Happy Birthday to the Happiest Place on Earth (Part 1)

Ok, so it's not Disneyland's birthday just yet, but the new Diamond Celebration plan for the Disneyland 60th Anniversary has been announced and I am beyond excited for all of the new decorations, parades, shows, merchandise, and everything else that is going to come with this massive birthday party for the Happiest Place on Earth. In fact, I am so excited that I simply cannot restrict all of this Disney magic to only one blog post. It is because of this that I have decided to write two posts on all of the exciting plans for the Diamond Celebration. This first post will feature the new shows for the 60th anniversary. These shows include the new "Disneyland Forever" fireworks spectacular, the limited edition "World of Color-- Celebrate! The Wonderful World of Walt Disney", and the luminous "Paint the Night" parade.

First look at 60th
Anniversary theme
released July 17, 2014

It was on the 59th birthday of Disneyland (July 17, 2014) that we first got our sneak peek of the theme for the Disneyland 60th anniversary, and even though that sneak peek was only one picture, it was enough to get me super pumped about what to expect for the Diamond Celebration.

On January 15, 2015, Disney Parks Blog posted about the opportunity for 200 Disney Parks Blog readers to register for a special event on January 28th that would talk about the plans for the Diamond Celebration and the chance to have special access to "Frozen Fun". Well, as you can expect, the event reached full capacity very quickly and the rest of the readers that didn't win had to sit and wait in front of their computers on January 28th for the post about the plans for the 60th Anniversary celebration.

Well after waiting for two weeks, we finally got the plans for the Diamond celebration and that's what I'm here to share with you today!

"Disneyland Forever" fireworks spectacular art

During this special event*, Tom Staggs, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts got up on stage, accompanied by Steve Davison, the executive of parades and spectaculars with Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment (I know, long title) to talk about what the Diamond Celebration had in store for all of the Disneyland guests. The highlight of this event was the preview of the brand new technology that would be used in the new "Disneyland Forever" fireworks spectacular. This show will feature new projection technologies that will be used to light up the Main Street buildings, Sleeping Beauty Castle, and even the Matterhorn in order to allow guests to completely immerse themselves in the world of Disney. In addition to this, the show will include glistening pyrotechnics and many other special effects to captivate the audience in this nighttime spectacular. What I am probably the most excited about with this new show is the new music from Disney Legend Richard Sherman**.

This isn't the only new show that Disney has in store for us, there will also be a special "World of Color" presentation in California Adventure called "World of Color-- Celebrate! The Wonderful World of Walt Disney". This show will feature new animation and take the audience through the history of Walt Disney and Disneyland, hosted by Mickey Mouse himself as he takes us on an adventure through Walt Disney's imagination and his dream for Disneyland.

The last show announced was the "Paint the Night" parade (which you may have heard about because of the Hong Kong version) that will bring back the idea of the Main Street Electrical Parade, featuring new LED technology that will be on the floats, costumes, and practically everywhere else in this amazing parade. Are you a number person? Let me put it this way: This parade will have over 1.5 million LED lights and more than 75 performers altogether.

What to expect from the "Paint the Night" parade

If you couldn't already tell, I'm so excited for all of the new shows that will come with this amazing celebration, but I'm equally as excited for all of the AMAZING decorations and merchandise that we will see for the 60th Anniversary Diamond Celebration, which will be featured here on the next post.

All of this exciting new stuff will make it's Disneyland debut on May 22, so be sure to go check out this once in a lifetime celebration of the history and future of Disneyland. 

Sources: 
- Disney Parks Blog
- Disneydose.com
- ktla.com
- Disneyland.disney.go.com


* to watch this super special event, you can click here
** No, not the football player. I'm talking about Richard Sherman, the man that wrote iconic songs (along with his brother, Robert) such as "It's a Small World" and the Tiki Room music and wrote over 200 songs for 27 movies and over 2 dozen television productions. These are the men that you may have seen featured in "Saving Mr. Banks", because they wrote all of the songs for Mary Poppins, including one of Walt Disney's all- time favorite songs "Feed the Birds". Now do you understand why I'm so excited for this new music?? (Find out more about Richard Sherman right here)