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1990 was Disneyland's 35th Anniversary having opened to the world on June 15th 1955.  This parade has been one of the largest and challenging parades done at Disneyland.  The 50 foot tall cold air inflatable Disney figures was a first.  This parade was also the very first parade that would actually stop moving down Main Street as a special performance would be given to each section of the parade route guests.

A Disneyland parade is the largest and most complex show that is staged at the Theme Park. My position was to interface with all Theme Park operations groups in order to get the parades staged in the back lot areas without blocking normal operations and emergency services.  The same would be true once the entire parade had made it way to the far side of Disneyland and then had to be parked for a number of hours behind Main Street.  Everyone from street vendors to security personal, guest control and parade crossing staff, and  operations supervisors had to be in sync with my group to ensure a smooth performance that would seem perfectly executed to any Disneyland guest.

On the average summer day or evening, 25,000 people or more would wait to watch each parade performance.  The total amount of people involved in the entertainment side of the show like dancers and performers, technical support engineers, stage management, float drivers, prop handlers, costuming staff, wig and makeup people, and choreographers is a massive undertaking.

With a parade that is performed under the open sky in a mostly uncontrolled environment, your learn to be very flexible and reactive to sudden changes in the program.  You also get a very heightened sense of safety as massive float units are moving in very narrow confines with dancing and twirling performed interact with each other only inches apart.

The trick to trying to managing an operation like a Disneyland parade is to train your people very well, give them a strong sense of responsibility and the repercussions of human errors and then estimate where and when any and all unplanned emergency will arise.  It pays to be very proactive to check, re-check, and then triple check any areas that have a possibility slowing down the operation or causing an injury to someone.  I have worn out many pairs of shoes being at the right place at the right time.