Due to a poorly timed illness, it has been more than a few weeks since I last visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom. But the recently reveal of plans to move Festival of the Lion King to a new location in Africa was all the reason I… Read More »Update from Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Back in August we had the news that the most popular and best rated show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and, quite possibly, on property, the Festival of the Lion King, was scheduled to move to a new location. The biggest open questions where when and where. We now know the where and it’s likely the when will come soon.
FotLK had to move to make way for Avatar, which will be coming to where Camp Minnie Mickey is now. Cast members were notified that it would shuttering early in 2013, but so far there hasn’t been much progress as to how the move would be made.
In paperwork filed with the Florida water district management agency, we now know that the FotLK theater will be moved to a new plot of land in Africa. It will be to your left as you cross over the bridge, behind the Tusker House restaurant. Imagineers have been spotted in the area taking a few measurements. So its possible work on fencing in and clearing the plot could begin any day now.
Read More »Festival of the Lion King Relocation Plans Revealed
I feel just a little possessive of Festival Of The Lion King, after all they’re using our floats. Yes, those floats from the greatest Disneyland Parade, The Lion King Celebration, are the stages the puppets sit on in FotLK. I can still remember the final day of the parade at Disneyland and am happy that I can now visit those floats at Disney’s Animal Kingdom whenever I want. But there’s a new rumor going around saying that circumstances could change.
The Festival Of The Lion King show has been the subject of relocation rumors practically since it opened in Camp Minnie Mickey instead of Africa, where it would seem to make more thematic sense. Elevation balloons were recently spotted over that section of the park. And while no ground has been broken, it was confirmed those balloons were some early planning for Avatar-land. With Avatar-land inching closer to reality, it looks like Camp Minnie Mickey is the likely candidate for Avatar.
I’m hearing from multiple sources that FotLK will soon be closing to prepare that land for the expansion. It has been assumed that the show would be moved to a location in Africa when that happened. However, no structure is currently being constructed. There could be a number of reasons for this. Disney could be planning to completely retool the show, they could plan to relocate the existing structure, or it could just be dancing away forever.
Disney has not yet announced the next refurb for FotLK, but my sources say it’s coming soon. I hope they’re wrong and that Disney would be building a new home for FotLK before closing it down to be moved. Since FotLK is the highest rated show at DAK, you would think they would do everything they could to keep some version of it running even during construction.
Just for old times sake, there’s a full video of the show below the jump:
Read More »Festival of The Lion King Making Way for Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The acrobatic hijinks of the Festival of the Lion King’s monkey act is one of the most high energy sections of the show. We’ve known that Disney likes to recruit form Olympic gymnasts to play one of those roles. With the London games now wrapped… Read More »Former Olympian Monkeys around at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
On the day after Christmas in 2008, we were at Disney’s Animal Kingdom enjoying some family time together and decided to attend a showing of The Festival Of The Lion King. The crowd was growing and there were a lot of disabled to seat, so… Read More »Unruly Crowd does The Wave at Festival Of The Lion King