Main Street Electrical Parade is Coming Back!
Main Street Electrical Parade will be returning for its 938th farewell run, Disney has teased on TikTok. The night parade is likely to make its Disneyland homecoming in early 2022, running for the parade’s 50th Anniversary! (The first number was a joke, the second isn’t–MSEP is really turning 50 next year.)
This comes after Main Street Electrical Parade made its last farewell a little over two years ago, and its previous farewell run a couple years before that. (We’ll see you again in 2024 for our regularly scheduled “return of MSEP” post.) Main Street Electrical Parade has come back from retirement more times than Steven Soderbergh.
Main Street Electrical Parade’s ‘triumphant returns’ are always popular events for the parade that has become almost as much of a Southern California institution as the park it calls home. In this post, we’ll offer some speculation as to why Main Street Electrical Parade is returning, what this could mean for crowds, why this parade is returning instead of Paint the Night, and whether that other night parade might be headed for Walt Disney World…
What I won’t do is editorialize extensively as to my feelings about Main Street Electrical Parade (which I’ve shared at length several times, most recently here). Suffice to say, it’s not my favorite night parade and I think it should’ve been permanently retired decades ago.
With that said, there is a certain appeal to seeing its quaint floats roll down the similarly charming Disneyland parade route. Main Street Electrical Parade really does “feel right” rolling down that eponymous avenue; it’s much better there than in Magic Kingdom. (It should be noted that Disney hasn’t announced whether Main Street Electrical Parade is returning to Disneyland or DCA. Although it wouldn’t make diehard fans as happy, a strong argument could be made for moving it to Disney California Adventure given World of Color’s downtime.)
Beyond that, I’m so starved for a nighttime parade that I’ll happily take anything at this point, making me quite excited for this Main Street Electrical Parade news!
Let’s start with the impact on crowds at Disneyland.
Right now, Disneyland is having all sorts of issues with attendance and Magic Key reservation availability. There’s literally nothing available on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays—the days most locals have off work–through early January 2022. Weekday availability also isn’t great, with almost nothing left in October before options open up in early November. Then there’s nothing for Thanksgiving week, followed by mostly just Disney California Adventure as the starting park throughout December.
One solution we’ve posited to this problem is improving operational capacity by bringing back shows, parades, and other entertainment. Opening more dining locations and extending hours would likewise help the parks to better absorb crowds and thus accommodate more reservations.
However, the “danger” with bringing back more entertainment–at least in the short term–is that it induces more demand than it increases capacity and helps absorb crowds, thus leading to even more congestion and reservation woes.
In this regard, we could see history repeat itself. In the January after the Diamond Celebration ended, Disney was worried about a lull in attendance, so the company brought back Main Street Electrical Parade. Then came the nostalgia-drenched parade ad plus billboards plastered all over—it was quite the marketing blitz in the Los Angeles and Orange County markets.
To no one’s surprise, Main Street Electrical Parade debuted to monster crowds, and those remained steady pretty much until the summer months when the Annual Passholder blockout began. Disneyland locals love anything new, returning, limited time, and nostalgic—this made for a perfect storm. This was exacerbated by cheaper tickets for Southern California residents, coupled with a surplus of attraction refurbishments that reduced park capacity.
That was more the totality of the circumstances than it was Main Street Electrical Parade’s homecoming alone, and Disneyland definitely learned some lessons in the process. When MSEP returned again following the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, it wasn’t as big of an event.
Our expectation is that this will probably fall somewhere in between. Disneyland fans are starved for entertainment and it has been a tough couple of years; the comforting nostalgia of Main Street Electrical Parade will probably resonate with a lot of people. As such, we’d expect a spike in crowds that keeps the ‘sold out’ Magic Key reservation availability train rolling when pent-up demand might otherwise start fizzling out as locals have started to get enough of their Disneyland “fix.”
As for why Main Street Electrical Parade is returning instead of the newer Paint the Night, there are a few potential reasons. A big one is that there’s still a tremendous amount of nostalgia for Main Street Electrical Parade among Southern California residents.
