Harmonious Fireworks at Epcot: Info & Soft Opening Date
Harmonious is a new nighttime spectacular fireworks show coming to Epcot’s World Showcase Lagoon at Walt Disney World. This covers everything you need to know: its debut date & soft opening, best viewing spots, concept art, and news. (Updated September 24, 2021.)
As background, Harmonious is the largest ever Walt Disney World nighttime spectacular–essentially a fireworks show on steroids and the permanent replacement for IllumiNations. Harmonious celebrates how the music of Disney inspires people the world over. It brings to World Showcase Lagoon massive floating set pieces that house a variety of show effects, including custom-built LED panels, choreographed moving fountains, colorful lights, lasers, pyrotechnics, and more during the 20-minute long show.
Harmonious is a beautifully-crafted nighttime spectacular presenting a dreamscape of music and imagery from Disney animated films, reimagined by diverse cultural musicians and artists from around the world. Walt Disney Imagineering describes it as a “transformative experience, where we can discover how Disney music has the power to inspire and unite us all.”
In the last few months, installation of the barges for Harmonious in World Showcase Lagoon has been completed. From that, we know that Harmonious will use five enormous platforms to house the main show elements.
Four of which are perimeter barges, which will feature double-sided LED walls standing 25-feet tall and have eight 54-foot-long moving arms along with moving lights, fountains, lasers, and more. These will surround a 6-story tall central ring structure and water curtain.
You should be able to view Harmonious from anywhere in World Showcase that looks into the lagoon. (So basically, don’t stand anywhere with a restaurant or amphitheater between you and the water.) However, some views will be better than others, with the best options being straight-on the Stargate and without islands between you and the taco barges.
We will update our Best Epcot Fireworks Viewing Spots after Harmonious debuts, but our preliminary recommendations are spots 1, 2, 4, and 5. Location 3 should not be as good due to the side angle. (It’s still not a bad pick, just not as good as the others.)
The soundtrack for Harmonious was produced remotely through 110 separate recording sessions in nine different countries and five states. In total, 240 musicians, artists, composers, arrangers, cultural consultants, and vocalists contributed to the unique sound of the show.
Harmonious takes Walt Disney World guests on a journey through new interpretations of familiar Disney songs, performed in more than a dozen languages by a cast of talented singers from around the world. Some are recognizable names, either in the United States or their home country. Others are rising stars being heard by a global audience for the first time.
Harmonious opens with an inspiring medley of “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana and “Go the Distance” from Hercules, performed by American Idol finalist and three-time Grammy nominee Danny Gokey and vocalists Elisha Garrett and Ninet Tayeb.
Throughout the soundtrack, there’s also a musical motif in the form of the soaring melody of composer Pinar Toprak’s new Epcot anthem, and all these diverse pieces of music are woven together by arranger Mark Hammond and Walt Disney Imagineering Senior Music Producer and Creative Director Yaron Spiwak. The resulting ensemble is a symphony of characters and culture that attempts to fit into World Showcase.
Award-winning Puerto Rican artist Luis Fonsi, responsible for several global hits including “Despacito,” joins Mexican singer-songwriter Joy for a rousing, pan-Latin version of songs from Coco and Saludos Amigos. “Dig a Little Deeper” from the Princess and the Frog features vocalist Bryson Camper and Gospel artists Karen Clark Sheard and Kierra Sheard. Other musical selections are highlighted by the vocal talents of Wang Liuqi, Hollie Hammel, Aditya Rao, Gaayatri Kaundinya, Jorgie Shkara, and Sanaa Marahati.
The Ndlovu Youth Choir from Johannesburg contributes a medley of favorites from the Lion King, performed in both English and Zulu. French pop singer Damien Sargue performs “Out There” from the Hunchback of Notre Dame. The music of Brave gets a Celtic kick from the dueling violins of Grammy and Emmy-nominated violinist Máiréad Nesbitt and platinum-selling electronic artist and violinist Lindsey Stirling.
