One of the last things to return to the Disneyland Resort after the pandemic closure was parades. The return of the Main Street Electrical Parade, which only happened in April, was the first public parade to arrive, and while many people still love the classic nighttime event, it wasn’t the parade that a lot of fans were waiting for. A parade called Magic Happens had only just started a couple of weeks before Disneyland was forced to close, and while there’s no indication when it might return, there’s at least a hint that it might be back…eventually.
CinemaBlend was recently down at the Disneyland Resort where we had a chance to talk to several people from the parks about the return of a bunch of live entertainment options, including Fantasmic, which is showing a bit of rust, the Main Street Electrical Parade, and the new Tale of the Lion King stage show. When we asked Disneyland’s Ariel Harris what the future might hold for Magic Happens, she pointed out that the 50-year-old Main Street Electrical parade has kept returning again and again, and so the same is likely for Magic Happens at some point. Harris said…
If you know anything about our parades here, I think they’re never really gone, so while I can’t speak exactly for that one, I’d never say it’s probably done forever. Especially since the Main Street Electrical Parade has come back like 10 times.
It’s far from a confirmation that Magic Happens will return any time soon, if ever, but it’s certainly better than nothing. Of course, it’s also appreciated that a Cast Member at Disneyland is willing to have some fun with the fact that the Main Street Electrical Parade has returned to Disneyland…a lot, even though we’ve been told more than once it was making its final run.
With this year being the 50th anniversary of the Main Street Electrical Parade it makes some sense that Disneyland would want to bring the parade back now. You can only celebrate the anniversary once so it’s either do it now or not at all.
Hopefully, once the anniversary is over, Disneyland will seriously look at bringing back Magic Happens. It was a pretty widely praised parade by those that were lucky enough to see it during its brief run. Magic Happens included the Disneyland debut of a Sword in the Stone character as well as an excellent mini-float showing off a technically impressive character from Moana. It simply deserves a real chance to shine like so many other parades have done.
In the end it does seem likely Magic Happens will return. The time and money was spent to create the floats and the music in the first place. It’s going to be easier and cheaper for Disneyland to bring it back than to create something new, and at some point a standard daytime parade at Disneyland will be sorely needed.
