Disney and Me

Main Street Electrical Parade going to Disneyland

The Main Street Electrical Parade is the embodiment of my childhood memories of Disneyland. No trip was complete without watching the "Electrical Light Parade" outside the PT Flea Market in California Adventure. The winter was rough, because I didn't get to see the parade. I have only seen Fantasmic once. I've never seen World of Color. I've seen the recordings, and while they're awesome, they do not compare to the memory jolt that the Electrical Parade brings. It is coming back. The single event to cause the most disappointment and lasting sadness in my life has been undone. Let's go through a history of the nighttime parade scene at Disneyland.

1972 was the year in which the Main Street Electrical Parade debuted. The '70's were wrought with changes for the parade, which ultimately settled by 1978 into the iconic parade it was for the next 20 years, with occasional tie-ins for park anniversaries. The parade had Blue Fairy, Casey, Jr., Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Pete's Dragon, Small World, and To Honor America. In 1988, Small World was removed. In 1996, the parade was sent to the much more successful Magic Kingdom in Orlando to replace the rather strange SpectroMagic parade which had run for the last 10 years or so.

The publicity for the removal was huge. Celebratory light bulbs were given out. The park absolutely milked the disappointment that the ending of the parade would bring. In 1997, a brand new "Streetacular" lit the streets of not only Main Street, but Fantasyland as well. It was called Light Magic. Light Magic would have been a truly amazing show if it had been a nighttime Fantasyland Theater offering. It was not a parade. Similar to the more recent Block Party Bash, the parade would stop, run its 20 minute show, and move to the next spot. It was also a rather random concept, as it was about pixies in the forest. The complexity of a stage show was too radical of a change for Disney fans and its quirks didn't help. It lasted 4 months. It did have one of my favorite Disneyland songs, "Dream our Dreams." I'm a music person. I don't listen to the words, I just want to hear some pleasant sounds. The instrumentals are fantastic, and the sound is powerful. It feels very much like Fantasmic's "Imagination." (another favorite) I highly recommend watching a video of Light Magic, because it was truly a unique experience which had the misfortune of replacing the Main Street Electrical Parade and being marketed as a parade.

In 2001, Disney opened California Adventure, which utterly bombed. They needed something, so Magic Kingdom lost the Main Street Electrical Parade to the new Anaheim park. SpectroMagic returned to Orlando. At California Adventure, Disney's Electrical Parade branded its logo on the part of my brain that receives joy. It had lost Pinocchio and the Diamond Mine in Snow White, but was still amazing. In 2008, it received an update. Sadly, Dumbo and the Blue Fairy did not survive. Pinocchio and Tinker Bell were instead added. The music became the Tokyo Dreamlights version of the Baroque Hoedown with new float music. In 2010, World of Color opened at California Adventure, allowing Disney to send its parade back to Orlando. People often say that Light Magic was the reason we didn't get a nighttime parade in Disneyland Park from 1997 until 2015. I think the reason is that Fantasmic and Disney's Electrical Parade provided nighttime balance between the parks.

In 2015, a parade that debuted at Hong Kong Disneyland the year before was announced to be coming to Disneyland as part of the 60th anniversary celebration.. Featuring High-Tech Synthemagnetic Musical LEDs, the Paint the Night Parade was a vast improvement over the Electrical Parade. It featured modern films, modern technology, and interactive components. I didn't like it at first, but mostly because it wasn't Disney's Electrical Parade. Now, I wish I had gotten to see it. It's so much more modern that it's an improvement.

I think because Paint the Night was so successful, but costly, Disney announced its final daily run to be September 5, 2016, with occasional appearances during the holiday season. However, the Main Street Electrical Parade is coming back!!!!!! It's final run in Orlando will be in October and then it's coming back. My guess is Paint the Night is going to Orlando. People will appreciate it more there because it's such an improvement People will value the technology more there because they aren't raised on the Main Street Electrical Parade. Really, if Disney is smart, they'll send it to Orlando.