Disneyland Paris plans new drone show with fire-spitting (ish) UAVs

Disneyland Paris is once again leading the move to expand the role of drone shows in daily performances at Disney Company theme parks around the world, with the introduction of its “Disney Electrical Sky Parade” – an innovative spectacle for which pyrotechnic devices have actually been added to the UAVs themselves.

This weekend Disneyland Paris announced its nightly “Disney Electrical Sky Parade” will commence January 8, using the famous Sleeping Beauty Castle as its primary prop. As in the past, the new Disneyland Paris drone show has been prepared by accomplished French UAV performance company Dronisos, and will include video projections, lights, and fountains to supplement formations flown. 

The objective of “Disney Electrical Sky Parade” is to recapture the emotions from the “Main Street Electric Parade,” which was introduced in 1992 and eventually discontinued in 2003. In being resurrected as a drone show – which may subsequently be adopted by the company’s other parks – the spectacle seeks to both revive memories of the original ground-based program for older viewers, and give younger people an idea of what they missed.

In conceiving the celestial reboot debuting in January, Disneyland Paris called on Dronisos to add an extra touch to its work by integrating pyrotechnic devices to some of the 500 UAVs flown. The enhancement allows certain effects of fireworks become integral parts of up formations created by drones in the new show, rather than serving as colorful, explosive light framing and backdrops as had previously been the case.

In one sequence, for example, a masted ship formed by the augmented-capacity drones trails a fiery, feathering spume in its wake is it passes above the spires of the castle.

“It’s a dream come true,” Ben Spaulding, producer of live entertainment at Disneyland Paris, explained in a video on the preparations and innovation efforts for the park’s new drone show. “We got to see pyro doing these amazing pixie dust effects falling through the sky, and it’s just the beginning… only just the start of things to come.”

Disneyland Paris says the new drone show will also evoke the iconic shapes of “Mickey Mouse and his friends’ dazzling train, Elliott the adorable dragon, and Cinderella’s carriage.”

It is currently slated to run through September 30, 2024, and follows on the heels of other Dronisos UAV choreographies “Disney D-Light,” “Avengers: Power the Night,” and last July’s Bastille Day drone show.