{"id":761187,"date":"2026-04-29T11:13:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/761187\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T11:13:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T11:13:22","slug":"at-los-angeles-kid-birthday-parties-kpop-demon-hunters-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/761187\/","title":{"rendered":"At Los Angeles kid birthday parties, \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 rule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For her 6th birthday party in January, Amy Tzagournis\u2019 daughter Hazel wanted special guests: the characters from \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/a> Six months prior, while Tzagournis was out of town, her daughter and 4-year-old son had become obsessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came back and all of a sudden they knew every word to the songs,\u201d she says with disbelief. \u201cI was like, \u2018Where did this come from?\u2019 It was literally out of nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Parker Apel, 7, pretends to close the VIP entrance for entertainer Simon Mendoza, who is dressed in the style of a Saja Boy from \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Tzagournis, of Redondo Beach, hired Funky Divas & Dudes<\/a>, one of the many characters-for-hire companies in the Los Angeles area that had started to offer \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d-inspired performers. At her birthday party, Hazel and her friends danced to songs from the movie, including \u201cGolden\u201d<\/a> and \u201cSoda Pop,\u201d alongside the entertainers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve pretty much been doing nothing but \u2018KPop Demon Hunters\u2019 parties,\u201d Dana Marie Lazzareschi, one of the co-owners of Funky Divas & Dudes, says. \u201cEvery party we\u2019re doing has been \u2018KPop.\u2019 It\u2019s insane. We\u2019ve had one party that was Broadway-themed and another that was tropical-themed, but other than that, it\u2019s all been \u2018KPop\u2019 every single weekend. Sometimes we have five \u2018KPop\u2019 parties in one day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Released last June, \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d is a bona fide global sensation, a status that not even Netflix, its distributor, anticipated. By August, when Tzagournis\u2019 daughter first saw it at a friend\u2019s house, the movie about three glamorous K-pop stars doubling as brave warriors to defeat nefarious demons had become Netflix\u2019s most-watched movie ever. And in March, the musical picked up two Academy Awards<\/a>, one for best animated feature and another for best original song for \u201cGolden,\u201d<\/a> an empowering anthem turned chart-topping hit. <\/p>\n

Nearly half of all of the birthday parties Tzagournis has taken her kids to in the last six months featured some \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d element, whether just the theme or performers (for her daughter\u2019s party, she hired all three demon hunters and a Saja Boy). The parties are so frequent that parents are even sharing decorations to reduce costs, she says.<\/p>\n

\"Passes \"The <\/p>\n

The party included Saja Boys-themed party favor bags and \u201cVIP\u201d passes for guests. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my daughter\u2019s good friends had a party two weeks before hers and we basically recycled all the \u2018KPop\u2019 decorations for her,\u201d Tzagournis says, laughing. \u201cWe used theirs and then I passed them off to another mom. These \u2018KPop\u2019 decorations for the birthday party got recycled at least two or three times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Operating since 2002, Funky Divas & Dudes, like most of these party businesses, offers princesses, superheroes and other pop culture-inspired characters. For a long time, Elsa, the Snow Queen from Disney\u2019s \u201cFrozen\u201d franchise, ruled over little girls\u2019 parties. \u201cWe joke that it\u2019s a generational thing, every 10 years a girl with a braid shows up and takes over every kid\u2019s birthday party playlist. There was Elsa back in the day, and now there\u2019s Rumi,\u201d Lazzareschi says, referring to the main heroine in \u201cKPop Demon Hunters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The displacement of \u201cFrozen\u201d was also evident to Tzagournis. \u201cThe year before, when my daughter was almost 5, everyone was dressed up like Elsa. There were like five Elsas in her class at Halloween,\u201d she recalls. \u201cAnd this past year, more than 50% of the girls around her age were one of the \u2018KPop\u2019 characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from party entertainment, Funky Divas & Dudes also hosts extracurricular dance classes at L.A.-area schools, including the one Tzagournis\u2019 daughter attends. Lazzareschi realized the popularity of the movie when children started requesting \u201cGolden\u201d and other songs from the soundtrack during dance classes. While \u201cFrozen,\u201d she thinks, was geared toward younger audiences, \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d has a broader appeal. \u201cIt\u2019s very attractive to all ages, not just the little kindergartners and first graders, but all the way up to third, fourth, fifth graders,\u201d Lazzareschi says. \u201cThere are just so many different aspects, like the martial arts, and kids just love that stuff, boys and girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

