Disney Announces July Opening Date for Starlight: Dream the Night Away Magic Kingdom Parade

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Disney Starlight Parade Concept Art

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Posted: Tuesday May 27, 2025 7:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has officially announced that Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away will debut at Magic Kingdom on July 20, 2025.

Starlight Finale Float

This all-new nighttime parade will bring glowing floats, beloved Disney and Pixar characters, and the magic of the Blue Fairy to Main Street, U.S.A., combining classic nostalgia with cutting-edge lighting and design.

The float lineup includes:

The Blue Fairy opening the parade
Characters from Peter Pan, Wish, Encanto, Frozen, Coco, Moana, and classic Disney royals
A newly revealed finale float featuring Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Snow White, Dopey, Rapunzel, and Aladdin

We expect the parade will run twice nightly, following the pattern of a first parade before fireworks, then a second after. Disney says fans can expect an experience that recalls the charm of past parades like Main Street Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, but with new technology and fresh storytelling.

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peter114352 hours ago

Correct. Likely followed by a flood of misinformed tweets and posts on this forum claiming that they’ve changed their mind.

Brian4 hours ago

There will likely be a repeat of that for footage of this parade as well.

peter114354 hours ago

Media production was generally the only reason they ran the parade starting in Frontierland

peter114354 hours ago

Main Street to Frontierland was the standard route for spectromagic.

Disgruntled Walt13 hours ago

I saw it happen in person at least twice during the 2000s. I don't think it was as rare as everyone is saying.

brb100617 hours ago

I actually seen a few rare videos on Youtube that showed Spectromagic actually running from Main St. to Frontierland (one was from the mid 1990s and another during the mid 2000s). Guess those occurred on extremely rare occasions.

brb100617 hours ago

The Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Videos from the 1990s and Promotional photos lied to me!

TsWade218 hours ago

Even though I'm a Disneyland guy and I'm happy with Paint the Night Parade, but I hope Disney Starlight Parade is well received and not like Light Magic. I mean, I love Light Magic, but not everybody like it and it was a flop.

SpectroMickey8518 hours ago

It will be interesting to see how well Starlight is received.

TTA9419 hours ago

My guess is they didn’t want to do much in Frontierland due to the expansion? It will be interesting to see if they actually did do any route lighting upgrades that hasn’t been visible yet.

Squishy19 hours ago

You'd see equiptment being installed for that, the problem with frontierland is some areas on the RoA side are just ground speakers that are maxing out what they can output so it's not a proper surround sound quality like you get at the hub or DLR.

disneylandtour22 hours ago

Back when there was a nighttime parade, the exodus happened after fireworks and then typically the second parade was sparsely attended. I'm sure both performances will be packed for the first month or so. But I am of the opinion that after that it will return to: people staking out spots for the first parade, particular around the hub and Main Street near the hub (which then become good viewing places for the fireworks). And then right after fireworks a flood of people head to the monorail, boats, and busses, creating a much better viewing experience for the second parade.

doctornick23 hours ago

Given the way contracts work for performers, doesn’t two parades make sense just so they get a full shift?

doctornick23 hours ago

The exodus after HEA will be the worse given the setup because people will self split between the parades and given the parade route, the crowd leaving after either parade will be staggered (Town Sq then Main St then Hub then Frontierland) as has been mentioned. There will be tons watching the fireworks then leaving but the good news is that it is a bit easier for that as they can use the center of Main St while parade viewers stand on the sidewalk. And it should be somewhat better than the current mass exodus after HEA since a decent portion of folks will stay for the second parade showing or even going back into the park for short wait rides before park closing.