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Festival of Fools With “surround theater,” this Disneyland stage show engulfs visitors in sight, sound and motion.

"When it all plays, it's monumentally huge. So says David Hatmaker of "Festival of Fools," a 28-minute stage show at Disneyland that uses one of his latest

Festival of FoolsWith “surround theater,” this Disneyland stage show engulfs visitors in sight, sound and motion.

Feb 20, 1997 12:00 PM,
Greg DeTogneDeTogne is a free-lance writer based in Libertyville, IL.

“When it all plays, it’s monumentally huge. So says David Hatmaker of “Festival of Fools,” a 28-minute stage show at Disneyland that uses one of his latest audio designs, “If you want to see and hear everything, you must experience it more than once. This is a show that literally engulfs you.”

As big as monumentally huge may be, Hatmaker’s sizable assessment is still probably an understatement for many who have experienced the aural and visual impact of the show, which plays five times a day on weekends through most of the year and five times every day during portions of the Christmas and summer seasons.

To fathom the all-encompassing scope of “Festival of Fools,” consider this: It takes five acres of real estate within Disneyland’s Southern California kingdom just to contain the show’s infrastructure. Situated along Big Thunder Mountain Trail between Fantasyland and Frontierland, the Festival of Fools arena, where the actual production unfolds before gathered crowds, rises almost four stories in some places. The show’s plot line (a condensed version of Disney’s animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame) reveals itself on five stages and just about everywhere in between.

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