Kenversations: The Summer That Wouldn't End
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It had been quite the summer. Anyone who wanted to be a live performer at Disneyland, or a stage technician, or anyone who was a fan of live Disney entertainment was in hog heaven. (Wait, no, that would be during the State Fair promotion back in the 1980s.) Just consider what Disneyland had that summer, in addition to two nightly performances of the Main Street Electrical Parade:

• Two daily performances of the Lion King Celebration along the same parade route. The film and the live performance based on it debuted in 1994, and so the popular Celebration was in to its third and final year. (Click to see a video)
• Two or three nightly performances of the original Fantasmic! show, which had debuted only four years prior
• A nightly performance of Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks. In those days, save for New Year's Eve, Disneyland only had such shows during the summer. (Click to see a video)
• Five daily performances of The Hunchback of Notre Dame Festival of Fools. With a set that wrapped around the audience, this crowd-participation show was very popular, drawing crowds to what had previously been a sleepy area. The film premiered at the start of that summer, so the show was new. If you saw it, you may have seen Eden Espinosa performing. (Click for Festival of Fools written remembrances, Video, Interview Eden Espinosa)
• Five daily performances of The Spirit of Pocahontas at the Fantasyland Theater. Like the film, the stage show had debuted at the start of the previous summer, so it was still relatively new. (Click to see a video)
• All of the smaller entertainment Disneyland is known for, from live nightly performances at the Tomorrowland Terrace and Carnation Plaza Gardens to the characters posing for pictures throughout the park, and everything between.

Add in the fact that the extremely popular "E Ticket" Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye had been open for only a little over a year, and Mickey's Toontown had expanded the footprint of the guest areas of the park for only three years.

As guests both rare and regular poured into the park to see all of the shows, the new attractions, and bid farewell to the MSEP, the attendance count for 1996 swelled by about twenty-five percent, shattering park records The increase in attendance alone was about equivalent to the maximum attendance for an entire year for all but the most successful theme or amusement parks.

The much-marketed ending date for the parade was pushed back to give the parade more performances and milk the popularity further. Park operating hours were extended. It was much as though the summer had never ended.