Spectromagic
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At A Glance |
Much loved night time electrical
parade in which all of the floats are lit up with thousands
of tiny bulbs. Well worth hanging about to see. |
Spectromagic first appeared during Walt Disney World's 20th anniversary
on the 1st October 1991, and was designed so that the older Main
Street Electrical Parade could be moved over to Disneyland Paris.
The main difference between Spectromagic and the Electrical Parade
is that Spectromagic makes more use of fibre-optic lighting effects,
and there are some new characters specially designed for the newer
parade.
It is definitely one parade that you shouldn't miss, but it only
runs at night, and then only at certain times of the year during
peak season, and on selected weekends. It features floats adorned
with around 600,000 miniature bulbs, flickering in time with the
music, and uses miles of fiber-optic cables constantly changing
intensity and colour, holographic technology, light-throwing thermoplastics
and liquid-nitrogen smoke, all perfectly choreographed with the
Spectromagic theme tune that plays throughout the parade.
Spectromagic follows the normal parade route, starting from the
large gates at the left of the start of Main Street (as you look
along Main Street from the Town Hall), where it circles Town Square
before heading along Main Street itself, turning left at the plaza
before heading out towards Liberty Square and through Frontierland
ultimitely finishing at the far end of Frontierland.
Most places along the route will provide a good view, as long
as you get your spot early on, but of all the possible locations,
by far the most impressive is the middle of the platform of the
Walt Disney Railroad depot, where it can be clearly seen from
it's emmergence, around Town Square, and then all the way along
Main Street. This location will get very busy very quickly however,
so if the crowds are too heave, other good alternatives are anywhere
along Main Street, or at the Pecos Bill Cafe.
To get a good viewing spot, you're going to have to be prepared
to stake your claim as much as an hour and a half before Spectromagic
is due to start, particularly for the early evening performance.
Even then, unless you pick your viewing spot carefully, you're
going to get people trying to push in front of you, and what seems
like a good spot at the edge of the parade route, will quickly
become an average viewing spot, three or four rows back.
Spectromagic works very well on Video providing you can switch
your video's exposure manually to compensate for the low evening
light levels.
NOTE: Spectromagic is due to finish in the Magic Kingdom
on May 21st 1999, after which it will be replaced by a re-showing
of the Main Street Electrical Parade, so if you want to
see Spectromagic in all its glory make sure you plan your visit
before the end of May '99. Editor's note: This has been confirmed
and The Main Street Electrical Parade will return the summer of
1999, possibly near Memorial Day
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