Anaheim is certainly no stranger to large events, as its Anaheim Convention Center—weighing in at a whopping 1.8 million square feet—is the largest such facility on the West Coast of the U.S.
The SoCal city’s meetings industry tradeshow calendar certainly reflects its standing, with ConferenceDirect’s CDX annual scheduled for 2026, Connect Marketplace in 2027, MPI’s World Education Congress in 2029 and IPW inked for 2030.
But the destination has always suffered an embarrassment of riches, as it has become nearly synonymous with the most iconic theme park in the world, Disneyland.
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But while Disneyland Park and its Disney California Adventure Park attract some 30 million visitors annually, with both providing spectacular meetings and events options, Anaheim has always yearned to build on its draw with some standalone visitor attractions all its own.
Anaheim is growing up fast, embarking on a “Golden Decade” that will welcome the $4 billion, 100-acre OCVIBE entertainment complex—besting L.A. LIVE’s size roughly threefold—a major modernization of John Wayne Airport and a DisneylandForward project that will serve as a blueprint for the next generation of growth for the global entertainment megabrand.
Not resting on these laurels, Anaheim is positioning itself as a year-round draw for “tentpole” events that will showcase the destination in its own light, with intriguing venues, culinary and nightlife experiences to lure visitors from the second-largest metropolitan area in the U.S.—approximately 18 million people live in the Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. This abundance of event options would naturally flow into the meetings and conventions segment, as what’s good for locals and tourists is also a draw for attendees.
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“When I started at Visit Anaheim in September 2024, one of the big initiatives and pillars that I wanted was to introduce [tentpole events] to the city, having come from Miami, where you’ve got Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami International Auto Show, Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show and Miami Spice [restaurant months],” said Scott Oklin, chief marketing officer, Visit Anaheim. “How do we create these tentpole events that are these cultural iconic moments during need periods or softer periods?”
The first proverbial olive out of the jar was the Stand Up, Chow Down comedy and food festival, held April 3-4 in Anaheim Packing District. The festival staged 12 shows throughout the district, with more than 42 comedians and three national headliner acts: Adam Ray, Craig Conant and Rosebud Baker. The Chow Down component featured four different chef-driven food activations, with multiple Anaheim Packing House restaurants offering exclusive offers for attendees.
“Anaheim is growing up in real time,” Oklin said. “We have these more-sophisticated experiences—experiences being the key word within that— and where we excelled was these shows were popping up in hidden venues, what I call the underbelly of Anaheim. One of the shows was in an auto body shop, and it was the coolest, most under-the-radar [atmosphere]. I think it’s kind of dispelling certain people’s perception of, ‘Do I want to go to Anaheim? The only thing there is really kind of Disney.’”
Oklin said the idea for the festival arose from Visit Anaheim President & CEO Mike Waterman, who is connected to Jimmy Kimmel Live! Co-Executive Producer Doug DeLuca.
As head of EverWonder Studio and owner of Kittch, a live-streaming platform and social community dedicated to food, DeLuca is proficient at organizing live entertainment and culinary events, and the idea for a comedy and cultural festival was born, with April Fool’s weekend, appropriately enough, the launch date.
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“Let’s put together a comedy and culinary festival that brings some of the best comedians in the world to Anaheim and also highlights some of the stories and the nooks and crannies in the underbelly of Anaheim that people don’t know about, and really putting our culinary scene directly in the limelight,” Oklin said of the genesis of the festival concept. “So, every year now over April Fool’s weekend we’re going to be hosting Stand Up, Chow Down and the Anaheim experience, and the hope is that this is the first of many other tentpole events that we’ll be layering in throughout the course of the year.”
Stand Up, Chow Down: A Comedy Feast
Produced by Los Angeles-based Don’t Tell Comedy, which operates in more than 250 cities globally, and Kittch, Stand Up, Chow Down quickly embraced Anaheim and the Anaheim Packing District, especially, for its first comedy and food festival.
“Honestly, we hadn’t spent a lot of time in Anaheim, and so one of the first steps was, let’s go scout it out,” said Brett Kushner, COO, Don’t Tell Comedy. “Visit Anaheim, obviously, knows the best places everywhere in that city, so they took us down and showed us where they thought the festival could be that would have that food element as well as space for comedy. It really opened our eyes.
“I had only been to the Packing House once before,” Kushner continued. “They have a stage, but it’s out in the open and not closed off, and that doesn’t work for comedy. We got access to under the Packing House, where they had this restaurant space [now Marrakesh The Restaurant], and it was the perfect comedy club atmosphere—low ceiling, no windows, perfect sound. It was then that we realized that this is a perfect place for us to do this.”
The Anaheim Packing District was also a natural choice due to its walkability as well as the many restaurants located within the Packing House and surrounds. The restaurant that was coming into the space under the Packing House was particularly helpful, serving its Moroccan cuisine to show-goers. Kushner also singled out Russ Ward Auto Body, fortuitously on the same block as the Packing House, as a standout festival venue that had room to bring in food trucks for the cuisine component of the festival.
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Among other festival sponsors, Pepsi pitched in to help produce a free comedy and food event in Farmers Park, a two-acre green space immediately adjacent to the Anaheim Packing House. The festival also quite literally tapped into Anaheim’s world-recognized craft beer scene by providing discounted food and beverage options at Unsung Brewery, which also hosted comedy shows featuring headliner Rosebud Baker.
For year two, Kushner has his sights on OCVIBE, opening status willing. As OCVIBE will have scores of F&B and live performance venue options, Stand Up, Chow Down’s fit with Anaheim’s new star attraction would be a natural. Kushner is also exploring a high-end chef experience such as food demonstrations for people who are more interested in the cuisine aspect of the festival.
Kushner gave praise to Visit Anaheim for its collaboration and guidance in producing the inaugural event.
“They were wonderful,” he said. “It was our first festival, so we didn’t have a big budget and it was harder for us to take these big swings on certain talent. We were able to offer some interesting perks. [Visit Anaheim], obviously, has relationships with the hotels, so we got great little suites and stuff like that for some of the talent, and for one, we were able to offer free tickets and elevated experiences at Disney because of that relationship. There was also an activation with a comedian with the [NHL’s] Anaheim Ducks where he literally got to fly on the team plane and go to an away game—a once-in-a-lifetime experience that made it much easier for us to offer a reasonable rate that maybe is lower than they normally would take.
“They kind of opened the door and allowed us to launch the festival with higher-level talent than we could have with the budget we had originally,” Kushner added. “They were super collaborative the whole time. They even helped us come up with a name, and every step of the way they were a true stakeholder in the event.”
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How Stand Up, Chow Down Translates to Meetings
With the inaugural year of Stand Up, Chow Down roundly considered a success, and all parties committed to bringing it back on an annual basis in the future, Oklin thinks it will translate to meeting and event organizers viewing Anaheim as more of a multifaceted destination with entertainment and culinary options available beyond the gates of the Magic Kingdom.
“We want it to be a Disney and story,” Oklin said. “We absolutely have Disney, and we’re darn proud of it, but if you’re not a Disney fan and you’re a meeting planner, this is another reason to really highlight all of these places that you could host a meeting at with different entertainment options.”
