March 6, 2022 - Guest experience change
2022: the thirtieth anniversary lights a restored Castle
D-Light, Gardens of Wonder and Dream… and Shine Brighter! celebrate three decades of Parisian creativity
The thirtieth-anniversary season began on 6 March 2022 in front of a newly restored Sleeping Beauty Castle. The kinetic sculptures of Gardens of Wonder, iridescent costumes and Dream… and Shine Brighter! transformed Central Plaza by day; after dark, Disney D-Light traced a drone choreography across the sky. The celebration looked back on thirty years without confining the park to nostalgia.
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The Castle recovers its colours
The restoration undertaken before the anniversary restored depth to the landmark’s pinks, blues and gilding. The work respected the forms imagined for Paris while making their delicacy legible again, from roofs to ornamental details. Beginning the celebration before this revived Castle connected care for the park’s heritage with the promise of a place still able to surprise.
Central Plaza fills with movement
Gardens of Wonder placed thirty sculptures inspired by Disney and Pixar characters around the square. Wind animated their forms while light and planting changed their presence throughout the day. Dream… and Shine Brighter! added moving stages, dancers and an iridescent palette: the anniversary was not confined to a poster, but inhabited the park’s central crossroads.
Drones above a historic icon
Disney D-Light preceded the night-time spectacular with the number 30, silhouettes and bursts of colour above the Castle. The technology was never displayed for its own sake: it extended the landmark’s lines and gave the sky a new graphic presence. The meeting of a restored icon and a new visual language captured the anniversary perfectly, facing the future without breaking with the park’s particular history.
Many crafts gathered around one shared glow
Behind the iridescent imagery stood an unusually broad collective effort. Ten themed gardens brought together thirty kinetic sculptures imagined by landscaping and entertainment teams, then made with craftspeople from the Île-de-France region. The in-house costume workshops contributed their own expertise to the characters’ new clothes, while music, scenery, lighting, water and two hundred drones found a shared visual language. The anniversary therefore displayed more than finished attractions: it revealed the range of crafts that continually shape the park. That meeting of horticulture, decorative craft, costume, music and a new form of aerial choreography gave the thirtieth birthday its coherence and turned the celebration into a portrait of the creative community behind Disneyland Paris.
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