Lifestyle
A new Pixar-themed parade is coming to Disneyland
A new Pixar-themed daytime parade and enhancements to the “Star Wars” attraction Star Tours — The Adventures Continue are coming to the Disneyland Resort in 2024. Numerous festivals and celebrations will also dot the theme park calendar for the upcoming year, which was unveiled Monday morning by the resort.
Returning in 2024 is a reimagined Pixar Fest, with offerings that will span Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure. The latter will host a brand new daytime parade titled Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!. Disney has staged a Pixar parade in the past, as the Pixar Play Parade once ran regularly in California Adventure. The latter was retired in 2018, the last time the resort held a Pixar Fest, which was done in conjunction with the opening of Pixar Pier in California Adventure.
As part of Pixar Fest, which is slated to run from April 26 through Aug. 4, Disney will resurrect the fireworks and projection show Together Forever — A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular for Disneyland Park. Disney is promising new scenes for the evening production. For character fans, Disney will be bringing Ember and Wade from this year’s “Elemental,” as well as the red panda Mei from “Turning Red,” into the parks.
Also on the docket for 2024, running from April 5 to June 2, will be the “Star Wars”-themed event Season of the Force, which will bring with it the debut of previously announced new scenes for Star Tours. While Disney has not offered many specifics about the added segments, at a fan event earlier this year in Florida it was revealed that the character of Ahsoka Tano would be included. An exact date for the premiere of the updated scenes has not yet been released, as a spokesperson says they will debut “during the celebration.”
Also as part of Season of the Force, Disneyland will cement Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge as a fireworks viewing destination with the debut of what it describes as “galactic music” during the evening illuminations. The audio of Galaxy’s Edge is largely peripheral — sounds designed to mimic a working, livable city. The fireworks soundtrack will give the land some more traditional theme park-like trappings. Finally, Season of the Force will also see Space Mountain remade into Hyperspace Mountain for the duration of the event.
Concept art for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which is coming to Disneyland in 2024 in the former Splash Mountain space.
(Disney)
The next year will be one of transformation for the parks and their surrounding Downtown Disney District. The highlight will be the makeover of Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which will transform the New Orleans Square and Critter Country areas of the park. Splash Mountain closed in May and construction is ongoing on the renovation. Disney, in releasing its 2024 calendar, did not set an opening date window for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but it’s expected to be in the latter half of 2024.
Previously announced, the reimagining of the Paradise Pier Hotel into the Pixar Place Hotel will open on Jan. 30, and the popular Disneyland nighttime show Fantasmic! will return on May 24. The latter has been shuttered since a Maleficent dragon figure went up in flames this past spring, and Disney has teased a reimagined grand finale. New restaurants are coming to Downtown Disney, including dumpling palace Din Tai Fung and Mexican-focused Paseo and its companion outdoor bar/restaurant area Céntrico. Opening date windows for the eateries have not yet been set.
Concept art for a “Turning Red”-themed float for the new Pixar parade, Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!, launching in 2024 at Disney California Adventure.
(Artist concept / Disneyland Resort)
The Disneyland Resort has also set dates for a number of returning fan festivals. Lunar New Year at Disney California Adventure Park will run Jan. 23-Feb. 18; the concert-focused Celebrate Gospel will be staged Feb. 17 and Feb. 24 at Disneyland; the Disney California Food & Wine Festival is set for March 1-April 22; the resort-wide Halloween Time begins even earlier next year, launching Aug. 23 and ending on Halloween; the Día de los Muertos celebration Plaza de la Familia at California Adventure is planned for Aug. 23-Nov. 2; and finally, holidays at the resort with begin on Nov. 15.
Disneyland is continuing a pair of specially ticketed nighttime events. Disneyland After Dark is set to return in early 2024, although the resort hasn’t unveiled themes for the events yet, and the popular Halloween event Oogie Boogie Bash, which typically sells out Disney California Adventure, is also coming back. No announcements were made regarding some fan-favorite shows that ran in 2023, including the Disneyland parade Magic Happens and the nighttime Disneyland show Wondrous Journeys. A spokesperson says details regarding a “return of Magic Happens” will be shared at “a later time.”
The announcements come after Disneyland increased prices in October — and also launched a number of money-saving promotions. In October, Disneyland raised single-day admission prices on its most popular days by nearly 9%, while parking fees rose nearly 17% and the cost of using the ride-jumping Genie+ service went up 20%. Parking at the Disneyland Resort starts at $35 per car.
The lowest-priced ticket for a single-day visit on low-demand days at Disneyland and California Adventure has remained at $104 since 2019. The daily ticket for days when demand is highest, which was $179, recently increased to $194, an 8.4% increase. Prices for other tiers rose between 3.9% and 8.9%. A park-hopper add-on is $65, pushing some single day, multipark tickets to as high as $259 on some days.
Concept art for how rooms may look after Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel is transformed into Pixar Place Hotel, set to fully open in January.
(Disneyland Resort)
Disneyland is also currently running a lower-priced ticket offer for Southern California locals. Each resident who pays $225 will receive three one-park-per-day tickets to be used on separate visits from Jan. 2 though June 2. This discount works out to $75 for each admission.
The three-ticket package, good for children or adults, means you can choose to visit Disneyland or Disney California Adventure each time. The $225 offer is valid Monday through Thursday, as those taking advantage of the promotion will be blocked out on Fridays and weekends. A Disneyland spokesperson has clarified that those who wish to visit the theme parks on a Friday or a weekend can do so for $275, or about $92 per day.
The deal cannot be combined with other promotions, but can be mixed and matched with other deals, as Disneyland continues to run its Kids’ Special Ticket Offer which allows children between the ages of 3 and 9 to visit for $50. The latter runs from Jan. 8 through March 10.
Lifestyle
Bill Maher is getting the Mark Twain Prize after all
Satirist Bill Maher is this year’s recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Maher will receive the award at the Kennedy Center on June 28th. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
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Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Bill Maher will be receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor after all.
There’s been some confusion about whether the comedian and longtime host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher would, indeed, be getting the top humor award. After The Atlantic cited anonymous sources saying he was, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called it “fake news.” But today the Kennedy Center made it official.
“For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has celebrated some of the greatest minds in comedy,” said Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations in a statement. “For even longer, Bill has been influencing American discourse – one politically incorrect joke at a time.”
Is President Trump, chair of the Kennedy Center’s board, in on the joke?
Maher once visited Trump at the White House and he tends to be more conservative than many of his comedian peers but after their dinner Trump soured on Maher, calling him a “highly overrated LIGHTWEIGHT” on social media.
Maher’s acerbic wit has targeted both political parties and he’s been particularly hard on Trump recently, criticizing his decisions to wage a war with Iran and his personnel choices.
“Trump said, ‘when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money.’ Um, who’s ‘we?,’” Maher said in a recent monologue.
Past recipients of the Mark Twain Prize include Conan O’Brien, Dave Chappelle, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy and Carol Burnett.
In a statement released through the Kennedy Center, Maher said, “It is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”
Maher will receive the Mark Twain Prize at the Kennedy Center on June 28. The show will stream on Netflix at a later date.
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Suit asks court to force Trump administration to use ‘The Kennedy Center’ name
Workers react to the media after updating signage outside the Kennedy Center on Dec. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
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Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio is asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to force President Trump and the board and staff of the Kennedy Center to revert to calling the arts complex The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
The motion, which Beatty filed on Wednesday, asks a federal circuit court judge to reverse the Trump administration and the center’s current board and staff’s decision to call the complex “The Trump-Kennedy Center.”
In the filing, Beatty’s attorneys wrote: “Can the Board of the Kennedy Center — in direct contradiction of the governing statutes — rename this sacred memorial to John F. Kennedy after President Donald J. Trump? The answer is, unequivocally, ‘no.’ By renaming the Center — in violation of the law — Defendants have breached the terms of the trust and their most basic fiduciary obligations as trustees. Shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Congress designated the Kennedy Center as the ‘sole national memorial to the late’ President in the nation’s capital.”

