Janelle Monáe's Wondaween Creature Carnival Takes Over A Secret L.A. Site Oct. 29

Janelle Monáe will step into a wrinkled, green-tinged prosthetic covering her face, swap one eye for a hot pink swirl and wear prosthetic hands down to the bloody knuckles when she plays host at Wondaween: Creature Carnival. The festival takes over a secret Los Angeles location on Oct. 29, one day from the date of this article. Bacardi is the official spirits partner for the second year running.

The creature look pairs a peachy pink shag wig topped with a black hat, a ruffled white blouse, black-and-white striped suspenders, and long strands of pearls mixed with black beads. In one prosthetic hand she carries the Spookito, Bacardi's Halloween take on the mojito, made with 1.5 oz Bacardi Superior rum, 1 oz lime juice, 0.5 oz simple syrup, 0.25 oz grenadine, 8 to 10 mint leaves and soda water.

Monáe has treated Halloween as a place to work through ideas since childhood. "Halloween is such a happy space for me," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "It has been since I was a kid. It opens a larger conversation of how do we become agents of joy? How do we become agents of happy? How do we become agents of imaginations? I'm just doing what I want to see more of … I do this because my heart needs it."

Growing up in Kansas City, she dressed as Chucky in mask and overalls and slept in the mask, she told Dread Central. Her mother told her, "I think something's wrong with you, but I love you."

The work now starts well ahead of the date. Her E.T. costume took two years to build, she told People, with designer and tailor Alex Navarro and stylist Alexandra Mandelkorn helping bring the looks together. She wrapped herself in a white knit blanket on "The Jennifer Hudson Show" in 2024 and rasped Hudson's name in E.T.'s voice. In 2025 she wore a striped top hat, an oversized red bow tie and a furry black suit as the Cat in the Hat on the same show, with books in the air, and stayed in character through the interview. She told Vogue she and the Cat share black and white with a pop of red.

At the "Frankenstein" premiere on Oct. 6, 2025, she wore facial prosthetics with a long black coat, white shirt, skinny black tie, bowler hat, red flower pin and black leather gloves. At the Santa Monica Pier for Wondaween: Vampire Beach, she spread a black latex cape over a tattooed prosthetic chest, with fangs, pointed ears and a hot pink collar. She also played Jim Carrey's green-faced character in "The Mask," in a canary yellow suit with a matching fedora, polka-dot tie and black-and-white saddle shoes.

Monáe told the Los Angeles Times that a costume runs the full day. "When I get into costume, I transform," she said. "Whether I'm a white rabbit or Diva Plavalaguna [from "The Fifth Element"], when I say I was these characters, I'm saying the entire day and night that you interacted with me, I was those characters."

Wondaween: Creature Carnival opens Oct. 29 at a Los Angeles location the organizers have not named.