Behind the Scenes of Disney Starlight Parade: Music, Floats, and Rehearsals

10 days ago in "Disney Starlight"

Gallery / 2 Photos
Disney Starlight Parade Character Costumes

Posted: Tuesday May 27, 2025 7:30pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has released a new behind-the-scenes video offering a first look at the making of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away, the all-new nighttime parade debuting at Magic Kingdom on July 20, 2025.

The video takes viewers inside the creative process, including the recording of the custom music, cast rehearsals, and a close-up look at the floats in development.

The floats themselves are designed as dynamic storytelling platforms, using lighting, video elements, and movement to create what Disney calls “dreamscapes.” Highlights include the Blue Fairy leading the parade, character units from Encanto, Frozen, Wish, Moana, Coco, and Disney Royals, all culminating in the grand finale float featuring Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Snow White, Rapunzel, Aladdin, and Mickey and Minnie.

Tara Anderson, Show Director from Disney Live Entertainment says, “So here we are in the studio today recording the music for Disney Starlight. The music is pretty much everything, right? It’s going to inspire our choreographer. It’s going to inspire all of our technical people. It’s where we start. You’ve got to have great music to have a great experience.”

Katie Marks, Producer, explains, “Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away is a brand new nighttime parade coming to the Magic Kingdom, and we’ve been hard at work on building quotes and making a new custom music track.”

Composer Roger Butterley shares his personal excitement, “As a kid, I grew up going to Magic Kingdom and watching the original Main Street Electrical Parade. So to get to be a part of that legacy going forward was super exciting for me.”

Starlight Finale Float

Looking ahead, Tara Anderson says, “What guests are going to be able to get in this parade is a nod to the past, but also eyes firmly set on the future. So you’re going to hear melodies from older films, newer films, in a very magical, mystical way.”

Roger Butterley adds, “We have this wonderful original theme that was written for Disney Starlight. I hope when they hear this parade for the first time and see these beautiful floats coming down the street, I hope they dance. I hope they laugh and cry, feel all the emotions — all the things — and leave the park well.”

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

Drew the Disney Dude1 hour ago

44 days!

Disone1 hour ago

Your making interesting points. . I don't know that I'm making your point. I disagree on that. I agree it's definitely a hail Mary pass but the motivation behind choosing this hail Mary, we clearly differ on. Yes other parks have done away with them. But stateside They "WDW" decided. They " DL " did not. I would not be shocked at all if they have the data. Why? There is nothing that would convince me that Walt Disney World is spending money on the expense of a nighttime parade without the data that says this is going to bring more people into the park and or limit the damage done by Epic. Today's Disney probably thought they could be epic simply with a night parade. Now there I completely disagree. But they thought at based on data that they have and an over overconfidence on the loyalty of their guests. Josh's statements that have family coming to visit epic is absolutely going to go to the Magic Kingdom and guardians of the Galaxy is definitely an example of that over confidence. But starlight... I just don't believe Disney World would do it just to enhance the guest experience. Not a chance. Today's team Disney Orlando would never make guest friendly decision with that much of an expense attached to it. There's money in it and that's why they're doing it.

LSLS1 hour ago

If they are increasing the crowds, wait times throughout the day should be higher (im not talking at the same time or close to the parade time). Obviously they dont release daily attendance figures so theres no way for us to make some judgements based on thatm. But you are making my point. Id be shocked if they have data a parade on its own would put a significant increase in attendance, yet they decided to go 10 years without one, and not put them into the other parks as well. I think it's more of a hail mary of something they could put in relatively quickly and hope it somehow does something since they dragged their feet way too much on capacity increases to counter epic.

Disone2 hours ago

Theoretically I don't think you could use attraction wait times as a barometer for the success of this parade. Unless you go in reverse. If the attraction wait times go down? Because the parade is pulling so many people to watch it. I know when I was a kid I definitely took advantage of lower wait times for the attractions during the parades and fireworks. Now as I've grown older I'm more interested in the parades and fireworks. I think the only true measure of the success for the parade will be in park numbers. But night parades tend to be centerpieces of major promotions. Spectrom Magic was the centerpiece of the 20th anniversary. Paint the night was it's a major offering for a Disneyland milestone anniversary, twice now. I think if we had access to Disney's data we would find at yes, they do find at night parades do in fact bring people into the parks. It's not just for the people who we're already going to be there anyway. Let's face it Disney really isn't that into plusing the value of the experience of those who are already there anyway. Everything they do they do to make money. They're bringing this parade to the park because they want want people to come to the park and they think this parade will do that and they have the data that says the other night parades have.

HauntedPirate5 hours ago

Sorry, new phone, who dis? 😂

joanna719855 hours ago

I know I am (I have my reservation for opening night)

ToTBellHop5 hours ago

I’m always happy when people respond to me because it means they haven’t blocked me. In all facets of my life, I try to hug the line between outrageous and professional.

HauntedPirate5 hours ago

There are cases where it's appropriate. For example - My perusal of this thread became 1000% more enjoyable once I employed it on a few posters. Because then I wasn't reading page after page after page of delusional what-ifs and fanboi dreams and repeated asking of questions that could not be answered and pumping people for information that was not available.

celluloid5 hours ago

That is a question for the individual people who want to use it. It is a feature. So, it is meant to be utilized. And if the person is annoying one without breaking site policy for moderators to inverene, then that would be the time to use it.

LSLS5 hours ago

Wildly popular for people there, that does not mean a large amount of people will make a special trip to the resort just for it. We will see what the wait times look like for those days. Not how hard it is to get a seat, because a single parade will of course have most the people at the park at it, but do we see a significant increase in attraction wait times from prior years and prior days.

ToTBellHop5 hours ago

Should that be necessary?

celluloid7 hours ago

I think that is a mutually exclusive kind of issue. Are you familiar with the ignore feature?

eddie1047 hours ago

He is hardly passionate about anything Disney related. More like the resident contrarian telling you everything that’s gone wrong.

celluloid10 hours ago

I mean, passionate about the project makes sense. That is the biggest insult or flaw ...then he's doing pretty good in a discussion board meant for Fandom. And I don't think one has to bust blood vessels or do much framing to make the high hogs seem thus way.