Return Dates for Disneyland Spectaculars & New Finale for Main Street Electrical Parade
Disney has announced return and debut dates for fireworks, parades, and other nighttime spectaculars coming to Disneyland and California Adventure in Spring 2022. Here are dates, details on the new additions and returning fan favorites.
This update builds upon recent news of festivals coming back to Disney California Adventure early in 2022, with Lunar New Year just having concluded and DCA’s Food & Wine Festival starting in a couple weeks. Disneyland Resort has also recently introduced experiences like encountering Raya in Redwood Creek Challenge Trail to the Celebrate Soulfully entertainment throughout the month of February.
In addition to that, Disneyland Resort has already brought some fan-favorite entertainment, including the Disneyland Band, Citizens of Buena Vista Street, Dapper Dans, the Bootstrappers, Five & Dime, Guardians of the Galaxy Dance Off, and more. Plus, lots of holiday entertainment included with regular admission, like A Christmas Fantasy Parade and Believe…In Holiday Magic fireworks at Disneyland or the superlative “¡Viva Navidad!” street party and Mickey’s Happy Holidays over at Disney California Adventure.
The latest additions announced today will further strengthen that, leaving pretty much only Magic Happens Parade, Mickey and the Magical Map, and Frozen – Live at the Hyperion as the big question marks. Magic Happens was brand new–literally only a couple weeks old–when the parks closed, so we’re assuming it’ll come back for Summer 2022. Sadly, the latter two are probably gone for good–but we’re hoping for announcements about their successors at the D23 Expo this fall.
Anyway, here’s a look at what’s next on the horizon for entertainment at Disneyland and DCA in 2022…
World of Color – Guests will be able to gather around Paradise Bay at Disney California Adventure to enjoy World of Color. This unique combination of music, fire, fog and laser effects, with Disney animation projected on an immense screen of water is one of Disney’s best nighttime spectaculars anywhere.
The unforgettable kaleidoscope of color has enthralled millions of guests at Disney California Adventure as it brings the magic and fun of Disney and Pixar films to life— all set to a soaring soundtrack. Audiences are immersed in some favorite Disney stories with memorable sequences of animation and music, including scenes like WALL-E and Eve zipping through the cosmos and Pocahontas exploring just around the riverbend.
World of Color returns to Disney California Adventure on April 22, 2022.
Disneyland Forever Fireworks – Originally debuting for the Diamond Celebration, Disneyland Forever is a sky-high celebration filled with sparkling pyrotechnics and immersive projections that envelop guests in a breathtaking journey with surprising special effects.
Main Street, U.S.A., and a few other spots in Disneyland become a magical canvas as guests are swept into a world of dreams. Two original songs, “Live the Magic” and the inspiring closing song “Kiss Goodnight,” were written by Disney Legend Richard Sherman. This is a really solid fireworks show–the type Magic Kingdom should have received for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary.
Disneyland Forever fireworks return to the skies above Disneyland on April 22, 2022. When Disneyland Forever comes back, it will run weekends only (Friday through Sunday). “Mickey’s Mix Magic” will continue presenting its high-energy, projections-only show during the week (Monday through Thursday) until late Spring 2022. At that time, Disneyland Forever fireworks will then run nightly in Summer 2022.
Fantasmic! – A must-see show for guests for nearly 30 years at Disneyland, Fantasmic is Disney’s longest-running nighttime spectacular. It’s an emotional, energy-filled extravaganza of colorful Disney animated film images, choreographed to an exciting musical score.
The waters of the Rivers of America come alive as Mickey Mouse’s power of imagination enables him to create fantastic events and images as seen in some of our most beloved Disney classic films such as Fantasia, Jungle Book, Little Mermaid, and more. The original fanfare and theme song make this show a Disneyland classic.
Fantasmic will return to the Rivers of America in Disneyland just in time for the start of summer, on May 28, 2022.
