Summer Nightastic Sneak Peek Part 5

Disney’s Main Street Electrical Parade…

MAIN STREET ELECTRICAL PARADE HISTORY

• “Summer Nightastic!” 2010 will mark the return of the original Disneyland “Main Street Electrical Parade” to Walt Disney World Resort.
• Previously the parade had a limited engagement in Florida from 1999 through 2001.
• The original “Main Street Electrical Parade” premiered at Disneyland on June 17, 1972.
• The parade was presented at Disneyland nearly every summer until it was “retired” in 1996.
• A version of the “Main Street Electrical Parade” was created for Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in 1977. The Magic Kingdom version was presented until 1991 when it was replaced by “SpectroMagic” (“Main Street Electrical Parade” was refurbished for the opening of Disneyland Resort Paris).
• The original Disneyland “Main Street Electrical Parade” was brought out of retirement and extensively refurbished for a limited engagement at Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom from 1999 into 2001.
• Following the conclusion of the parade’s limited engagement at Walt Disney World Resort, it premiered at Disney’s California Adventure in July 2001 as “Disney’s Electrical Parade.”
• The parade has been performed more than 5,000 times at Disneyland Resort.
• The original “Main Street Electrical Parade” floats were “flatter” and less three-dimensional than the current floats.
• The Drum and Train, Pumpkin Coach, Mushrooms 1,2, and 3, Staircase and the Finale floats are all original to the 1972 premiere of the Main Street Electrical Parade
• While new floats have been added through the years, some have been retired: “it’s a small world” float, Briny Deep float, and special anniversary floats for Disneyland’s 25th Anniversary (1980) and Mickey Mouse’s 60th Birthday (1988).
• One of the original floats, the Title Drum Unit near the beginning of the parade, was created using an actual bass drum, one of the world’s largest in 1972. This drum had been used in Disneyland parades in the 1960s, when Mickey Mouse used to beat it using large drumsticks.
• A third version of the parade has been presented at Tokyo Disney Resort (premiering 1985).

NEW FOR 2010

• Tinkerbell Float
• Pinocchio Unit
• Pixie Dust Trails throughout the parade
• LED technology on the title drum
• LED character figures in the Alice unit
• Elliot’s wings are animated
• LED fireworks on the Finale Flag Float
• Updated music throughout the parade

MAIN STREET ELECTRICAL PARADE FUN FACTS

• There are approximatly 575,000 lights in 6 different colors-amber, blue, chartreuse, green, pink and red, plus clear.
• More than 80 performers appear in each presentation of Disney’s “Main Street Electrical Parade.”
• There are 11,000 lights on the dancers’ costumes alone.
• Thanks to the energy-efficient LED lights, some of the dancers’ costumes now carry only one battery pack instead of two.
• All the floats are battery-powered. More than 500 batteries (weighing over 27 tons) supply power for lighting, propulsion, audio and special effects. Together they could light 32 homes!
• Approximately five miles of wire is used throughout the floats.
• The tallest float in the parade is the Cinderella clock tower, at 18.5 feet tall.
• The Fireworks Finale float, the longest in the parade, has seven cars that span 118 feet.
• Elliot wasn’t the first dragon to appear in the Main Street Electrical Parade. The parade opened in 1972 with the Sleeping Beauty Dragon.
• Liquid Nitrogen (LN2) is used to provide the smoke effects for the Drum and Train, the Pirate Ship and Elliot.
• Approximately 3500 feet of green LED string is used to create the leaf fields on the new Tinkerbell float.
• There are 128 lighting dimmers on board the new Tinkerbell float.
• Just under 10,000 new pixie dust stobes have been added to the parade

Close up of the leaf field on the Tinkerbell float

SHIPPING THE PARADE

• All floats were loaded onto trucks, then crates were built around them to protect the floats during transport
• It took 26 trucks to move the parade floats across country
• The costumes were packed onto 31 pallets and loaded into 2 trucks for transport
• On average, it takes the trucks 5 days to make the cross country trip

Here is some video of the shipping process:

I hope you have enjoyed the “Summer Nightastic” Sneak Peek Series:
Part 1-Overview
Part 2-Behind the Scenes video
Sounds Like Summer-concert series at Epcot
Part 3-Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Part 4–Summer Nightastic! Fireworks Spectacular