Disneyland’s Diamond Anniversary Announcement

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Disneyland's Diamond Anniversary Announcement

On Wednesday, January 28, Tom Staggs, Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, accompanied by Steve Davison, VP for Parades and Spectaculars, announced some of the plans for Disneyland’s upcoming 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration this summer. This has been long anticipated, and ended months of speculation and rumor.

You can read the full press release HERE.

It was no surprise that the announcements included a new fireworks show, Disneyland Forever, and a new parade, Paint the Night, both at Disneyland. We’ve come to expect a new parade and fireworks for any of these big anniversary events. But there’s also a new World of Color show coming to Disney California Adventure in honor of the anniversary: World of Color – Celebrate! The Wonderful World of Walt Disney. All three will start on May 22, 2015.

The new World of Color show is fittingly centered on Walt Disney: his legacy, imagination, and his dream of Disneyland, apparently as told by Mickey Mouse using fountains, animation, projections, lasers, and other special effects.

Disneyland's Diamond Anniversary Announcement

I personally am very happy that they are tying this all back to Walt Disney, and I’m looking forward to seeing it.

(A mouse and his lasers – let’s all be very relieved that this story isn’t being told by Stitch.)

And that Mickey is one busy mouse, since over in Disneyland he’ll be “painting the night” in “dazzling Disney dreams” in the new nighttime electrical light parade. Though it harkens back to the beloved Main Street Electrical Parade, and will feature a new take on the iconic Baroque Hoedown music, Paint the Night is an all-new parade, presented with 1.5 million brilliant, individually controlled LEDs. Parade units will include characters from both Disney and Pixar movies such as “Toy Story”, “Monsters, Inc.”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, and, of course, “Frozen.”

Disneyland's Diamond Anniversary Announcement

When we visited Tokyo Disneyland last year my favorite thing was their amazing Electrical Parade, so I’m very excited to see a state-of-the-art light parade coming here. Though I’m glad I’m not responsible for programming 1.5 million LEDs!

The new Disneyland Forever fireworks show will integrate pyrotechnics, special effects, and image projection to immerse guests in scenes from classic stories like “Peter Pan” and “The Jungle Book.” With the use of projection mapping technology, Sleeping Beauty Castle, “it’s a small world”, the Matterhorn, Main Street USA, and the Rivers of America all become part of the story. And the best part is that it means the show is designed to be viewed from all around Disneyland, and not just from Main Street. In fact, according to Steve Davison, the “story” will be slightly different depending on the viewing area, encouraging guests to return and see it again from another location. Davison also hinted that Walt Disney will also be brought into this show “in a big way. We might or might not see him in the orange groves?”

Disneyland's Diamond Anniversary Announcement

In addition to the new shows, the entire Disneyland Resort area will be decorated with Diamond Celebration decor and banners. Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle and Disney California Adventure’s Carthay Circle Theater will be “diamondized”, each with its own diamond medallion. New lighting effects and additional diamond accents will create even more sparkle after dark. And of course we can expect new food offerings and merchandise that follow the “diamond” theme.

Though given all of the new technology we’re going to be seeing, I’m not sure that “Diamond” is quite right, and I think this should be called the “Silicon Anniversary: Disneyland Gets its Geek On!” 🙂

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Laura Gilbreath is a native of San Diego, CA. She has been making the trek up Interstate 5 to Disneyland since she was a small child and terrified of talking tikis and hitchhiking ghosts. She and her husband Lee enjoy trips to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, as well as sailings on the Disney Cruise Line.

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One Reply to “Disneyland’s Diamond Anniversary Announcement”

  1. Suppose I go during the holiday season say early December…will I see the special Diamond celebration shows or holiday parade and Fireworks?

    Laura replies: Hi Connie. I had those questions, too, so I asked a Disney rep, and that answer was in the
    second part of the blog. 🙂 The “A Christmas Fantasy” parade will be back, replacing the daytime performances of Soundsational, but Paint the Night will still be the nighttime parade. This year Disneyland Forever will continue to run as the fireworks show and not “Believe…In Holiday Magic”. Likewise, at DCA, World of Color Celebrate will continue rather than the World of Color Winter Dreams.