Walt Disney World has officially announced a brand-new night parade coming to Magic Kingdom: Disney Starlight. This post shares everything we know so far about the spiritual successor to SpectroMagic and Main Street Electrical Parade, with concept art and full details–plus comprehensive commentary and why this news has us so excited.
This news was announced during the “Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase” or Parks Panel presentation during the 2024 D23 Expo at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro offered a sneak peek at concept art for the future in addition and teased what was to come in a few years.
This was just one of several blockbuster announcements for Parks & Resorts at Horizons, during which D’Amaro revealed several ‘shovel to soil’ projects that will come online in the next 5 years, including 8 things that will debut before the end of 2025. He and head Imagineer followed through on their promise to deliver concrete details and not just tease more ‘Blue Sky’ possibilities.
Here’s the official announcement of Disney Starlight night parade, coming to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in 2025:
Picture this: you’re nestled on Main Street, U.S.A. with your loved ones getting ready to watch a nighttime parade come to life right before your eyes. Maybe you’ve got a churro or a Mickey Ice Cream bar in hand, or are eyeing a nearby popcorn cart, who knows! But the lights dim, the music swells, and now you’re watching a brand-new nighttime spectacular at the Magic Kingdom Park.
You don’t have to imagine this for much longer, because in summer 2025, a brand-new parade will make its way to the Most Magical Place On Earth.
Broadway darlings — and former Disney Live Entertainment Cast Members! — Rachel Potter and Eden Espinosa graced the D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event stage during Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase panel with this monumental announcement. The all-new parade “Disney Starlight” is coming next summer!
“Disney Starlight” will continue the nighttime spectacular legacy started by the “Main Street Electrical Parade” using the latest technology to tell new stories about the characters you love. All of this is brought to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy, in addition to beloved characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios films “Peter Pan,” “Encanto,” “Frozen,” and more.
Turning to commentary, this was the announcement I wanted most out of the 2024 D23 Expo. I know Disney Starlight is not as sexy or exciting as new lands or attractions, but it’s also much nearer term and is one of the few things that can actually serve as an “answer” to Epic Universe. Obviously, entertainment cannot compete with a new gate–but it does serve as counterprogramming to peel some people away from Universal.
I’ve already laid out all of this when making the case for a return of Summer Nightastic, so I’m not going to rehash that here. The animating idea is turning 2025 into a summer/season of spectaculars, anchored around new and reimagined entertainment.
Beyond being an indirect answer to Epic Universe, the new Disney Starlight night parade makes sense for a number of reasons. During the most recent earnings call, Disney indicated that it expected the “demand moderation” at Walt Disney World to impact the next few quarters, meaning an attendance slowdown that would last into 2025.
Summers have already been slower for the last couple of years, and there’s really no reason to believe that trend will reverse itself during the opening year of Epic Universe. Although Florida summers have long been hot and humid, we’ve noticed that word of mouth has gotten especially bad on visiting during the months of May through September.
Disney Starlight night parade should be the compelling ‘hook’ that could counter all of that and draw people to the parks at a time when they otherwise might not visit. Not only that, but it would necessitate longer hours and could actually help reverse the trend about negative guest satisfaction and intent to revisit or recommend metrics. It’s the most obvious way to beat the heat and make the parks more attractive in the summer–and they might as well make it into a marketable point while they’re at it.
Summers have always varying degrees of scorching at Walt Disney World, but vacations during these months have not always been unpleasant. This is why I’ve been such a champion of a night parade and ‘Summer Nightastic’ type event. Because we’ve taken a lot of summertime trips to Walt Disney World over the years and made a lot of great lifelong memories in the process.
Along with the fireworks, the night parade sets the nighttime mood in Magic Kingdom. It’s more than that, though. Walt Disney first introduced fireworks as his “kiss goodnight” to guests at the end of a long day, as a way to send people home on a high note. It’s very similar to the grand finale of the show itself, but for the guest’s day as a whole.