That’s almost certainly the target audience with this announcement. While the parade’s return doesn’t yet have a date, our guess is that it’ll be back in the off-season when it’s disproportionately locals visiting the park. On top of that, Disneyland has done a fair amount to alienate its loyal SoCal fanbase–just look at the Magic Key reservation calendar–and this is one way to recover some fan goodwill from those unforced errors.
Additionally, Paint the Night is a costly and challenging parade to run. It’s not discussed much, but one of the reasons the newer Paint the Night has been eschewed in favor of the older MSEP is because of float and costume maintenance. Plus, the physical toll Paint the Night takes on performers.
Main Street Electrical Parade has some of these same issues, but not nearly to the same degree. Despite it being decades older, Main Street Electrical Parade is easier to operate, maintain, and staff.
Speaking of which, there have been persistent rumors that Paint the Night will be brought to Florida from California. This parade debuted during the Diamond Celebration, but hasn’t seen much use since. Obviously, these rumors have never come to fruition.
It’s our understanding that Walt Disney World has been given the option of borrowing Paint the Night multiple times, and passed on it due to those aforementioned maintenance and operating expenses. After so many years of not having a night parade in Magic Kingdom, we think the only way Walt Disney World would rethink that decision is if attendance falls off a cliff in early 2022.
At this point, there’s no reason to expect a sudden and sharp drop in Walt Disney World crowds. So, there’s no reason to hold out hope that Paint the Night coming to Magic Kingdom will be the next announcement.
There is nothing that I would love to be wrong about more than this. It’s my strong belief that Walt Disney World fans “deserve” a night parade. Similar to Disneyland bringing back MSEP, it would provide a desperately needed goodwill win for Florida. The difference is that I just don’t think WDW management cares. (But I really hope you this is a “take that ages poorly” and you all get to dunk on just how wrong I was!)
Ultimately, bringing back Main Street Electrical Parade is a great move by Disneyland management that, at the very least, will provide a needed goodwill win. It should help appease the growing chorus of disenchanted locals who feel burned by the lack of Magic Key reservations, parking lot trams, Fantasmic, Magic Happens, World of Color, or [insert long list of other grievances].
It remains to be seen what other impacts the return of Main Street Electrical Parade will have at Disneyland. Will it help or hurt with attendance/capacity? Will it induce more crowds or help absorb them? Will it be the first of many entertainment announcements in the coming weeks/months, or is this it for a while? Maybe we should wait for resolutions to some of those other key questions before expressing excitement. Nah, I’m really happy for the return of Main Street Electrical Parade and will gladly savor this not-so-small victory even knowing it could have unintended consequences. Night parades are fun and entrancing, and I’m willing to overlook a lot given my enjoyment of the spectacular festival pageant of nighttime magic and imagination in thousands of sparkling lights and electro-syntho-magnetic musical sounds!
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Your Thoughts
Are you excited for the return of Main Street Electrical Parade or is yet another farewell run too much? Are you a MSEP fan, or do you wish Paint the Night were returning instead? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment on crowds? Any questions? 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!
Nice to see at least 1 park is getting something special magic kingdom has been ignored the 50,the is a disaster especially the fireworks that make no mention of Walt or Mickey they imply that we are the magic because chapek is to cheap to provide any all he cares about is money there is a petition on change.org with over 55k signatures to fire chapek I invite everyone who has enough of chapek destroying the magic to sign at https://www.change.org/p/the-walt-disney-company-fire-disney-ceo-bob-chapek-5feb6077-21d0-41aa-9eaf-9959501b210e
Like the serial killer in a bad movie series this one just keeps coming back to life after one more final goodbye. Seems like Disney is taking the easiest route to drum up good will but how many times can they replay this trick?
I’ve been disappointed for so many years that WDW hasn’t brought back an electric night parade at the MK, and I’ve missed Spectromagic ever since it left. (MSEP was OK, but never had my heart.) I’ve watched Paint the Night online and would dearly love to have it come to WDW! But like you, I don’t think it’s likely. Honestly, I’d take any night parade! Kids these days don’t know what they’re missing.
I absolutely LOVE Arne electrical parade!!!!! I hope they bring it back to Florida!!!!
