Hear ye! Hear ye! The Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade is back at Magic Kingdom Park! To celebrate the return of one of the most whimsical parades to ever grace Main Street, U.S.A, we’ve prepared five enchanting facts sure to make your dreams glow.
- The Festival of Fantasy Parade features a dazzling cast of characters and eight floats representing more than a dozen Disney stories straight from Fantasyland. Because this parade was created to celebrate New Fantasyland in 2014, it features many of the stories and characters that you will find in the Fantasyland area of Magic Kingdom, including Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, and more! There are 40 Disney friends represented in animated and sculpted form. This parade really has character!
- A couple of floats from Disney Festival of Fantasy may seem familiar to you if you are a Disney Parks brainiac. The princess garden float—featuring Belle, Cinderella, Tiana, Anna, and Elsa—is a redressed float from Tokyo Disneyland’s Jubilation! parade. The finale float is also from Jubilation!, except that Mickey’s Airship was specifically created to match the existing aesthetic of the Jubilation! floats as well as the Fantasyland Storybook Circus theming!
- The steampunk-inspired, fire-breathing Maleficent float is a fan favorite, but Tony® Award–winning production designer Michael Curry explains, “We don’t think of her as a parade float, we think of her as a creature.” Curry previously designed puppets for The Lion King on Broadway and Finding Nemo – The Musical at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Disney Live Entertainment sought his expertise when creating the Maleficent dragon. This 52-foot-long beast represents a first for Disney, as it was the first to utilize a bending chassis base, allowing Maleficent to literally strut down the parade route.
- The Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade features an original song and score by Mark Hammond. Hammond has a long history in the Disney Parks; his past credits include music for World of Color at Disney California Adventure, Flights of Fantasy at Hong Kong Disneyland, and most recently Harmonious at EPCOT!
- Mirena Rada was the incredible costume designer behind the elaborate outfits featured in the Disney Festival of Fantasy. These costumes include the ruffians from Tangled, whose garments utilize more than 28 separate fabrics. That’s not all—the seashell girl from the Little Mermaid unit requires 30 yards of fabric per costume and 12 different colors of mesh. Finally, the costumes in this parade were crafted in 10 different shops in eight cities across two countries. Now that’s Disney magic!
How many of these fun facts did you know? We hope we gave you some interesting items to look out for the next time you visit Magic Kingdom Park! The Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade returns March 9, 2022, at Walt Disney World Resort.