Main Street Electrical Parade – Main Street Electrical Parade will make its grand return to Disneyland. This spectacular pageant of nighttime magic and imagination will be led by the iconic train and drum unit featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Goofy, and proclaiming in lights: “Disneyland Presents — Main Street Electrical Parade.” The parade brings back many guest favorites including Elliot the Dragon and floats from Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Peter Pan.
Main Street Electrical Parade will roll down Disneyland’s entertainment corridor beginning on April 22, 2022. Both Disneyland Forever and Main Street Electrical Parade will be available for a “limited time” at Disneyland. This type of limited engagement is pretty typical–Disneyland rotates fireworks shows regularly and MSEP has had tons of farewell runs.
Our guess here is that Disneyland Forever runs until early September, when Halloween Screams replaces it. As for Main Street Electrical Parade, it’ll probably have a long run due to the big news below–but it’s possible MSEP moves over to DCA for the summer once the parade route there is cleared of festival booths. (I doubt that, but it’s possible.)
But wait, there’s more! Upon its return to Disneyland, the “Main Street Electrical Parade” will be celebrating its 50th anniversary. In honor of this milestone, the Disney Live Entertainment team is introducing exciting new elements to the “Main Street Electrical Parade” that will continue to evolve this beloved spectacular.
Over the past five decades, the “Main Street Electrical Parade” has brought families together to delight in its many whimsical stories and featured characters. And soon, that will continue for a whole new generation of dreamers. In honor of the parade’s 50th anniversary, this nighttime spectacular will return with an all-new, enchanted grand finale that celebrates the theme of togetherness.
This universal theme is reflected in the creative concept of the grand finale sequence. Inspired by both the original design of classic Main Street Electrical Parade floats and Disney Legend Mary Blair’s iconic art style on “it’s a small world,” the new grand finale brings to life more than a dozen Disney Animation and Pixar stories.
These stories will be interpreted in thousands of sparkling lights and electro-synthe-magnetic musical sound, with unique representations of beloved characters as animated dolls.
As the new grand finale passes by, guests along each side of the parade route will see a different set of stylized scenes from classic and contemporary favorite stories such as “Encanto,” “The Jungle Book,” “Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Aladdin,” “Coco,” “Mulan,” “Brave,” “The Princess and the Frog” and more.
Check out one of the early pieces of concept art (below), featuring Mirabel and Antonio from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Academy Award-nominated film, “Encanto.”
From the Blue Fairy to a colorful, unique representation of Sleeping Beauty Castle, the grand finale of the “Main Street Electrical Parade” comprises seven segments stretching 118 feet in length, making it one of the longest and grandest units in the parade’s 50-year history.
This will breathe new life into the aging Main Street Electrical Parade, and is a surprising–and exciting addition.
As some of you might know, Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights is far and away our favorite night parade in any worldwide Disney Park. It’s not even a close call, and we’ve constantly hoped that Walt Disney World or Disneyland would do something comparable.
This finale is something comparable.
In fact, it is directly inspired by Dreamlights, which has its own 4-float Small World unit to end the parade (see above). It’s different than this, but the idea is similar.
The Small World unit is our favorite part of Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights. From their visual style to characters to the float design to the crescendo of the music, it feels like the whole of the parade builds to this. The payoff Dreamlights delivers with the Small World finale is really satisfying.
We’ve been critical of Main Street Electrical Parade in the past. Our perspective a few years ago was that it should be permanently retired to allow for the more modern Paint the Night or other spiritual successors to carry on its legacy. That has softened over time, in large part because we’ve been starved of a night parade at Walt Disney World.
No equivocation is necessary here: we are downright excited for the return of Main Street Electrical Parade with this new finale. This is a huge addition, bridging past and present. If Disneyland is going to keep running Main Street Electrical Parade, this is exactly the way to do it. The approach of melding old and new is “very Disneyland” and this is absolutely perfect for the more intimate castle park.
The scale is definitely smaller on Disneyland’s new Main Street Electrical Parade ‘Small World’ finale, but that’s true of the respective parades as a whole. Dreamlights is bigger and bolder, and is a parade that is constantly modernized.
