ANAHEIM, Calif. — For Disneyland this summer, it's the return of the old to celebrate a new year.
After a year of coronavirus pandemic-related closures and another year of getting the Anaheim theme parks up and running, Disneyland's parade and other nighttime spectaculars are back — marking the first time in a long time that Disneyland has its slate of main attractions available.
The Main Street Electrical Parade, with its electronic synthesized earworm "Baroque Hoedown," celebrates its 50th anniversary – with a brand new grand finale float inspired by Disney animated artist Mary Blair's it's a small world — and will begin journeying along a parade route nightly starting this Friday at Disneyland.
The Disneyland Forever fireworks show returns, playing nightly Fridays through Sundays, at first, alternating with Mickey's Mix Magic, which will run Mondays through Thursdays. The Disneyland Forever show will then run nightly in the summer.
The 14-minute Disneyland Forever show premiered during Disneyland's 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration in 2015. The fireworks show revolutionized the nightly spectacular by adding an immersive layer of animated projections on Sleeping Beauty's Castle walls and the buildings on Main Street, USA. The fireworks show ends with Disney Legend Richard Sherman's song finale, "Kiss Goodnight."
Over at Disney California Adventure, Disney's light and water show, The World of Color, returns Friday. The original show will showcase scenes and music from Disney and Pixar films projected on a 50-feet high and 380-feet wide water screen. Visitors starting Friday will need to use the Disneyland mobile app to sign in for the virtual queue to watch the show.
And on May 28, Fantasmic!, one of Disney's premiere nightly shows, will come back after a two-year hiatus.
"We'll be at full operations," said Michael Duncan, a production manager at Disney Parks Live Entertainment, to Spectrum News. "One of the hearts and souls of our Disney parks is our nighttime spectaculars. It's what really brings our stories to life and allows us to showcase a lot of those special moments that really connect with our guests."
Disney's return of their nighttime spectaculars comes as the coronavirus pandemic wanes and people return to everyday life, just like in pre-pandemic times.
The return of Disney's most popular shows will undoubtedly bring in large crowds.
Disneyland Resort is at near full operations.
The Disneyland Resort, Orange County's largest employer, had more than 32,000 employees pre-pandemic. Many were furloughed and let go and re-hired in the past two years.
Disney is nearly caught up with more than 30,000 employees and "still hiring," a Disneyland spokeswoman told Spectrum News.
Disney officials say they'll be able to handle the large crowds because of the reservation-based admission system, which will help prevent and mitigate the overcrowding that was once common on certain high-demand days pre-pandemic.
"The reservation system was implemented to manage capacity limitations; however, we've found that it creates a better cast and guest experience," a Disneyland spokesman said.
The reservation system will come in handy once summer rolls around and more people begin to flock to the parks.
The Main Street Electrical Parade will be one of the major reasons.
The parade is arguably one of Disney's most loved and cherished parades. The electrical parade, which made its debut in 1972, features more than 22 lit up floats of popular Disney characters such as Alice and Wonderland, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and Pete's Dragon.
Duncan, the Disney official, said the parade has gone on for so long that it has become a multigenerational celebration for many families.
"This show has been around for 50 years," Duncan said. "With each evolution of the Main Street Electrical Parade, it hits every generation a little differently. So each generation has their own unique memories and their own unique feelings for the electrical parade that are a little bit different, but unique to each of them. So everyone gets to take their own little piece of the parade into their memories and nostalgia."