Harmonious brings to World Showcase Lagoon a combination of floating giant screens, choreographed moving fountains, lights, pyrotechnics and lasers in a 360-degree view. Enter worlds inspired by Moana, Aladdin, Coco, Brave, The Lion King, Mulan, the Princess and the Frog and other classic stories.
Colorful images and effects dance and change as Harmonious weaves familiar Disney music and stories together in brand-new ways. Harmonious builds to a finale that unites everyone around World Showcase and from around the world, as many of the musical artists come together to perform a poignant and powerful song, bringing Harmonious to an emotional close.
Harmonious Opening Date & Soft Opening
Harmonious officially debuts on October 1, 2021. This will occur alongside the “Disney Enchantment” nighttime spectacular in Magic Kingdom and other new entertainment for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary.
The festivities, known as the World’s Most Magical Celebration, will kick off on October 1, 2021 and last for 18 months. You can read everything that’s officially announced and rumored for the festivities in our Ultimate Guide to Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary!
Before its grand debut, Harmonious will soft open on September 29, 2021.
On both that night and September 30, Harmonious will be shown at 9 pm. While it still says “Harmonious – Opening October 1, 2021” on the official entertainment title, this soft opening is official. You can find it on the entertainment schedule and calendar on DisneyWorld.com. (Note that media previews of Harmonious are occurring on those nights, so don’t be surprised if not all viewing areas are available.)
Harmonious Commentary
The appearance of these Harmonious platforms in World Showcase Lagoon provided controversial among Walt Disney World fans. Social media has torn into these, understandably so.
The key criticisms are that these block World Showcase sightlines and look like some Waterworld-inspired post-apocalyptic ramshackle floating community. It’s hard to imagine these looking good during the day, but rather than piling, I’m still going to take a “wait and see” position.
However, it’s a bit disingenuous to pretend World Showcase had exquisite sightlines before this. That would require ignoring the Swan & Dolphin hotels, Soarin’ show building, Test Track show building, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind show building, and more.
This isn’t to say Walt Disney World fans should eagerly accept further visual blight or intrusions, but the point is that views across the water haven’t been pristine and unspoiled for (literally) decades.
Moreover, when work is finished the Harmonious barges are going to function as fountains during the day. So long as they’re constantly running and cycling large amounts of water, they could look fine. Thus far, there’s no reason to believe these fountains will look even remotely good, but we’re willing to wait.
The views across World Showcase Lagoon are nice, but it’s also a huge and empty expanse, and colossal fountains during the day could add a good bit of kinetic energy to the park. This isn’t to say they’ll look as good as the concept art–I’m skeptical given how colossal and clunky they look right now and daytime testing we’ve seen thus far has been awful–but judging the work-in-progress project as if it’s the finished product is premature.
Ultimately, I’m cautiously optimistic about Harmonious. Ironically, before IllumiNations ended and Epcot Forever debuted, I wrote: “Harmonious looks a lot like World of Color, and the whole notion of a character-centric show on World Showcase Lagoon really makes me cringe. Part of me hopes that ‘due to guest demand’ Epcot Forever becomes permanent.” As it turned out, Epcot Forever was not very good and now I find myself really missing nighttime spectaculars.
EPCOT undeniably needs help in numerous ways, and it feels counterproductive for the fandom to drag our collective feet at every change. Harmonious could end up being a total dud, but it could also end up being a tremendous nighttime spectacular that, like World of Color before it, revitalizes a languishing theme park. At this point, IllumiNations and so much of old EPCOT Center is gone, and there’s no turning back. The future direction of the park is very different than its past, and even though I don’t love that in some ways, it’s certainly better than stagnation.