There’s something inherently enchanting about nighttime spectaculars, and they can function as a bit of an emotional reset. Yeah, it was hot and humid, but those last few hours of the evening when the sun goes down, the temperature is cooler, and the parade and fireworks are shown–there’s something truly magical about that time. The day ending on such a high note makes us perform mental revisionist history on the day’s earlier memories and the visit as a whole becomes all that much better.
Basically, I’m saying that a night parade is the tentpole for a robust slate of offerings that can reverse Walt Disney World’s current demand moderation and attendance softness, while also bolstering guest satisfaction and other key metrics. It’s a huge win for both the company and guests, and frankly overdue.
If Main Street Electrical Parade is the only nighttime parade you’ve known and you weren’t particularly impressed by that, keep in mind that it’s over 50 years old–and it was over 40 when it last appeared in Magic Kingdom. While many fans formed nostalgia for it or loved its quaintness and charm, we preferred SpectroMagic–or even the newer Paint the Night and Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights.
The latter is our favorite current nighttime parade, and we always make a point of watching Dreamlights. For years, I’ve held out hope that Walt Disney World would create SpectroMagic 2.0, weaving together that score with floats having the wow-factor of Dreamlights. There’s a lot we don’t know about this new night parade coming to Magic Kingdom, but that’s still my hope.
On a personal note, I am beyond excited for Walt Disney World to finally get a night parade again. More than anything that’s gone missing from Walt Disney World in the last decade, I miss the night parade. In particular, I miss SpectroMagic, which is the parade at Magic Kingdom that I remember when I was growing up, and which was the parade that was running the first several years Sarah and I visited Walt Disney World together.
We watched SpectroMagic every single night we were at Magic Kingdom, and there was just something special about the anticipation that built when Jiminy Cricket’s voice started coming over the loudspeakers. He was the voice for a generation of Walt Disney World fans, and made those evenings exciting.
So much about the Walt Disney World fan experience is chasing moments and memories from the past, trying to recapture fleeting feelings or what makes us nostalgic for the past. Sitting at the end of Main Street hearing that music and waiting for the first float to approach is one of those meaningful moments for us.
Now that we have a daughter, this desire has been dialed up to 11 for us. She’s absolutely enamored with lights, and I cannot wait to see the new Disney Starlight night parade reflected in her eyes–literally and figuratively. It’ll be like a trip down memory lane for us as we remember those bygone days of watching SpectroMagic, melded with a brand-new memory of whatever this night parade has in store for us and our family.
I couldn’t possibly be more excited. That is why this is such major news for us, that not even new lands or rides could top.
Ultimately, Walt Disney World fans truly deserve this excellent news. It’s a colossal shame that a whole generation of guests didn’t get to conclude their day with the awe-inspiring spectacle of a night parade rolling down Main Street in Magic Kingdom. Very happy to hear that will change with Disney Starlight, and tons of guests will have this become a ‘core memory’ to end each evening in the park.
Bringing a night parade to Florida should provide a desperately needed goodwill win for Walt Disney World and offer new nostalgia to a whole generation of fans. After all of the price increases, nickel & diming, launch of Lightning Lanes, cuts to things like Disney’s Magical Express, Extra Magic Hours, on and on—fans could really use some positive news and a reason to feel less cynical.
This probably sounds like excessive expectations for a simple piece of entertainment, and perhaps I’m overvaluing the significance of Disney Starlight night parade to the average Walt Disney World guest. I really don’t think so, though. SpectroMagic was absolutely integral to Sarah and me falling in love with Walt Disney World all over again as adults, and I know we weren’t the only ones.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited by the news that Magic Kingdom is getting an all-new light parade in 2025? Has your Walt Disney World experience been negatively impacted by the lack of a night parade? Any floats, franchises, characters, nods to SpectroMagic or Magic Street Electrical Parade, etc., that you’re hoping to see out of the new Disney Starlight night parade? Any other questions or comment? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
