Disneyland teases return of beloved Main Street Electrical Parade
The familiar strains of “Baroque Hoedown” and the 600,000 LED lights of the Main Street Electrical Parade will soon be traveling down Disneyland’s entry promenade once again just in time for the 50th anniversary of the beloved nighttime parade.
Disneyland teased the return of the the Main Street Electrical Parade in a video posted Tuesday, Oct. 26 on the Disney Parks official TikTok account.
Disneyland has not yet announced an official return date for the parade.
Disneyland looks forward to sharing additional information in the near future as part of the phased reopening of the resort, according to Disneyland officials.
The 30-second TikTok video shows a Disneyland truck pulling into a warehouse when the beeping backup warning alarm transforms into the instantly recognizable “Baroque Hoedown” soundtrack from the Main Street Electrical Parade. A glowing snail parade float covered in “thousands of sparkling lights” scoots across the warehouse above the caption #ToBeContinued #Disneyland #Magic #Lights.
Disneyland has been conducting rehearsals for the Main Street Electrical Parade since August, according to WDW News Today. The Main Street Electrical Parade will celebrate its 50th anniversary in summer 2022, according to WDW News Today.
The Main Street Electrical Parade debuted in 1972 at Disneyland and has done stints at Disney California Adventure, Florida’s Magic Kingdom, France’s Disneyland Paris and Japan’s Tokyo Disneyland. The most recent appearance of the upgraded Electrical Parade at Disneyland with 600,000 LED lights was in the summer of 2019.
The 1972 debut of the low-tech nighttime parade of lights almost didn’t happen on Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A.
Less than a week before the debut, a third of the floats were not ready, according to then Disneyland director of show development Ronald Miziker. As the clock ticked down to opening night, Disneyland secretaries volunteered to install the half million light bulbs on the floats. Miziker was convinced he was going to be fired if and when the project failed.
“It was an absolute nightmare,” Miziker said in 2016. “But it was just so amazing to see how everybody was into making this parade happen.”
During a dress rehearsal in the run-up to the 1972 launch, two horseback-bound riders dropped an illuminated banner, Cinderella’s canopy of lights collapsed, sparks flew from the performers’ lighted costumes and one parade unit crashed into a building, according to Miziker.
“Halfway through the rehearsal we called it off,” Miziker said. “Things weren’t working. We were having a lot of mechanical problems.”
On June 17, 1972, dozens of electricians were still climbing all over the floats as the parade was announced over the Disneyland public address system. Half of the floats had never been turned on. The batteries powering the floats only had enough charge to make it from Disneyland’s Town Square to the park’s Matterhorn mountain.
“It went right down to the wire, but it all worked,” Miziker said. “Well, it didn’t all work for another two weeks, but it was good enough for first appearances.”
The parade became an instant hit with visitors, blending a mix of intimacy and spectacle that was both charming and bedazzling.
After its initial run, the Electrical Parade disappeared for two summers in 1975 and ‘76 to make way for a bicentennial-themed parade and again in 1983 and ‘84 for a parade celebrating Disneyland’s newly renovated Fantasyland.
After officially “glowing away forever” in 1996, the Electrical Parade returned in 2001 to Disney California Adventure in an effort to boost the new park’s attendance. After a decade at DCA, the Electrical Parade was shipped to Florida’s Magic Kingdom.