The Festival of Fantasy Parade has long been one of my family’s Must-Do activities at the Magic Kingdom. Held daily at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom theme park, the Festival of Fantasy Parade, which debuted in March 2014, continues a long tradition of classic parades in the Magic Kingdom which dates back to opening day more than 45 years ago.
My family never gets tired of seeing this magical, dynamic spectacle of color and characters dance its way past us – and no trip to Disney World is complete without us seeing it! I particularly love the fact that this familiar parade continues to reveal something new each time we experience it: some magical detail or nuance previously un-noticed, that once discovered, reinforces how much care and intricate detail goes into creating this magical experience.
Here are 12 fun facts about this parade:
- Festival of Fantasy features a cast of more than 100
- Disney characters from more than a dozen classic stories are represented among nine parade floats
- 40 additional characters are presented in animated or sculptural form
- Performers appear on stilts, swings and pendulums, bringing a kinetic energy to the procession
- The Princess Garden lead float stretches more than 50 feet long
- The Jolly Roger atop the Peter Pan float flies 28 feet above the parade route
- Mickey’s Airship finale float is the tallest float topping out at 32 feet
- The trio of finale floats span more than 90 feet along the parade route
- Elaborate costumes were crafted by 10 different costume houses, in eight cities, in two countries
- It takes 28 separate fabrics to make up one Swing Thug #1 Costume (Tangled unit). His vest requires vinyl to be cut into 75 separate diamond shapes and then stitched onto cool max fabric.
- It takes 30 yards of fabric to make one Seashell Girl costume which includes 12 different colors of Nitex Mesh.
- The socks worn by the Lost Boys (Peter Pan unit) are custom designs that were knitted to order in Hong Kong.
Do you have a favorite costume, float or parade experience? Let us know in the comments below!
