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There’s something about Festival of the Lion King that genuinely is so shocking to me. (Tiny thread) The fact that it was an incredibly cheap and temporary show thrown together for DAKs opening, with a tiny budget and reused floats everywhere, even the theater was open air. (1/?)
It somehow became SO POPULAR with guests that it outlived the other temporary show at CMM (Poch), and even got itself an enclosed theater, and became the main attraction of the land. And got some upgrades here and there with costumes, choreo, etc.
This is where it really surprises me, Disney announced Pandora to replace CMM, and instead of closing the now incredibly highly rated show (as most cases end up), they instead decided to incorporate it with the DAK overhaul in the mid 2010’s. And give Africa a HUGE new expansion.
Nearly doubling the size of walking space in Africa, they opened Harambe Marketplace and FOLK became the connection between Africa and Pandora, with new bathrooms, a beautiful new themed theater, and much needed technical upgrades to the show (lighting most notably)
You can tell that all the lighting was upgraded from the CMM version of the show. FOLK’s move was obviously not cheap and Disney saw it as worthy to keep around for the future of DAK, and themed the theater FOR the show. It would be very difficult to replace the show.
You can tell that Disney loves and thinks FOLK is a huge priority just by the fact that it’s one of the first and only shows returning currently after the Parks reopening after the COVID-19 shutdown. There’s still no date for it but the anticipation is definitely there.
From beginnings, to becoming one of the longest running WDW shows (23 years and counting), FOLK is a well written, staged, and a fun musical show based on the Lion King. From its choreography to live singers, and acrobats, it’s truly one of the greatest Disney shows of all time.
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