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Fan Fest Nights Hollywood Tickets On Sale For April

Universal Fan Fest Nights tickets on sale, night entry plaza at Universal Studios Hollywood shows after hours crowds
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5 min read

Universal Fan Fest Nights tickets are now on sale for Universal Studios Hollywood in Los Angeles, California, ahead of 12 after hours event nights from April 23 to May 16, 2026. The change matters most for out of town visitors and locals who want franchise specific experiences that only run on select nights, including new Scooby Doo and ONE PIECE programming. Travelers building a spring theme park trip should choose a target weekend now, then structure lodging and late night transportation around a scheduled event window that can run into the early morning.

The Universal Fan Fest Nights tickets sale effectively locks your planning into four long weekends, April 23 to 25, May 1 to 3, May 7 to 9, and May 14 to 16, 2026, so the main decision is which fandom night is worth the premium after hours format for your group.

For additional context on how Universal framed the 2026 schedule earlier in the cycle, see Universal Fan Fest Nights sets 2026 dates, adds Scooby-Doo x Universal Monsters.

Scooby Doo Meets The Universal Monsters: Mystery on the Backlot is positioned as a live action experience that uses the Studio Tour tram to move guests into a story sequence on the backlot, built around classic monster characters. ONE PIECE: Grand Pirate Show is scheduled for the WaterWorld venue as a live production built around the anime franchise.

Who Is Affected

This sale is most relevant to travelers who are planning a Southern California theme park weekend where the after hours ticket is the anchor activity, not an add on to a casual daytime visit. If your trip timing is flexible, you can treat Fan Fest Nights like a convention night inside a theme park and plan the rest of Los Angeles around it, but you will want to align hotel location, late night food options, and morning departure times with the fact that the event is designed to run late.

Fans who want the new IP specific experiences, Scooby Doo on the backlot, and ONE PIECE in the WaterWorld venue, will feel the capacity constraint most, because these are not experiences you can simply replace with daytime ride touring. Returning DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Secrets of Waterdeep is also a demand driver for repeat visitors who skipped, or missed, the first year, and it can pull time away from rides if your group tries to do everything in one night.

Travelers mixing Universal Studios Hollywood with other regional after hours events, especially Disneyland After Dark parties in Anaheim, should treat ticket purchase timing as a risk variable, since both event calendars concentrate demand into specific nights and can sell through faster than standard day tickets. Disneyland After Dark 2026 Events, Dates And Tickets

What Travelers Should Do

Buy the night you would be most disappointed to miss, then build buffers around it. That means booking a nearby hotel or arranging a rideshare plan that does not depend on scarce late night supply, and avoiding an early alarm the next morning if you can, because the published event window is designed to run late.

If you are undecided between two weekends, your decision threshold should be whether the franchise specific experiences are truly must do for your group, or whether you would get more value from a standard daytime ticket plus an earlier night. If the draw is a single headliner, commit now, but if your group is mostly there for rides and general atmosphere, waiting for more detailed night by night guidance can be rational, as long as you accept the risk of higher prices or sellouts for peak nights.

Over the next 24 to 72 hours, monitor the official event page for operating hours, any ticket tier changes, and any clarifications on what is included versus add on purchases, because those details control how you pace the night and what your realistic experience count will be. Also watch for operational notes tied to the backlot experience and show timing at WaterWorld, since those can create hard time blocks that shape the rest of your route through the park.

How It Works

Universal Fan Fest Nights is structured as a separately ticketed, after hours event, which means it is operationally closer to a limited capacity special event than a normal park day. The travel planning consequence is that you have a fixed time window, and you are paying for access to limited run entertainment plus a different crowd pattern, not just for general admission to attractions.

Universal's 2026 slate leans on experiences that are difficult to replicate outside a theme park environment. The Scooby Doo and Universal Monsters concept uses the studio backlot and the Studio Tour tram as part of the experience, which adds transportation, staging, and throughput constraints that can create queues even when overall attendance feels lighter than a normal day.

Because the event is sold on specific nights, the disruption ripple is less about multi day crowd peaks and more about micro scheduling conflicts. A late finish can collide with early flights, long drives back to other parts of the region, or next day rope drop plans at another park, and it can also nudge travelers into adding a hotel night that they would not otherwise need. When you treat the event night as the anchor, you reduce misconnect risk between your ticketed experiences and the rest of your trip.

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