Today In Disney History ~ May 1st
The 1997 Festival of Flowers
To celebrate its fifth anniversary, Disneyland Paris offered its guests an extraordinary “bouquet of flowers”. The gardeners gave free rein to their imagination in order to create flowery characters and paintings.
The Main Street, U.S.A. Station was decorated in fresh flowers, crowned with a giant chrysanthemum rainbow. In Town Square, the Disney characters dressed in leaves and greenery and danced around the flowered bandstand.
Guests were not only welcomed in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle by flower sculptures of Esmeralda, Djali and Clopin, a tribute to The Hunchback of Notre Dame; they could also take a walk in an extraordinary medieval garden. “Animated” flower beds, featuring hippopotami, elephants and other plant creatures, also came to life in Fantasyland!
The Festival of Flowers 1998
The following year, Disneyland Paris dedicated its second Festival of Flowers to the great Disney classics. Five flowery stages, set up in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, told the story of famous animated movies in which animals play an important part: The Jungle Book, Bambi, the 101 Dalmatians, Dumbo and The Lion King.
These stages were made up of over thirty particularly impressive topiaries. With flowers and leaves, the team recreated the image of famous Disney animal heroes such as Bambi and Flower the skunk, Baloo the bear and King Louie the monkey, Simba the lion cub and his friend, Rafiki.
Flower beds were set up on the slopes of the Castle around these five compositions and crowned the whole ensemble. 30 000 rose bushes, in pink pastel, white and orange colors, covered the slopes and flower beds of the central plaza.
TMSM Today in Graphic by Sherry Rinaldi DeHart; www.bonjourlafrance.com
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