Animal Kingdom Needs a New Nighttime Spectacular to Fix Its Biggest Problem.
It’s been over 6 years since Animal Kingdom last had a nighttime spectacular, the short-lived Rivers of Light. That ended with the closure and phased reopening, but honestly, it was doomed even before then. This covers why the park needs evening entertainment to address its afternoon exodus, the necessary prerequisite before one can launch, and the obvious answer for a marquee production with wow-factor.
Let’s start with Rivers of Light, which was troubled from the get-go. Animal Kingdom’s first-ever nighttime spectacular was delayed multiple times and by almost a year. The end result was dramatically different from what was originally rumored, and troubles with the technology likely caused multiple modifications. After its debut, pacing problems plagued the show and it was modified more than once.
Rivers of Light never found an audience. For me, it was a very flawed but nonetheless enjoyable show. At its best, Rivers of Light was a brilliant confluence of sound and light, that I described as IllumiNations: Reflections of Nature. It should thus be unsurprising that Rivers of Light wasn’t popular with the park-going public and was polarizing even among fans, as it lacked the nostalgia-factor of IllumiNations, and was a bit too slow and IP-free for the average guest.
If you never saw Rivers of Light, it was a lot like Harmonious at EPCOT or Enchantment at Magic Kingdom in terms of the mixed response among fans. Some loved it, others hated it. While I far preferred Rivers of Light to either of those 50th Anniversary shows, it was still very much an imperfect production.
However, I’d argue that even if Rivers of Light were a 10/10 nighttime spectacular on par with Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom or Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it wouldn’t have mattered. The appeal of the show with casual visitors was obviously an issue, but it wouldn’t have survived until Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, due to underlying issues with Animal Kingdom. COVID was simply convenient cover to kill it off, and not the reason Rivers of Light was retired.
Animal Kingdom Attendance Woes
The real reason Rivers of Light ended in 2020 was the simple reality that Animal Kingdom is a half-day park for many guests, and a complete skip for plenty of others.
Following Pandora – World of Avatar’s opening, Animal Kingdom saw a massive influx of crowds. Annual attendance surged from 10.8 million visitors in 2016 to 12.5 million in 2017 and then an all-time high of 13.9 million in 2019. But even by 2019, the pace of the growth had slowed considerably to only ~100,000 guests over 2018.
It’s impossible to know what 2020 would’ve held in the absence of COVID, but our anecdotal experience was that Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios were packed, and would’ve easily shattered their records. Meanwhile, Animal Kingdom and EPCOT lagged behind (the latter due to being a maze of construction walls).
Post reopening, Animal Kingdom is the worst performing park at Walt Disney World. During the last year for which data is available, it was the only park at Walt Disney World not in the top 10 for worldwide theme park attendance. Animal Kingdom ranked #16, with 8.8 million annual visitors.
It’s the only Walt Disney World park that didn’t hit the 10 million mark, and it had less than half the annual visitors of Magic Kingdom, the #1 theme park in the world. Even pre-Dinoland demolition, Animal Kingdom was the most-skipped park at Walt Disney World, with half of guests who visited the flagship castle park opting to skip DAK.
It is worth emphasizing that these numbers have arguably been propped up by lower ticket prices, cheaper Lightning Lanes, and deals like the 4-Park Magic Ticket or 2-Park Discover Ticket. Those aggressive admission deals, in particular, essentially “force” guests to visit Animal Kingdom by making them an unbeatable offer.
The Afternoon Exodus
It’s not just lower attendance, though. The afternoon exodus has once again returned to Animal Kingdom, which is why we frequently point out that you don’t need Lightning Lanes the vast majority of days at DAK. You just need to arrive early or stay late, as crowds are very beatable outside of the midday stretch.
While diehard Walt Disney World fans (like us!) clamor for Animal Kingdom to stay open later, there’s a good reason for the earlier closing time: lack of demand. To be entirely honest, it’s somewhat surprising that Animal Kingdom still closes as late as it does (7 pm or 8 pm many nights), as crowd levels in the second half of the day seldom dictate extensions past 5 pm or 6 pm.
My best guess is that Walt Disney World management fears that if the park closes any earlier, attendance will drop further, as shorter hours would signal to guests that it’s not “worth” as much as the other parks. That could create a vicious cycle of lower demand causing shorter hours causing even lower demand.
