One of our favorite parades Disneyland has ever run is the Paint the Night parade which saw its last run back in 2018. This iconic parade hasn’t been seen since and it has long been one of the Disneyland entertainment options we wish would return!
Paint the Night is a nighttime parade featuring over 1.5 million LED lights, special effects, and nearly 80 performers during its last run at Disney California Adventure. This parade is one of the best Disneyland has ever done and it is beloved by many.
Disneyland posted a teaser on their Instagram page that confirms the return of this iconic nighttime parade. Now, Disney has confirmed when the Paint the Night Parade will be returning. See details below!
Paint the Night Return Date at Disneyland
Disneyland originally teased the return of Paint the Night when they posted a clip on their Instagram page of one of the most iconic parade floats from Paint the Night, Mack the truck from Disney Cars. The caption to the post reads: “When can we do this again?”
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Many other Disney accounts commented with Walt Disney World commenting, “We’re glowing with excitement!” followed by Disney Cruise Line with, “Something’s in the air you can’t deny.” Disneyland followed these comments with an exciting, “Stay tuned for more!” You can see that post at the end of this article.
Now, Disney has confirmed that Paint the Night will be returning as part of the entertainment lineup for Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary celebration which starts May 16, 2025 and runs through summer of 2026. You can see more details about the Disneyland 70th Anniversary celebration here. We expect that the parade will keep running into Halloween time but will likely pause during the holidays.
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New Floats for Paint the Night Parade?
The last run of the 2018 Paint the Night parade featured floats with these characters: Peter Pan, Monsters, Inc., Cars, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Disney Princesses, The Incredibles, and Mickey Mouse. Earlier versions of the parade featured a float with Frozen characters as well.
It is likely we will see these floats return but I would expect we’d seen at least one additional float added to the lineup, if not more! If we saw a new float I would not be surprised to see a parade floating featuring the characters from Encanto since we’ve seen such a big push lately to incorporate them into the theme parks. Another potential for characters we’d see included as an additional parade float could be Coco as that is another popular film.
The original Frozen float was retired from the lineup and did not appear in the last running of Paint the Night, it could be possible that Disneyland might also bring back this float and revamp it to include themes from the second film!
It wouldn’t be the first time Disneyland has upgraded a traditional nighttime parade. When the Main Street Electrical Parade returned for its 50th anniversary in 2022, the parade received many updates including a new finale float that featured many recent characters as well as traditional favorites.
You can see the original post shared by Disneyland below:
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