Throwback Thursday: Disneyland’s Summer of ’96

For today’s Throwback Thursday, let’s go back to the 1996, perhaps the greatest year in Disneyland Park’s history with its collection of attractions and shows. But what I think is unquestionable is the summer of 1996 gave us the greatest collection of live entertainment in the park’s history. One of the greatest daytime parades ever, a classic nighttime parade saying goodbye, a nighttime spectacular that was still very new and two great musical stage shows, one staged unlike anything seen at the park before or since. I challenge anyone to come up with a better collection. Ladies and Gentlemen … the summer of 1996.

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Lion King Celebration

Playing twice a day in the afternoon was (in my opinion) the best daytime parade in Disneyland’s history. The procession marched in to I Just Can’t Wait to be King then paused (as long as it wasn’t too hot) and performed to a soulful version of The Circle of Life. There were dancers dressed as all kinds of jungle life, incredibly athletic pole dancers, the first Audio-Animatronic in a parade (Zazu), live African drummers and a finale featuring dancing kids pulled out of the audience and even a dove release. There’s not been anything like it since.

Festival of Fools

New for the summer of 1996 is a whole new kind of stage show taking place in the round. The Festival of Fools is based on 1996’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. It’s a little more artsy than most Disney shows which fits for this more-artsy-than-usual Disney film. In addition to the staging, the lead – Quasimodo – doesn’t do his own singing. Instead, four vexilators (“to vexilate is to bear flags!”) do the singing for him. The flip side of this is it allows Quasi to be portrayed by a stunt man and there are some great swinging stunts throughout. The Festival of Fools had a cult following unlike anything I’d seen up until then. While I wasn’t a true cult member (though I knew many), I did see the show dozens of times.

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Doobie Moseley
Doobie is a co-owner of LaughingPlace.com having founded the website with his wife Rebekah in 1999. He became a "hardcore" Disney fan in 1995. His favorite Disney film is Snow White and his all-time favorite attraction is the PeopleMover. Having lived near both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, he's visited them literally thousands of times. He currently lives in Nothern California with his wife and teenage son, but looks forward to living in Florida again soon. His absolutely favorite activity is going on a Disney cruise (he's done 12 as of February 2023).