Disney World’s New Nighttime Parade Highlights The Past While Showcasing The Future Of Evening Entertainment

Walt Disney World’s new nighttime parade, Disney Starlight: Dream The Night Away, has officially debuted at Magic Kingdom. The new parade is the first to make its way down Main Street, U.S.A. since 2016, when The Main Street Electrical Parade finished its run at the park before moving back to the Disneyland Resort. The new nighttime entertainment offering features 10 floats, has a new musical score and dozens of characters and performers that bring the parade to life. What makes Disney Starlight unique is that it highlights parades of the past through music and theatrics while showcasing new technology.

New technology in Disney Starlight

Disney World’s new nighttime parade features all-new floats themed to classic Disney animated movies like Pinocchio and Peter Pan, plus new favorites like Encanto and Frozen 2. But hidden beneath the twinkling lights is a powerhouse of technology that brings Disney Starlight to life. Katie Marks, producer at Disney Live Entertainment, said, “We really wanted to look at some of those new technologies and understand how they could work for the storytelling.”

The use of video is a large part of Disney Starlight, which is partially inspired by other nighttime parades at Disney Parks around the world, like Paint The Night at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. One area where video truly shines during Disney Starlight is during the Encanto-themed float. Right in the middle of the float is a larger-than-life version of the “Magic Candle” that holds the blessing of the Madrigal family. The candle is actually a 360-degree screen, which is quite impressive.

Besides screens, there are thousands of lights on each float to make them shine along the parade route from Main Street, U.S.A. to Frontierland. “One of the great features of this parade is that we’re really able to control every single pixel that you see on every single float, which is a real milestone for us in terms of electrical parades at the Magic Kingdom,” explained Marks. And the same programmability for the floats exists for the performer’s costumes as well.

Highlighting eras of the past during Disney World’s new nighttime parade

Disney Starlight features nods to past Magic Kingdom parades. “The last time that we built [a parade]

that was specific for the Magic Kingdom was SpectroMagic, which was back in the early 90s,” explained Marks.

Just before the parade makes its way around the park, there’s an announcement that includes the start of the music from The Main Street Electrical Parade, which some fans may recognize. The biggest, literally, nod to The Main Street Electrical Parade, though, is Disney Starlight’s final float, a massive train, named Whimsy, that chugs along the parade route with Goofy as its conductor. The float features multiple characters, but has a very distinct look that nostalgia seekers will find comforting.

On the last float, which boasts the logo for Disney Starlight, Jiminy Cricket appears in digital form on a screen. This is a nod to SpectroMagic, where the character appeared on the back of the final float as a small Audio-Animatronics figure.

The seamless blending of technology, nostalgia, music, and characters is what makes a nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom captivating for so many guests. Starlight does this well, especially as the technology disappears into the background and all guests see are stunning floats and favorite characters.