This is not a knock–this finale looks like a perfect visual fit for Main Street Electrical Parade. If they simply replicated the Dreamlights floats, it would’ve been totally off. While we’ll reserve final judgment until actually seeing it in person, the concept art looks spot-on. Kudos to the Disney Live Entertainment team.
Ultimately, it’s exciting to see Disney actually doing something to celebrate one 50th Anniversary with a thoughtful addition that’s actually relevant to the thing being celebrated. The new finale to Main Street Electrical Parade draws inspiration from the past and present, modernizing the parade in a way that respects its own history while also injecting characters who are beloved by new generations.
What a perfect way for Disney to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of something. Really makes you think about what could’ve been. Count this as another “check” on the Disneyland side of the scale in our Disneyland v. Disney World: Is West Best in 2022? comparison!
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Your Thoughts
Are you excited about this entertainment news for Disneyland Resort? Happy to see nighttime spectaculars returning? Excited for April 22, 2022 to roll around? What do you think of the new “it’s a small world” inspired finale to Main Street Electrical Parade? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
Any ideas when tours are returning? Would love to do the Walk in Walt’s Disneyland Footsteps guided tour!
Should I be worried that when I look at the day view on the Disney site for april 22 I see the electrical parade and fireworks listed at Disneyland but not world of color at California adventure? I’m not actually arriving until May 11 and 12 but I know I’ll be too early for fantasmic (sigh), but I’m hoping the world of color hasn’t been delayed in its reopening too. Hopefully I’m just missing something on the day views but world of color is still on schedule. I’m already bummed about the extended pirates/blue bayou closing (perhaps removing tree house and adding lightning lanes for pirates and/ or extra seating for blue bayou??)
Has there been any news about World of Color dining packages? There are dining reservations available now for the forst week of World of Color‘s return, but I can’t find any info on dining packages.
I just got off the phone with a cast member who told me that with you will not be able to reserve dining packages for world of color (I don’t buy it) and we just need to advise the server at your existing reservation of wanting to upgrade to the world of color dining package. I have a reservation at Wine Country Trattoria but I want to watch WOC so I wont be cancelling until they give us something more concrete on the WOC dining packages, but if it stays this way i’ll keep my slot. Such a pain lol
Thanks for sharing, Hector!
I’d actually be inclined to believe the call center Cast Member, in this case. They’ve probably been briefed on this by now, and should have that info.
Do you think the MSEP will run during Halloween time? I would love to see it at Disneyland. East coaster here and saw it at Disney World a few times (last time in 2014) and would love to see the revamped version on our trip to SL in October!
I’m so blessed to do our 8th Disney trip in my HOME PARK (DLR) this Summer for hubby’s 50th, his and daughters first (DLR trip and finally mommas return to Ca after being gone since 2007!
Disneyland was my backyard growing up and now with all this new Toon Town being closed until sometime 2023 doesn’t hurt so much now. But still stings a little
I am bout done with WDW it’s so corporate but when you work for the mouse ( from home) ppl lean that way naturally… but for trip 7 in 6 years my daughter danced in the Christmas parade Dec5th and Magic Kingdom set me right off…historically the weekend after thanksgiving ROCKS! They opened the capacity flood gates and haunted man. Which is usually 20 min wait on any given Sunday has been an hr or WORSE since.
When ppl love to debate me that WDW is better and say I pick DLR bc I’m from SoCal I have 2 responses: DLR is the only park Walt strolled down Main Street in…and BIGGER is not always better! WDW has always felt commercial to me though a very fun place to be.
So super excited to return I’ll be crying when I see the purple smog haze in the sky from the plane ALL THE WAY TO THE GATES!
Any idea when TOURS will return? Not VIP but like the one one that ends at Walt’s apartment?
Love to all! Know that your °o° Disney opinion matters and I love reading them!!!
Houston Tx transplant (SoCal #DISnerd 80’s kid!)
