With the Memorial Day holiday I start to think about summer and all the great memories I have through the years. From picnics and family time to the visits to the Magic Kingdom and the wonderful Main St. Electrical Parade. With its long history at the park, with a hiatus during the mid-2000’s, it rekindles those memories of summers past.
The parade twinkles with approximately half a million lights. Of those, nearly 10,000 are new “pixie dust” lights spread over the 23 parade floats. The new LED lights use one-quarter of the power of incandescent lights. The Tinker Bell float alone has more than 25,000 points of light and 75 percent are powered by an LED source.
The control system makes it possible for each light to be programmed individually. For example on the Tinker Bell float, which has 160 dimmers, by far the most of any parade float, to control the lighting.
The unforgettable musical theme of the “Electrical Parade,” which has inspired several generations of Disneyland Resort guests to clap along, was adapted from a synthesizer piece known as “Baroque Hoedown,” written in 1967 by Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jaques Perrey. Disney themes are superimposed over the original piece. The distinctive “electro-syntho-magnetic” “Baroque Hoedown” has new audio technology that gives it a richer, fuller sound.
