Disneyland announces dates for its Main Street Electrical Parade revival

December 5, 2016, 12:45 PM · Disneyland has revealed the dates for its temporary revival of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Disney's original nighttime parade will return to its original park for six months, starting in January.

The parade's return from Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom will help cover for an extended refurbishment of Paint the Night, which will be on hiatus during the Electrical Parade's run. The Main Street Electrical Parade debuts at Disneyland on January 20, 2017 and will run through June 18. The parade originally premiered at Disneyland in 1972 and was said to be "glowing away forever" from the park in November 1996, though it returned to neighboring Disney California Adventure (minus the "Main Street" from its name) from 2001 through 2010.

Disney will offer a hard-ticket pre-premiere event for the parade on Jan. 19. The event will run from 7:30pm to midnight on the 19th, and includes access to selected Disneyland attractions as well as the first public performance of the Main Street Electrical Parade for its limited-time California return. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Dec. 6, to Disneyland annual passholders, and if there are any left, they'll be available to the rest of the public starting Dec. 13. Tickets can be bought at any Disneyland ticket booth or by calling +1-714-781-4636. (We will update with the price as soon as we get it.)

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Replies (15)

December 5, 2016 at 12:59 PM · There is no question the MSEP is much loved, but I think people may have a difficult time going from Paint the Night back to MSEP.
I loved SpectroMagic, but found the music to not be as engaging as MSEP. Now that Paint the Night includes the Baroque Hoedown, and come on...those floats and costumes are AMAZING, I'm not sure that MSEP will excite people as much as Disney is hoping. Plus, if seems like people are feeling a little tricked with how in years past Disney had teased us with, "Glowing away for ever" promotions.
This parade has has more going away tours than Cher.
December 5, 2016 at 1:08 PM · Will rose-colored glasses be handed out on the way in?
December 5, 2016 at 1:42 PM · Main Street Electic Light parade continues to be superior to other nighttime Disney parades for the music alone. Nothing can match the trippy ebullience of the Baroque Hoedown, and the "characters" in the parade seem real. Looking back, I can see the ELP is a major reason I love electronic music to this day.

We're frequent Disney visitors and nothing made my young daughters light up like the ELP. They like the other parades, sure, but this one had them going nuts--it just has so much more energy and whimsy. It doesn't have to constantly remind you it's magic, it just IS magic.

December 5, 2016 at 1:43 PM · Paint the Night is so much superior that I can never watch the original again. Will they ever destroy this parade? I wish they bring back Light Magic on occasion.
December 5, 2016 at 3:49 PM · We adored the MSEP at WDW, and loved it more than PTN. Charm trumps tech every time.

Any chance it'll return to WDW after its Disneyland run?

December 5, 2016 at 4:15 PM · Anon mouse: Unfortunatly, spectromagic was stored in an unconditioned support tent, --and quickly rotted to the point of being non repairable. It was ultimately destroyed several years ago.
December 5, 2016 at 4:34 PM · I know this isn't going to happen BUT... I am assuming that there will be at least 2 performances per evening (just like PTN). If only they could run the parade with the newer, reimagined soundtrack during the 1st. performance of the night and play the ORIGINAL soundtrack for the later performance. We all have at least one version of the original parade music somewhere in our music archives and it would be wonderful to see it again with it's original tracks restored (seeing as this will probably be it's final swan song).
December 5, 2016 at 5:15 PM · I'm very curious to see this parade again and compare it with Paint the Night. I loved Main Street Electrical Parade before, and while Paint the Night was excellent it just didn't feel quite right. I'm not sure what will happen upon seeing the Electrical Parade again...is it nostalgia, or is it actually better?

I am really curious what will happen to the parade after this limited run, as Disney is not promoting this as the final farewell of the parade. My hunch is that, provided the parade still has appeal, Disney may decide to make this an off-peak parade at Disneyland and save Paint the Night for peak season. If/when it is time to send the parade off for good, I really hope Disney will restore it as closely as possible to the original 1972 version for the final run.

December 6, 2016 at 7:23 AM · Anon was not referring to Spectro 172.56.30.26, but Light Magic, usually called Light Tragic, the "replacement" for the MSEP that barely lasted one summer. Shoot, it barekly survived the AP preview. Search youtube; it is truly awful.
December 6, 2016 at 8:45 AM · Tickets are $95 but no link is available yet.
December 6, 2016 at 9:45 AM · spectromagic was by some distance the best parade disney world has ever had. magic kingdom has never been the same since. msep was cheezy and music so 1980s. they should invest in new floats with original music, its a no brainer...... BRING BACK SPECTROMAGIC..
December 6, 2016 at 10:49 AM · Maybe the Main Street Electrical will go to Animal Kingdom to fix Rivers of Light they just need to put it on a barge.
December 6, 2016 at 10:32 PM · Maybe it would be cool if all the MSEP lights were changed to LEDs. but don't know if that's possible.
December 7, 2016 at 3:13 PM · I had no plans to visit DL in 2017 - but this announcement has me looking at the calendar for travel dates. I grew up with this parade and am excited for the opportunity to see it again and relive the magic. The music alone puts a massive smile on my face.
December 7, 2016 at 10:05 PM · Our family must have been one of the few that absolutely HATED Baroque Hoedown after only a few viewings. Talk about (to us) an ear worm.

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