On the day that the mask rule was dropped to those vaccinated and Disneyland opened to out of state guests, Disney announced another piece of good news! Fireworks will return to Magic Kingdom and Epcot on July 1st and also come back to Disneyland on July 4th. We’ll cover the news here along with adding a few thoughts of our own!

Here’s what Disney announced today:

“At Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, July 1 marks the start of nightly fireworks performances at Magic Kingdom Park and EPCOT. “Happily Ever After” will transform Cinderella Castle with lights, projections and pyrotechnics, as moments from favorite Disney stories encourage you to grab hold of your dreams and make them come true.

As part of the ongoing transformation of EPCOT, “EPCOT Forever” will produce a spectacle of fireworks, music and lighting effects over World Showcase Lagoon, highlighting the themes of innovation, exploration, imagination and celebration at the core of the park’s past, present and future.

As Disneyland park in California welcomes back all guests, the fun starts July 4 with “Mickey’s Mix Magic” presented nightly throughout the summer. State-of-the-art projections, show lighting and lasers will transform Main Street, U.S.A., Sleeping Beauty Castle and the façade of “it’s a small world” into a dazzling, family fun dance party that goes sky high with fireworks to celebrate the leader of the club, Mickey Mouse.”

Nighttime spectaculars are a quintessential part of the theme park experience and adding them back to the castle parks and Epcot is wonderful news regardless of our thoughts on the shows. Not only is it great to have major entertainment back but it’s also another step in increasing capacity. I feel like I type that sentence in every blog post at this point! Even if you’re not a nighttime spectacular fan, it will help you out because the show will draw crowds away from the attractions.

Looking at the individual shows coming back, we’ve always been big fans of Happily Ever After in Magic Kingdom. There were rumors for a while that a new fireworks show would debut for the 50th anniversary but that seems less likely now. Happily Ever After combines beautiful projections with pyro for a winning combination. The soundtrack is also versatile and beautiful. I couldn’t be happier that it’s coming back, as it’s one of my favorite fireworks shows I’ve ever seen.

The other two shows are less exciting to me. Epcot Forever will be a placeholder, as Harmonious will debut in the next few months. Like most things, Epcot Forever’s run was cut short by the pandemic and debuted to lukewarm reviews in 2019. To me, the show tries to blend the park’s past with future and doesn’t quite hit the mark. I think it would have served it well to be a full on nostalgia fueled show. All that said, it will be nice to have a show back in World Showcase lagoon.

As for Disneyland, Mickey’s Mix Magic returns. I recently wrote about how I hope the show is changed out for something else so it’s probably easy to see my feelings on it. While it utilizes projections well, I think the show is substandard especially compared to other nighttime spectaculars Disneyland has recycled through. It is worth noting that the announcement did not include the Rivers of America as a viewing area for Mickey’s Mixed Magic, which is interesting because it was played on the water prior to the pandemic. There’s no word as of yet on when Fantasmic! will return.

Overall, it’s another day of great news for the American Disney Parks. When people think of theme parks, fireworks are one of the first things that come to mind. I’m excited to have them back and am even looking forward to Mickey’s Mix Magic at this point!

Are you excited for the return of fireworks? Let us know your thoughts, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below! Planning a trip to a Disney Park? Check out our Planning Guides to help you along the way! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!