Suffice to say, the situation at Animal Kingdom is likely worse than the picture painted by annual attendance statistics. If observed crowd levels and wait times are any indication, Animal Kingdom is doing a far worse job at keeping people in the park than was the case in 2019. It probably has the lowest ‘duration of visit’ of any park at Walt Disney World, and by a wide margin.
If you visited Animal Kingdom shortly after Pandora – World of Avatar opened, this might be shocking to read. The park had just made a big push for staying in the park after dark, adding an ‘eternal sunset’ effect and artificial lighting on Kilimanjaro Safaris, plus a variety of evening entertainment. (Anyone else remember “The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic” before Rivers of Light?)
Animal Kingdom stayed open later to accommodate the Pandora crowds, and the Rivers of Light nighttime spectacular gave people plenty of things to do until 9 pm and beyond. For the first couple of summers, that worked. But it seemed to us that by 2019, to the extent people were sticking around, it was to outlast the crowds in Pandora. The rest of the park was not even remotely busy.
All of this reinforces the reality that Animal Kingdom is the park at Walt Disney World with the most urgent need for additions. Pandora – World of Avatar is still incredibly popular, but it alone doesn’t have enough drawing power.
None of this is remotely surprising or some big revelation. Even before Tropical Americas was announced, we were sounding the alarms on this and arguing that Walt Disney World needed to fast-track expansion ASAP. Frankly, Tropical Americas should’ve opened at least one to two years ago instead of in (fingers crossed) 2027.
Animal Kingdom is the furthest removed from the last development cycle, and the park most in need of major additions with both marketable drawing power and the ability to retain guests throughout the day. All of this was obvious even coming out of COVID. If only Disney didn’t misplace its priorities in streaming for too long. But I digress.
The next year-plus will be tough for Animal Kingdom before Tropical Americas debuts in 2027-2028. In the last two years, all of Dino-Rama has closed, including both the Boneyard play area and the marquee DINOSAUR thrill ride. On a positive note, at least from a capacity perspective, the park now has Zootopia: Better Zoogether and Bluey’s Wild World.
However, Animal Kingdom only has 5 traditional rides right now, which will remain the case until sometime in 2027 when the first Tropical Americas attraction opens. This overlooks a lot that it offers, but people go to theme parks primarily for rides. Animal Kingdom is undeniably light on them.
This may seem like a lot of unnecessary background in a post that’s ostensibly about Animal Kingdom needing a nighttime spectacular. The straightforward logic is that something on par with Happily Ever After or Fantasmic would give Animal Kingdom a shot in the arm. That, like Tropical Americas, this is also about 3 years overdue. (And it is!)
Tropical Americas is Needed Before a New Night Show
While I absolutely agree with that from a guest experience perspective, I’m not sure that’s the correct strategic play.
One of the lessons that Walt Disney World might’ve learned with Rivers of Light is that there’s not enough to keep guests in the park between 4 pm and dusk. That even the best nighttime spectacular in all of Walt Disney World (not that Rivers of Light was) isn’t enough if you’ve only got 5 rides and the average guest is ready to bounce by 2 pm. How do you convince people to stick around another ~6 hours for a nighttime spectacular if they’re otherwise done with the park?
There’s no good answer to that question, save for a live-action remake of Country Bear Jamboree. The problem is that Animal Kingdom needs more attractions as the “bridge” to keep guests in the park until at least dinner, getting over the hump of that afternoon exodus. That’s the threshold concern, and Tropical Americas is hopefully enough of an answer.
Dreams That Soar Was Proof of Concept
We’ve been saying for years that a drone-driven nighttime spectacular at Animal Kingdom was the obvious answer. Before “Disney Dreams That Soar” was first announced or even rumored, we speculated that dazzling drone display would come to DAK. It’s been on several of our D23 wishlists.
Now, we’re predicting with even greater confidence that a new nighttime spectacular for Animal Kingdom will be one of the marquee announcements at the 2026 D23 Expo. Maybe it’s just a broken clock situation, but we feel that the time is right, and Animal Kingdom will finally get its drone-driven nighttime spectacular sometime in 2027.
I refuse to believe “Disney Dreams That Soar” was the (dead) end game for drone displays at Walt Disney World. There’s no way that the company spent all of that money developing nighttime entertainment for a show at Disney Springs.