Companies like Funky Dudes & Divas had to quickly meet the demand for the \u201cKPop\u201d characters at L.A. kids\u2019 parties, sourcing costumes from Halloween stores or online retailers. On top of the three demon hunters (Rumi, Mira and Zoey), Lazzareschi also offers male performers resembling the Saja Boys (the rival group in the film) that teach kids breakdancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole dance element made it even better than just hanging out with characters,\u201d says Tzagournis.<\/p>\n

\"Madelynn <\/p>\n

Madelynn Wheater, 7, left, and Parker Apel, 7, center, show off their best moves in the dance circle.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

The \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d theme continued onto the plates and cake at Parker Apel\u2019s party.<\/p>\n

For Katherine Diaz of Torrance, the \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d craze has been a welcome lifeboat. Diaz manages her 18-year-old daughter Kiara Asiel and several other teenage girls who perform at birthday parties. Diaz\u2019s operation caters to Latino customers as Asiel (an aspiring dancer who plays Rumi) offers bilingual shows. In the wake of the immigration raids last summer, many of their potential patrons refrained from hosting celebrations, dampening their business. Over the last few months, though, demand for the \u201cKPop\u201d characters has generated new opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a boom. We have people in our area calling us saying they wanted our \u2018KPop\u2019 show because my daughter speaks Spanish,\u201d Diaz says in Spanish.<\/p>\n

In addition to birthday parties, Diaz\u2019s team was recently hired to appear at several McDonald\u2019s restaurants around Los Angeles, where hundreds of children and their parents lined up to take photos. In December, the city of Gardena invited them to perform for the community at a Christmas event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey specifically requested the \u2018KPop\u2019 girls. We said, \u2018But it\u2019s Christmas?!\u2019 and they replied, \u2018Yes, but kids are dying to see Huntrix [the phonetic name of the musical group in the movie].\u2019 My girls went dressed in their \u2018KPop\u2019 outfits, but I made sure to put little Christmas hats on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

To avoid legal repercussions, some of these businesses might offer generic versions of popular characters. In 2017, Disney sued a New York company<\/a> offering \u201cStar Wars\u201d and \u201cFrozen\u201d character knockoffs at birthday parties, but voluntarily dismissed the case a year later after a judge axed most of its trademark claims<\/a>. The amount of these companies, not only in L.A. but around the world, might also present \u201cpractical difficulties\u201d for copyright holders to take action, says Mark Lee, a partner at corporate law firm Rimon PC who has taught entertainment law at USC. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo give you an example, I had a client who co-wrote a very famous song,\u201d Lee says. \u201c1.2 million people posted that song on YouTube without authorization. You can send what\u2019s called a DMCA Takedown notice, which is like a cease-and-desist letter to YouTube, but you have to do it 1.2 million times.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, these small businesses are helping keep the characters popular.<\/p>\n

\"Eliana <\/p>\n

Eliana Fraser, dressed in a Rumi costume, paints 6-year-old Ariya Taylor\u2019s face at a party for Parker Apel, right.<\/p>\n

Both Lazzareschi and Diaz have more \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d-inspired events coming up, but Tzagournis believes the peak of the fad has already passed \u2014 at least for now. \u201cI feel like this might be very short-lived, which would differ from \u2018Frozen\u2019 and the Disney movies,\u201d Tzagournis says. \u201cThe kids are kind of over the \u2018KPop\u2019 thing now, but the sequels are probably going to reel them back in.\u201d <\/p>\n

A new \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d movie is already in the works<\/a>.<\/p>\n