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Your Thoughts
Are you excited for Harmonious? Think it’ll be a nighttime spectacular worthy of Walt Disney World? If you’re an EPCOT Center purist, are you apprehensive that this will fit World Showcase? Expect it to be a culturally tasteful use of music and imagery from animated films, or do you think it’s inappropriate IP for World Showcase? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? 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!
What is your opinion on booking a private speciality cruise (Enchanting Extra) to see Harmonious? The cost is $399 +tax. Are the views good and would you say it is worthwhile?
Shame on you Disney. You created a show that couldn’t be seen the whole way around the lake. We were at the international gateway and had no chance of seeing anything on the circle projection circle. We felt like we missed half of the show
Is the light show on every night?.we are going in Nov and want to plan which Park at night to visit whenever shows/fireworks on
13 minutes into the new ‘thing’ they replaced Illuminations with. Absolutely horrible. On every level. Great musical scores were corrupted. Nothing to pull the world together. Nothing to lift your heart. Visually busy but not even choreographed well. I absolutely HATE it and I’m a true Disney Parks fan. I will never stick around Epcot to watch this. And to think we gave up Happily Ever After so they could mess up that beautiful music in this show.
Not trying to offend. I’m sure some folks will love this. But I’m not a fan at all.
You refer to viewing areas 1,2,4,5-is there a map somewhere with viewing areas numbered? Or does that refer to countries where Canada is 1? Thanks!
Hahah I booked an Epcot park pass for Thursday, September 30th on the off-chance I’d get to see Harmonious early and it paid off! We’re leaving Oct 2 so I had to take a risk somewhere if I wanted to see Enchantment on Oct 1. Thank you for posting about this, all the new announcements are getting me more and more excited for this trip!
Tom, is it safe to say that the Harmonious start time in October will be the same as the park closing time—9:00? I’ll be making dinner reservations soon and want to work them around the fireworks. Thanks.
Harmonious at park closing time would be my assumption given past precedent, but who knows.
One thing to keep in mind is that October will be busy, so closing time is likely to be extended to 10 pm.
FIREWORKS ARE BACK ON JULY 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HEA and Epcot Forever, just as Tom predicted.
I cat wait to see the new show. We will plan a trip around going to Epcot for the first time in years. I love fountains and the views across the lagoon weren’t stellar.
If they’re going to have 5 fountains, one 6 stories high, that’s going to be very noisy. People complained about the noise from the log cutters in Canada, wait until they experience the noise level this may produce. Also, on a windy day, those riding the boats may get a refreshing misting if riding outside. I agree with those who don’t think this compares to Swan/Dolphin or rides set back from the lake as they are not dead center of the lake blocking views of the countries. They might as well have centered the 6 story ring and made a walking bridge over the lake through the ring creating a shorter way to the back of the park.
It will be interesting to see what the noise level is like, I hadn’t considered that. But I do agree with regard to sightlines. I’d love if sightlines were factored in more in general, but definitely think there’s a difference between intrusions being somewhat more peripheral vs front and center and squirting water. Otherwise logic would say put a drop tower in front of Spaceship Earth and when people call it an eyesore Disney can just ask “haven’t you seen the Swan and Dolphin?”.
Although I’m so sad to see IllumiNations go, all good things must come to an end. I’m excited to see what this show holds. I agree with the appearance of the set pieces/barges and how they block the 360 view of the park. However, hopefully like IllumiNations, the set pieces/barges will be stored out of sight and driven out.
They won’t be. They’re permanent.
I’m most excited to hear the music. I LOVED LOVED LOVED Illuminations (especially the score) and I can’t wait to be on the edge of World Showcase Lagoon seeing Harmonious in person, probably with tears streaming down my face as they were the first time I saw the Happily Ever After fireworks at the Magic Kingdom just two short years ago.
Would argue World Showcase views were pretty pristine. Swolphin and the Guardians building etc were all behind the lake when you looked across. There’s a reason water views are priced higher at the resorts. Sometimes it’s nice to look out at the water. What makes these barges a blight is that they interrupt a view of a pretty lake; not what is on the other side of the lake.
