Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I took a look back at a Disneyland parade that relied on being a “showstopper.”
We’ve now reached 2025, which means that in just a few months Disneyland’s 70th anniversary celebration will begin in full force. Disneyland’s 65th anniversary was interrupted by that little pandemic thing, though there weren’t many larger events planned as part of the celebration. In contrast, the 70th anniversary will see Walt Disney come to life in Audio-Animatronic form as well as the return of some fan-favorite parades and fireworks shows.
Disneyland has gotten so popular that it no longer needs to rely on larger-scale promotions to drive attendance, but throughout the 2000s, it seemed like Disney was always running promotions of some kind. Today, we’ll take a look at the What Will You Celebrate? promotion in 2009 that was the first one to offer guests free admission on their birthday (which people still ask if it's a thing today). But no need to worry if you already had an Annual Pass because you could get a gift card worth the value of a one day ticket or a ticket to attend a different day or a Fastpass+ for up to 6 people to skip lines all day.
By the time of the celebration, Disney was looking to replace Walt Disney’s Parade of Dreams, which had called the park home since the 50th anniversary. Starting March 27, 2009, Celebrate! A Street Party started to call Disneyland home, but watching it wasn’t as simple as lining up anywhere on the parade route. No, one needed to head to one of the Celebration Zones where the show would stop and the party could begin.
Before the parade even began, we were treated to a little opening cavalcade with some dancers dressed up as cleaners to liven things up. But the real highlight was Miss Piggy and Kermit chatting with guests up on a float that rolled by and introducing some VoluntEARS. I can never get enough of the Muppets and it was very cool to include volunteers in the experience as a nice perk for being a good person.
Via AllEars
After a little break, three floats appeared and they were loaded with dancers and characters. It was almost closer to a show than a parade, with close to 20 characters included from a wide breadth of properties. For the classic Disney fans, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip, Dale, Clarice, and Clarabelle all got their chances to be center stage at some point. But if you were more into 50s and 60s animated movies, guests could keep their eyes out for Pooh, Tigger, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Wendy, Alice or even the Mad Hatter, though if live action was more your thing why not see Mary Poppins and Bert? And who could forget about some of the more modern characters like Woody, Jessie, Lilo and Stitch?
If there was little something for everyone in regards to characters, the same applied to the music with songs from all eras making their way into the dance party. For the Disney fans, there was a pop version of “I Wanna Be Like You” and for slightly older fans, you could rock out to “I Love Rock & Roll” or “Conga” in what they claimed was the world’s longest conga line. During nearly every song, the dancers tried to bring guests out to dance, with some Disney Channel hits making their way into the mix as well for the younger folk. The closing song was even “You Can’t Stop the Beat” because the show refused to let the music die.
Via Disney WIki
The entire show was super high energy and felt like it was straight out of the late 2000s Disney Channel craze. It was very different from the standard Disney parks parade and certainly wouldn’t be as exciting for those who don’t like to dance as much as myself. But I think it hit the theme of What Will You Celebrate? perfectly because dancing with family and friends is one of the best ways to let loose and celebrate as a group. In fact, Celebrate! A Street Party stuck around until November 11, 2010 with Mickey’s Soundsational Parade replacing it the next year. I mean, I get it but I’d love something like it for the 70th anniversary, too.
Via Orlando Weekly
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!