So when should we expect the Electrical Parade???
I agree! This is my favorite part of Disney World. I searched and searched as a child looking for the music and finally found it at MK on a 45 (for those who know what that is!). I now have the music on my phone and it brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to it. I love this parade.
The Main Street Electrical Parade always has and always will be my all time favorite. Paint the Night is great but it just isn’t the same. I live in the Bay Area and have already made three trips South to visit the parks (four if you count Touch of Disney) and a quick cruise on the Wonder. I have a weekend booked already in December as well. Guess I’ll plan another as soon as dates are announced!
How much extra money will Disney charge people to watch this parade?
Tokyo Disneyland’s night parade is incredible–why can’t WDW or DL just copy that one? ;_;
I’m so fed up with not having a night time parade at the Magic Kingdom! They have the money and the space to accommodate it. The current management is just apathetic and has no desire to “plus” things anymore. The desire to make it really special is gone. Epcot is a mess still, the monorails are ancient, and the most popular park In the world does not have a world class night time parade. Come on Chapek!
Y’all are disrespectful to an original. This is a spectacular parade with the best music and is one of Disney’s BEST parades EVER!!!!!
Yeah … where is Magic Happens, Fantasmic, and Paint the Night?!?!? Not interested in MSEP.
it still breaks my heart that Spectromagic was left out to rot in the rain. spectromagic>paint the night>msep>no night parade at all
I heard that one major reason WDW has turned down Paint the Night is that the floats are too big to fit in the utilidors, which would be a pretty huge obstacle to get around.
Have you heard anything to that effect, or is there a way to know if that’s inaccurate?
Regardless, I hope that bringing MSEP back yet again is just a stopgap between A Christmas Fantasy and something newer, and not “well, here’s your parade, take it or leave it,” because that’d feel like an unsatisfactory endpoint.
The Main Street Electric Parade belongs in the same category as Twinkies and Cher; it will outlast us all!
In all seriousness, it’s deeply disappointing to me that Disney continues to trot out this tired old parade every few years when apparently Paint the Night is just sitting in a warehouse somewhere. They 1000% have the money to run the newer parade and remain profitable, even with the additional upkeep. Also redesigning the costumes to produce less wear and tear on the performers is entirely doable. And the fact that WDW has passed on having Paint the Night multiple times in inexcusable. As Tom says, it just shows the WDW management has no interest in running a nighttime parade and is a real slap in the face to all the visitors to the Florida parks.
When I was in kindergarten we would have Share Music Time once a week where a child would be selected to bring in a record from home, and my choice was a record of the Main Street Electrical Parade. The problem with this, as anyone who has seen the parade knows, is that it’s essentially a loop of the exact same 20 second electronic tune for like a full 10 minutes, and I put a number of kids to sleep with my choice. My only friend Joel told me he didn’t want to be friends with me anymore, starting a quite lengthy friendless streak. Joke ended up being on Joel though, because a week later he brought in the same favorite snack as me (cinnamon graham crackers) for Share Snack Time, and he was so mortified that his parents had to be called because he wouldn’t stop crying.
What in the world happened to Magic Happens? I feel like it ran for like two days at Disneyland pre-pandemic. Why bring out an old parade when you have a brand-spanking new one that hasn’t really had a proper debut?
I’m happy to hear that any nighttime parade is back in any park, but I really wish that any one of them would return to the Magic Kingdom. I’ve been holding out hope, against all odds, that Paint the Night would be part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, but I’m sure you’ve got an accurate take on that probability, Tom. It feels like Disney is 100% focused on short-term returns right now and is is not at all concerned for what seems like plummeting goodwill/rising dissatisfaction of repeat customers. I get it – $1 billion quarterly losses must be reversed, but I believe there will come a time when Disney execs will wish they’d invested more in making emotional connections and fostering future nostalgia in current first-time visitors.
You mention the trams as another grievance at the end, but those have been announced to be returning in early 2022, as well! Here’s to hoping we get a Spring 2022 return of Fantasmic!, WoC, and Magic Happens!
I grew up in SoCal watching this…. Meh. Nostalgia at the cost of something or anything better.