The problems began with the 22.30 performance of Disney’s Fantillusion, the first since January, when the “Fauna’s Carousel” float began the parade without its lighting effects turned on. The blacked-out float continued along the parade route from “it’s a small world” to Pizzeria Bella Notte in darkness, before maintenance crews dashed towards it and corrected the problem. By this time, however, the problems had caused a backlog of floats and the rest of the parade saw these floats (and their dancers) frantically trying to keep up with the earlier floats.

Bigger problems were yet to come, however, as the epic Bastille Day Fireworks – the biggest display of the year at the park – faced technical problems with the ground-based pyrotechnics. Raptor1982 from Photos Magiques messaged us right away after the fireworks with news of the problems:

“The fireworks were a big disaster. None of the rockets behind the castle went up. Only the big shells behind the park went off.”

Despite these problems, causing some sections of the show to feel very (and sometimes totally) devoid of fireworks, guests were still treated to an incredible display of large firework shells – a rare event for the Parisian resort in recent years. Unfortunately for the team working on the fireworks, however, the crowd featured one special VIP who was no doubt watching their efforts very closely – Karl Holz, CEO of the resort’s operating company, Euro Disney Associés SCA. (See photo above). Kyoto from Disney Magic Interactive forum caught him on camera, wearing an oddly John Lassester-esque shirt…

Kyoto also has three videos of the fireworks online. You can download them right here.