The Main Street Electrical Parade has returned to Disneyland for its 50th anniversary. Here's why the nighttime show remains a timeless classic.
Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebration runs into 2023, but the Florida resort isn’t the only part of Disney’s theme park empire currently celebrating a half-century. On June 17, 1972—50 years ago today—the Main Street Electrical Parade premiered at Disneyland, intoxicating guests with its elaborate light show, groundbreaking electronic music, and adorable little bumblebee floats that spin around in circles getting all dizzy and tuckered out.
Watching it recently, for the first time since its run at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in the ‘80s, I was struck not just by my own memories of watching this show decades ago, but also by the realization of how timeless it all is, even after 50 years.
According to Wendy Ruth, a Show Director with Disney Live Entertainment, that’s the crux of designing Disney nighttime shows: wowing audiences with new experiences while still tapping into their wellspring of nostalgia. When talking about introducing new technological innovations into the nighttime shows, Ruth admits that any changes depend “on which park you’re talking about, which audience you’re talking about, and what their tolerance or expectation is.
Like the parks themselves, the Main Street Electrical Parade of 2022 isn’t exactly the way you remember it, but it still embodies the fundamental spirit that has guided the parade for 50 years, with common-sense updates for the audience of today. The most notable is a new show-closing float that pays tribute to one of Disneyland’s oldest attractions while also introducing characters from movies that hadn’t been made yet when the Main Street Electrical Parade originally premiered.
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