seeing them with Fan Fest Nights as well. There's a lot of crossover there in terms of both the performance talent as well as the characters and how we're bringing these characters to life as these experiences," he explained.
RELATED: California vs. Florida: The Mario Fan's Guide to America's Two Super Nintendo Worlds
Since this is the first year for Fan Fest Nights, Siercks confirmed that he and him team will be closely observing wait times, guest feedback and fan interactions.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing the different fan communities come together for Fan Fest Nights and experience the different attractions that we have, and really bring in that community aspect to the experience," he said. "We know that fans who have fandoms for these genres celebrate as a community so we want to celebrate that as part of the event as well. We're always looking at future opportunities, and we'll be excited to take away some great learnings and understanding about where the guests are having the best experiences and continue to grow from there."
Tickets for Universal Fan Fest Nights are now on sale. Click here to purchase tickets