In case you’re unfamiliar with it, “Disney Dreams That Soar” was a summertime drone show at Disney Springs in 2024. Walt Disney World showcased stories celebrating the joy of flight with state-of-the-art drones choreographed to create designs in the sky and paired with a soaring musical score and memorable movie quotes.
“Disney Dreams That Soar” consisted of over 800 drones, choreographed to a soaring musical score of iconic Disney music and memorable dialogue. The drones designed towering elements up to 400-feet tall, and creating images of Disney characters from Toy Story, Coco, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Up, Star Wars, and more.
The show was approximately 10 minutes long and was presented twice nightly. It was a smash success, drawing massive crowds all summer long. It was not brought back either of the last two years, but that’s not due to lack of popularity. The guest response was off the charts.
“Disney Dreams That Soar” drew rave reviews, including from us (see our Review: Walt Disney World’s Best New Experience for Summer!).
The drone show was the only new experience that earned a 10/10 score from us, along with a ‘go out of your way to experience this must-see’ recommendation. We called “Disney Dreams That Soar” the strongest addition at Walt Disney World for Summer 2024, which put it above Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and CommuniCore Hall.
We also openly speculated that “Disney Dreams That Soar” was proof of concept. That it was a test of the technology for something bigger and better in 2025 2026 2027 (third time’s the charm!). There was simply no way that Walt Disney World would purposefully locate its best summer offering outside of a park in a place that’s free to see unless it were part of something bigger-picture.
WDW Drone Groundwork
There’s also what’s happened in the background. A few years ago, David Duffy was promoted to VP of Live Entertainment at Walt Disney World. It’s no coincidence that since then, Florida is finally investing more in entertainment.
Around that same time, Dronisos, the official technology supplier of Disneyland Paris, opened an Orlando office. At the time, Dronisos explained that they chose Orlando as a strategic location since it’s the “heartbeat of the amusement park industry” that would make it easier to collaborate with existing and potential clients.
It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the head of Live Entertainment that put Disneyland Paris on the map for its drone-driven nighttime spectaculars and the company that supplied Disneyland Paris with its technology both came to Florida at the same time. Even in the absence of that context, a permanent drone show feels inevitable at Walt Disney World. Drones are like this generation’s projection mapping; it’s honestly a bit odd that there isn’t one already.
WDW Drone Challenges
We assume that the biggest impediment to a drone show is Walt Disney World’s no-fly zones that were obtained in 2003. The company already obtained a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration to use “small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) operations” within its restricted airspaces. These sUAS are drones, and Disney dubbed the technology Flixels (per a 2014 patent filing). There were rumors way back when that those were in the original plans for Rivers of Light.
Based on the waiver Disney already received from the FAA, the flight paths of drones must be 100 feet away from guest areas at all times, and that they would primarily fly over water and restricted areas. The only question was how and where Disney would use drones.
We already got a taste of that with “Disney Dreams That Soar.” Within the identified parameters of those waivers, the most logical locations for drones at Walt Disney World are lagoon shows at Animal Kingdom and/or EPCOT. Magic Kingdom is probably a non-starter.
One possibility that we can’t rule out completely is that, even if the FAA would allow it, Disney Legal might be more restrictive about where, when and how drones can be used. (That might be the real reason they’ve yet to appear in a Walt Disney World theme park, not some long game for a soft relaunch of Animal Kingdom!)
Drones Are Animal Kingdom’s Answer
Assuming they can get clearance, a drone show at Animal Kingdom would solve a lot of problems. It would be an infrastructure-light addition to the notoriously difficult Discovery River lagoon. It would make use of the excellent amphitheater built for Rivers of Light that now sits unused. A drone show would be mesmerizing without loud pyro that would disturb the wildlife.
It could probably even reuse a lot of what was created for Rivers of Light. While I doubt this would simply be a reworked Rivers of Light with drones added, I could see a lot of the good ideas from that being recycled and treated as new. After all, only like 1,998 people saw Rivers of Light. For something relatively recent, it’s been all but forgotten.
Most importantly, a drone-driven nighttime spectacular would be a marquee entertainment offering with wow-factor. When paired with Tropical Americas, DAK would be much more likely to keep people in the park past sundown.