Been a long-time fan of MSEP (I think I watched it four times when it ran at MK in 2016), but after seeing Dreamlights at Tokyo Disneyland, I totally agree that it was time for MSEP to be updated. The flag finale was a 1976/US Bicentennial thing – and at this point, we’re only four years away from the *250th anniversary* of the signing of the Declaration of Independence! I’d much rather see a new patriotic/’honor America’ float at this point.
We have been to Disneyworld a few times. We finally decided to book Disneyland for a first time family trip in October. I really wasn’t sure what to expect because I didn’t want to compare it to Disneyworld. But after reading you’re article from last night and the good news of today, we are very excited!!!
This doesn’t make me feel good about an April return (or June for that matter) of Fantasmic at Disneyworld. Will WDW have a similar 3 month lead time from date announcement and performance ? I certainly wasn’t thinking when they announced Fantasmic return in November that it would take 6 months to return, but here we are.
This is not the new night parade we’ve wanted for either of the US parks, but at least it’s a step in that direction. I’d be fine with them continuing to call it the MSEP (I love baroque hoedown) and just gradually updating all the floats/units to new ones (except maybe Pete’s Dragon)!
Any news on Bibbiti Bobbiti Boutique coming back. I have seen nothing.
Strange how DL is getting all these spectaculars back, including a revamp to the night-time parade, while WDW celebrating its 50th … crickets…
Exactly!!! And I’m getting sick and tired of it!!! I suspect it’s because of all of the Disney VIPs living in CA! WDW is the workhouse pulling the cart for the DL snobs. Who kept Disneyland closed forever??? And yet Disney just keeps kissing the feet of Gavin Newsom and company while making tons of money taking advantage of the American public and treating their CMs, past and present, like garbage. Over it! Time to start spending my time and money elsewhere.
We’ll be going to Disneyland for the first time during the last last week of April. We usually go to Disney World, so we are excited to try something new. I’m excited for the parade (it was the parade we saw on our first DW trip) and I’m excited to see World of Color, but do you think this will increase the crowds that week? I had hoped the end of April would have lighter crowds. Also, do you think the parade and World of Color will run during the week or just on weekends? What would be your strategy to see them both and where should we sit to watch them? We’ll be there Sun-Saturday that week. Thank you for your help!
HI! We are flip-flopping this year with you, it seems. We are long-time Disneyland fans (my brother plays trombone in the Disneyland Band) and we are going to Disney World for the first time in a few weeks. World of Color and the Parade are both amazing, and they should be playing every night. I’ve never seen a time in 23 years of going to Disneyland for them to not have their nighttime shows going consistently every night. Except for the fireworks – there is frequently enough wind in the area that they get canceled because they are so close to the surrounding neighborhoods. They have had the fireworks back since last July and they have been going every night. Anyway, the best area we have found for World of Color is just across Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. The viewing area is a series of steps, and you’ll want to be about halfway up from the bay but at the front of one of these steps. If you get too close, you will definitely get wet and chilly, as the spray is pretty intense. Scope out the area during the daytime and see what view you like best using the ferris wheel as a visual guide, as it will be toward the center of the show. Keep an eye out for there to be Genie+ tickets for viewing areas. Before the pandemic, they had this on the Fast Pass system and the viewing areas were zoned off by color. I would imagine they will go back to this system for crowd control. In that case, you may not have as much choice about which area you end up in, but you can still strategize being at the front of the level/step. The Fast Pass tickets were in addition to any regular Fast Passes you had for rides, so they didn’t interfere with that at all. I hope you have a BLAST! There’s nothing like visiting the original Disneyland. And say hi to the band for me! =)
Thank you Megan for your help. I hope you enjoy Disney World!!
Looks cool. I’ve definitely been on the negative side of Disney over-using this parade when they could do so much better with a modern parade (and did with paint the night IMO). However, this is a good compromise and may actually be worth putting up with crowds to see. I can’t wait to see the 4th or 5th final goodbye reunion tour when it’s an all new parade.