I suspect that those saying the water features will eventually get turned off for maintenance issues and cost are on the money.
As for when we’ll actually see the new show? Disney just committed to social distancing measures thru this year into 2022, so fireworks and nighttime shows will be right out the window as too dangerous. Until Disney stops getting scared of their own shadow, we’ll be lucky if we see Harmonious this year at all.
Yep, scared of their own shadow, or perhaps their unions and the California governor who keeps Disneyland closed. Until they realize that wearing masks outdoors is as silly as wearing them on the city sidewalks and beaches, it will be many months for this to debut.
I agree that the notion these will be continually operating is wishful thinking. And even if they are, instead of an ugly metal monstrosity to look at we’ll have an ugly metal monstrosity that squirts water. Yay?
I also wish they would have filled the entire lagoon with World of Color/Bellagio fountains. That would have been truly spectacular! If I ever win one of those billion dollar lotteries, I’ll pay to make this happen.
Marc I couldn’t agree more. Fireworks are great but fountains themselves can be serious entertainment when lit properly and timed to music. I always thought that would be the perfect solution to Animal Kingdom’s need for a good nighttime show…
I can’t help but see a pentagram in the name at the top of the page.
How long did IllumiNations last – 20 years? They are not going to pay the cost to run fountains to cover that mess past a year or two. Three years top.
As soon as the show wears long , they will stop the fountains.
It’s complicated. “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth” ran for 20 years, from 1999-2019. However, there were a couple different iterations of “IllumiNations” from 1988-1999 before the the RoE version showed up.
Your point is well-taken, though. We’ll have to see how the daytime fountains are doing after a few years.
Yup – appears that those barges have a lot of expensive technical stuff on-board and pouring water non-stop will most likely quickly take a toll. Only a matter of time when they will decide to stop replacing that stuff and just stop the fountains
Really hope you’re wrong…but very much fear you’re not based upon past precedent.
Looks good so far. Just hope that’s not another Stargate that will unleash otherworldly creatures. Although that would be a heck of a nightime show.
I wish I could upvote your comment! That *would* be a great nighttime show! And they’d easily be able to tie it into an IP. . . such as Marvel lol. I always wonder why they didn’t put in similar fountains to DCA which seem to have longevity and flexibility with what could be done on a seasonal or annual basis.
Yeah, I’m definitely hoping that *does* happen.
Regarding the visual blight concern, it’s also important to remember that the even though the Illuminations barges were mobile, the techs had to spend hours towing them out into the lagoon every single afternoon. There were pristine sightlines across the water in the morning hours, but by lunchtime there were already ugly barges floating out there.
I always thought that ‘if the barges are going to be out in the lagoon all day anyway, why do they even bother to tow them all offstage every night?’
Given the choice, I’d rather have permanent barges *that are designed to be seen in daylight* over really ugly temporary ones that are out in the lagoon for most of the day anyway.
I see your point, but in fairness, these barges are WAY bigger than the IllumiNations barges, and there are only 2 of 5 out thus far. They’re much more noticeable.
It’s also fair to say these weren’t really designed to be out permanently. The fountain aspect was added as an afterthought when they realized they would be keeping them in the lagoon permanently. So, lipstick on a pig more than anything.
Giant Waterworld inspired tacos is what I see when I look at those barges without water.
Even if it doesn’t end up being the best thing ever, I’d imagine it will be pretty cool. I’m also one of the dozen or so people who liked Rivers of Light…I’m just a sucker for a Disney nighttime show I suppose.
“I’m also one of the dozen or so people who liked Rivers of Light…”
I would also say I liked Rivers of Light, although it was primarily for the score and unique quality.
Also safe to say I’ll watch Harmonious more in one month than I saw Rivers of Light in the entirety of its run.
I absolutely loved Rivers of Light, I had no idea it was almost universally disliked.