Walt Disney World could build a marketable package around the drone show and Tropical Americas to make it feel like a reinvention of Animal Kingdom, similar to Disney Adventure World (minus the renaming) or even a decade ago when Pandora debuted.
Trying to reestablish Animal Kingdom as a full-day park would be a savvy marketing move, and reminiscent of when they tried to make Animal Kingdom ‘After Dark’ a thing. This time, it might actually stick. Even if DAK still needs a few more attractions after Tropical Americas, a blockbuster drone-driven nighttime spectacular is the one thing with enough wow-factor that it could keep guests in the park until after 9 pm.
It’s so obvious that this is the perfect solution to DAK’s problems, and it makes too much sense to not happen. In fact, if a new nighttime spectacular isn’t announced for Animal Kingdom at the 2026 D23 Expo, the most plausible explanation for its conspicuous omission will be that Disney is kicking the can down the road until the 2027 Destination D23. In which case, we’ll also start to wonder whether the heart of Tropical Americas is still opening next year.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you think a drone display is on the horizon at Animal Kingdom? Do you agree or disagree with our reasons as to why 2027 is the time for a new nighttime spectacular at DAK? Think this will be the ace up Disney’s sleeve to boost attendance and duration of visit at Animal Kingdom? Other thoughts or commentary to add? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I think a drone show would be a fantastic addition to AK! We did see Rivers of Light, and thought it was cool. As far as park hours go, and perhaps I’m way off base here, but I feel like if they would offer later times, people would stay. (Like Field of Dreams, “Build it and they will come.”) I think the safari usually stops at 5 or 6 now? Why? The Starlight safari at Animal Kingdom Lodge is nearly impossible to book because it’s so popular. I guess I’m unclear as to why things couldn’t stay open later? I love Animal Kingdom at night!
We saw Rivers of Light back when it was showing, and I remember liking it well enough, but agree that it didn’t “wow” me like some of the other nighttime shows did at the time.
Love the idea of drones to amp things up and give the lagoon amphitheater a nice boost. They could even call it…wait for it…
Rivers of FLIGHT.
An evening safari, dinner at Tiffins, and a walk through Pandora at night is one of my all time favorite Disney experiences. Sadly it is extremely difficult to do given sunset times and daylight hours. Pandora at night is one of the most amazing things Disney has done…simply spectacular.
I keep thinking there MUST be a market for a sensory friendly nighttime show and I think something like this with drones and/or fountains would be perfect. And then also advertise it as such to hopefully set expectations re the lack of fireworks.
This summer our local zoo (in MN) has a display of large animal-shaped lantern sculptures- I wonder if something like that could be added to AK for some extra nighttime magic.
I’d also honestly love to see Disney take another crack at DinoLand 2.0 with a completely clean slate, or even a new Bug’s Land (because bugs are important!).
It doesn’t really matter what they do. With the constraints they have a rewarding nighttime spectacular is unlikely – yet. They can do a good show but these basic drones won’t really cut it. I think they are waiting of the technology to catch up with their imagination. The new ones being tested out in the desert are next level. Essentially, flying screens. Drone shows are common now so it needs to be special. But as Tom has already pointed out, what else are you going to do for 6 hours until it gets dark. It needs a few more flat rides. Off the shelf ones (just better than Primeval Whirl) are the stop gap and not remotely expensive. Copy Crush’s Coaster from DLP (know your a big fan Tom) but have one queue and 2 buildings.They can have it opening 6 months. It’s an indoor SC2200. Slinky Dog Dash is another obvious one and that’s an off the shelf one too. And another Soarin’ equivalent would be acceptable. Not tons of Imagineering required and cheap as chips to get up. And (more) importantly, not taking 7 years! It ain’t rocket science. It’s about desire.
Generally agree with what you’re saying, but the costs and timeframes wouldn’t be that low or short. Disney cannot build as efficiently as a regional park. Even something like Slinky Dog Dash was much, much more expensive than many fans would realize.
Regardless, something like “a bug’s land” (defunct DCA) would be a great capacity addition while being quick and reasonable by Disney standards. While they’re at it, take the assets from the Lion King flume ride in France and turn that into a dark ride on the expansion pad between Pandora and Africa. That one wouldn’t be cheap, but it’s needed.