As Mickey’s Mix Magic is running now, is it only projections, like it looks like it will be this summer, or are there fireworks as part of it?
Currently, Mickey’s Mix Magic is projections only during the weekdays and includes the fireworks during the weekends. During the summer, though, it will be Disneyland Forever with fireworks everyday.
Very sad to see the patriotic finale of the parade go. Soon they will probably axe the flag retreat ceremony as well. But it’s wonderful to have all of this entertainment coming back.
I’d agree with you if the flag retreat were being eliminated, but the circumstances are very different here. This is modernizing a parade that hasn’t changed much in decades, and is very underwhelming as compared to newer night parades.
I’m a patriotic person, but that flag finale was not anything special–it was sort of anticlimactic. If MSEP is going to stick around for however many more decades, it needs even more updates. The finale is a good place to start, as it had the most room for improvement of any unit in the parade.
First thought: That’s it, next family Fisney trip is at Disneyland!
Second thought: How many nights would we need in the parks to catch all of these? Is it even possible?
Depending upon operating hours, showtimes, and crowds, it has been possible to see Fantasmic, MSEP, and Disneyland Forever in a single night. Not with great views (you’d have to watch the fireworks from Rivers of America, where there *should* be mist screen projections), but with decent ones.
With that said, I’d recommend 3 nights at Disneyland. Stake out good spots for each and really enjoy them in full. You can easily spend 4 days between the two parks. There’s a ton to do in each of them.
Thanks Tom! We had 5 day park hoppers in January 2019 and never got bored or felt like it was too much. We stayed in the Grand Californian on DVC points and the whole trip was like a glorious dream. I was thinking that the next visit should be more like 3 days. We are from NJ and honestly feel like we need more time to do other things while we are in the LA area as well!
I’ll ask you both, as we’re going for our first trip to Disneyland this summer with 6 & 9 year olds… we have 4 days and didn’t do Park Hoppers, decided instead we’ll use that extra money for Genie+. My original plan had been 2 days in each park, but do you think it makes more sense to do 3 days at Disneyland given the nighttime entertainment? Is one full day at DCA enough?
If at all possible, I’d get park hoppers and only get Genie+ for a day or two if you need it. Park hopping at Disneyland feels easier than walking from Future World to the World Showcase, and the flexibility of being able to do that is incredibly refreshing these days. You also might be surprised by what your kids end up loving and want to repeat. We all fell in love with DCA and spent way more time there than we had expected. Just so you know, I don’t take adding park hopping to a ticket lightly. At WDW we rarely get them. We are a large family and two of our kids are still young so we don’t think the cost is usually worth it. I’ve found that park hoppers kind of make you want to go go go all day to get the value. At Disneyland, my kids were easily able to hop back and forth and were eager to do it. There is much less walking overall at those parks but still so much to do!
Thank you so much! This is very helpful.
Happy to help! Have a great time!
We always do 5 days when we go to DL but I think it can be done in 3. 4 is certainly a comfortable compromise. We ALWAYS get hoppers at DL…you won’t regret it. We NEVER get hoppers at WDW. It’s too much hassle for us to hop in Florida as we always drive and just getting into the parks takes forever. DL hopping is fast and easy!
What do you think this means: “Main Street Electrical Parade” and “Disneyland Forever” will be available for a limited time at Disneyland park. Are these only going to be available for a (short?) period of time?
I added this to the post itself in response to your question:
This type of limited engagement is pretty typical–Disneyland rotates fireworks shows regularly and MSEP has had tons of farewell runs.
Our guess here is that Disneyland Forever runs until early September, when Halloween Screams replaces it. As for Main Street Electrical Parade, it’ll probably have a long run due to the big news below–but it’s possible MSEP moves over to DCA for the summer once the parade route there is cleared of festival booths. (I doubt that, but it’s possible.)
Why can’t Walt Disney World have nice things?
Rat, shmat. besides, they’re tourists…what do they know?