Disney Abu Dhabi is not yet one day old, and already it has staged one of Disney's all-time best nighttime spectaculars.
Before an invitation-only crowd this evening on Yas Island, Disney and Miral commemorated their new partnership with a musical celebration. Grammy winner Steve Sidwell conducted an orchestra of more than 100 members, accompanied by a choir. Lang Lang performed on piano, joined by West End star Kerry Ellis as well as Disney on Broadway's Sonya Balsara and Emirati singer Rashed Al Nuaimi.
And, oh yeah, the audience enjoyed plenty of fireworks and one very impressive drone display, as well. I was among the invitees and captured it all for you.
In case you missed the big news that prompted the show, here is my report from earlier today: Miral is bringing a Disney theme park to Abu Dhabi.
We will have much more on this new park in the days ahead. The best way to keep up with all that is to sign up for Theme Park Insider's weekly newsletter.
Update: Miral confirmed Thursday that it used 9,000 drones in the performance, which made it one of the largest drone shows ever. Here is an image from Miral that gives you a better perspective than we had from the audience showing just how ridiculous that towering drone swarm really was.
For context, that bright blue, tiny rectangle near the bottom center is one of the screens that you can see in my video, above.
WDI is designing it. Miral operates it, with training from Disney.
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So, Disney Imagineers are not going to be involved? This is just a Disney licensing deal? What if they out-Disney Disney?