I am positive a Lion King ride will be built at AK in the next 5-10 years. Unless something goes very wrong with the Paris ride, I imagine most fans will want a clone built ASAP, and that would reduce the cost. It would still be expensive but more a known quantity, and if they add a couple of flat rides in with it that plus Tropical Americas would give the park a ride count similar to EPCOT.
“How do you convince people to stick around another ~6 hours for a nighttime spectacular if they’re otherwise done with the park?
There’s no good answer to that question, save for a live-action remake of Country Bear Jamboree. “
We’re just going to let that go without anyone making a comment? These little nuggets of gold are why I have to read these articles more than once.
Almost threw in another clarifying sentence there, but the article is already long, and if you overexplain a throwaway joke, it sometimes fails to be funny!
Even just a simple, slightly cliched concept would really work. Have Baloo &/or Bagheera be the hosts (the show would be performed in Asia so this would fit the land theme) & take us through all the animal IP’s with a woven story. Maybe not cutting edge but it would attract guests for sure.
With the opening of the new rides/land they need to do this! We are the rare ones who stay late-but we are also there mostly Oct-Mar. What to do during the longer days…?
Universal Studios & SeaWorld’s summertime drone shows were even more spectacular than Dreams That Soar. SeaWorld’s didn’t have IPs, but had awesome moving & dimensional images of marine animals.
I remember Epcot had a version of Illuminations before the millennium-era one that featured laser imagery of world culture. I think they should bring that show back but this time have the images formed by drones. Harmonious & Luminous didn’t wow me & seem like inauthentic parodies of earlier nighttime spectaculars.
Animal Kingdom should bring back the river rides that were there in the early days. Not sure why they stopped those & used the ports as character meet & greet settings instead. It reminds me of the days of Disney-MGM Studios when that park was mostly shows & hardly any rides. If you saw something like One Man’s Dream & Fantasmic, you could catch a sense of magic in the air, but otherwise the park was rather dull. Even with more lands & rides now, it’s still not as pixie dust-filled in general as Magic Kingdom & Epcot. I’m not sure why Epcot is so magical to me when it leans less towards IPs & more towards science/tech & world culture, but it’s my favorite park by far. I’ve been to Animal Kingdom plenty of times but there is a distinct lack of pixie dust in the air. I think a problem is the sense that you’re visiting developing countries in Southern Asia & Africa, countries that it would be more stressful than fun to visit in real-life due to conditions being more primitive than we’re used to in the US. Taking vacations to such countries has never been on my bucket list, but World Showcase made me want to visit countries like Canada, Norway, & Morocco.
Dreams that Soar is one of the best things Disney has done in the last decade and drones are definitely the answer to a nightime show. I know lots of people who went multiple times to see that show and had no other reason to take the time to go to Disney Springs. If combined with a watershow it would be a huge sucess. The problem I see for AK is that even with Tropical Americas it doesn’t feel like a full day park. The expansion is really just one ride, Indiana Jones will be more popular than Dinosaur (sorry Tom), but it’s a replacement, the carousel replaces the spinner (also probably more popular, so Encanto is really the only addition (being generous and forgetting about Primeval Whirl). I am not sure that there is enough to get people to stay with TA built. It feels to me like they propbably need 2-3 more new rides to convince people that its a full day park. Will the TA build out and a night show make the 4 day 4 park ticket more attractive yes and that could definitely drive demand in the short term but long term they just need more rides to make people think it’s a solid value proposition especially as they build out MK. I can see a point where people decide an extra MK day is more valuable then going to AK at all. A third ride in Pandora, maybe a clone of the lion king ride from Paris if it turns out to be good? I realize that would be contriversial but given Disney’s love of clones it might actually get green lit and then something else. If that kind of build out isn’t in phase 2 of WDW expansion plans you will see a bump like with Pandora and then another crash in attendance
Should have built Beastly Kingdom instead. It’s a failed park unless Disney wants to throw a billion at it to fix it.
imagine dreams that soar and world of color had a baby, and it lives in the animal kingdom lagoon…
This, exactly.
Tom wrote: ” Animal Kingdom is the worst performing park at Walt Disney World.”
Here’s the thing: no matter what Disney does, there will always be one park that is the worst performing.
Ha, that’s true!
