Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball
annual costume event in Los Angeles, CA, US
The Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball, shortened to LOJ or simply known as the Labyrinth Masquerade Ball, is an annual masquerade ball and cosplay event in Los Angeles, California. The ball was first held in 1997.
Event
Attendees wear elaborate costumes in the fantasy couture style, including a mask for most participants. Some attendees have worn mechanical wings. Faerie and goblin costumes typically predominate, although participants also dress in styles such as steampunk, Venetian and Gothic.
The name of the ball is a reference to the 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth, specifically the scene in which the protagonist, Sarah Williams, finds herself in a masquerade ball. The other ballgoers in the scene wear strange and grotesque, but also elaborate and formal costumes and masks. The event's title namechecks Labyrinth's main antagonist, Jareth, the Goblin King.
TravelPulse, a publication of TravAlianceMedia, characterized the ball in 2015 as one of five "must-see" masquerade balls around the world, along with the Carnival of Venice, the Surva International Festival of Masquerade in Pernik, Bulgaria, the Fancy Dress Festival of Ghana, and the Grand Masked Ball of Kamel Ouali held in France.
History
The ball was founded in 1997 by Shawn Strider and was chiefly inspired by the masquerade scene in Labyrinth as well as the Venetian tradition of masquerade balls.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball” as annual costume event in Los Angeles, CA, US. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as annual costume event in Los Angeles, CA, US. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60767690. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1997, 1986 and 2015.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball primary sources, Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball archive and Labyrinth research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Labyrinth of Jareth Masquerade Ball” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.