In a statement emailed to NPR Thursday, Roma Daravi, the vice president of public relations for the Kennedy Center, wrote: “We’re confident the court will uphold the board’s decision on the name change and the desperately needed renovations which will continue as scheduled.” NPR also reached out to the White House for comment, but did not receive a reply.
In December, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the complex would heretofore be called “The Trump-Kennedy Center.” Although the new moniker was never approved by Congress, the Center’s website and publicity materials were immediately updated to reflect the administration’s chosen name, and the same day as Leavitt’s announcement, Trump’s name went up on the signage of the complex’s exterior, over that of the slain President Kennedy.
Later that month, Rep. Beatty who serves as an ex-officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board of trustees, sued Trump, members of the Kennedy Center board appointed by Trump, and some ex-officio members, arguing that the complex’s name had been legislated by Congress in 1964. Wednesday’s motion is part of that lawsuit.

In a press release sent to NPR on Wednesday, Rep. Beatty said: “Donald Trump’s attempt to rename the Kennedy Center after himself is not just an act of ego. It is an attempt to subvert our Constitution and the rule of law. Congress established the Kennedy Center by law, and only Congress can change its name.”
For many patrons, artists and benefactors of the Kennedy Center, the name change was the last straw in politicizing the performing arts hub. Following the White House announcement of the new name, many prominent artists withdrew planned performances there, including the composer Philip Glass (a Kennedy Center Honors award recipient, who received his prize during the first Trump administration), the famed Broadway composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz and the 18-time Grammy-winning banjo master Béla Fleck.
The Washington National Opera (WNO), which had been in residence at the Kennedy Center since 1971, also severed its ties in January after ticket sales dropped precipitously. Earlier this month, WNO artistic director Francesca Zambello told NPR, “We did try as best as we could to encourage [the patrons] that we are a bipartisan organization, but people really voted with their feet and with their pocketbooks. And so we realized that there was really no choice for us.”

On Monday, a coalition of eight architecture and cultural groups also sued Trump and the Kennedy Center board in federal court over the complex’s scheduled closing in July for unspecified renovations. Their suit seeks to have the White House and board members comply with existing historic preservation laws, and to secure Congressional approval before moving ahead with the renovation plans.
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