And realistically, DAK is probably the park that’s always going to be #4. But I think they’d prefer that they weren’t so much distance between it, EPCOT and DHS. (They’re clearly fine with Magic Kingdom being the overwhelming #1, and are building it out accordingly.)
Lion king, Zootopia, jungle book, Encanto, drones, water screens, lights, floats…..let’s do this. So sad to see the beautiful amphitheater just sitting empty. Come on Disney have you seen what epic is doing with lights and water? Amazing!
I never saw Rivers of Light, but I feel like the answer is to combine some of the more crowd-pleasing elements of Fantasmic, World of Color (maybe scaled-down water fountain projections), Rivers of Light, and Illuminations, and add the drone show above it all. Sure, due to some of the staging/viewing challenges the “wow” elements of the spectacular might need to be toned down, but the key to making it successful will be in making it EMOTIONALLY RESONANT, vs. just having the biggest and brightest lights and floats and props and pyro. If I were Disney I would want guests leaving DAK saying “wow, that was really powerful” vs. thinking “wow, that was really big/glitzy/showy.” You want people coming back again and again for that power — buses coming into DAK from other parks/resorts as the skies darken vs. departing en masse in the late afternoon.
Also, while I’m a huge proponent of the “no animals in pants” credo at DAK, I’m mostly against adding a big Zootopia land or any major attractions that lean into anthropomorphism (vs animals existing in their more natural state). HOWEVER, I’m totally fine ditching that rule for footage, songs, props, etc. in nighttime spectacular. Anything animal-related should be fair game when it comes to drone displays, water projections, soundtrack, etc.
“Also, while I’m a huge proponent of the “no animals in pants” credo at DAK, I’m mostly against adding a big Zootopia land or any major attractions that lean into anthropomorphism (vs animals existing in their more natural state). HOWEVER, I’m totally fine ditching that rule for footage, songs, props, etc. in nighttime spectacular. Anything animal-related should be fair game when it comes to drone displays, water projections, soundtrack, etc.”
I agree with this completely. I think entertainment is the perfect way to feature some otherwise thematically-questionable IPs at Animal Kingdom that regular guests expect to see.
They need something in that giant amphitheater that took forever to build. Personally, I quite liked RoL. It was my least-favorite nighttime spectacular. But that’s like saying vanilla is my least favorite ice cream – it’s still freaking ice cream.
Anything would be great keep the park open later so you can explore it more often at night. All parks look better at night but there really is something special about seeing AK in that state. Not to mention riding Everest at night makes it seem significantly more intense than it already is.
Pandora always looks great, but it truly shines in the evening. It’s a shame guests can only enjoy that from (roughly) November through March.
I agree! I was there in 2017 and thought the park was stunning as the sun went down. It makes me sad to read about the current situation at AK.
The drone show at Disney springs was phenomenal. If they could pull off something similar at Animal Kingdom that would be great. I have to say I liked Rivers of Light.
First of all there is no way to safely launch a drone show at AK since the park is full of trees, etc.
Second the drone noise would affect the animals.
Last won’t matter as guests biggest complaint with Rivers of Light, were “Where are the Fireworks?”.
As a local resident AP, I heard that multiple times every time I attended the show. The guest do not understand why Fireworks are not allowed at AK.
So even if you could find a show like a Fantasmic to put there, it would not be exciting enough for most tourist that just want to see Disney Fireworks.
So this park will always remain a half day park, as most Zoos do across the USA. Perhaps the wrong type of park was built there after all. That’s obvious as the President of that park seems to change every few years. No one wants to run a half day park.
You launch the drones from a barge that’s floated out onto the water.
Maybe you’re right about the lack of pyro. I was also a local AP for a few years while Rivers of Light was running, and the complaint I heard more than the lack of fireworks was (variations of) “that was slow and boring.” Make a show that doesn’t have pacing problems and wows guests, and they’ll look past the lack of pyro.
Other parks do pyro-less night shows that are popular with guests.
You launch the drones from the top of the nemo show building. You would need a safe path to from the water – i would use the bridge right there as the ingress/egress point. Add netting overhead for audience protection. Send some drones under (while illuminated) as the start and end of the show. Limp home mode would be over the top.
Drone show would be great. But even if they can’t keep the park open until after dark, they can do something like KiteTails and bring back the river boats.