Epcot at Walt Disney World is a unique theme park with a unique history.
Beyond its origins as a planned city of the future, it’s been home to everything from
popular festivals to interesting stages shows.
It also has the distinction of being a Disney theme park that was home to a presidential
inaugural parade.
In November of 1984 Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale, securing a second term as
President of the United States of America.
As is tradition, that meant an inauguration ceremony and parade that following January.
That ceremony was to be no small event.
The plans for the inaugural parade in Washington DC called for marching bands from all 50 states,
amounting over 7,500 participants.
However nature had other plans.
On January 20th, 1985 the United States and Canada was hit with an especially brutal cold
snap that lasted a couple of days.
It impacted much of the country, and Washington DC was no exception.
With wind chills accounted for, temperatures in DC dropped to as low as -25 degrees (-32c).
So with concern for the safety of estimated 350,000 spectators who were expected to attend
and would be out in the cold, the decision was made to cancel the inaugural parade and ceremony.
President Reagan would be officially sworn into office in the White House on the 20th,
and on the 21st a much smaller public ceremony would be held inside at the Capitol Rotunda.
Unfortunately with the parade being such a complex and large event, there simply wasn’t
a rain date set for it.
It was either happening that day, or it wasn’t happening at all, so... it didn’t happen.
The following month in February, an idea would surface over at the Walt Disney Company during
one of its many brainstorming sessions.
What if the President’s inaugural parade did take place, but somewhere else?
Somewhere with better weather.
Somewhere with a focus on international relations and an area dedicated to the United States.
Most importantly, somewhere that needed a little more time in the spotlight after its
initial novelty started to wear out with crowds.
Somewhere like EPCOT Center.
From that, The President’s Inaugural Bands Parade was born.
The idea was to hold the same parade planned for DC that January over in World Showcase
during Memorial Day weekend.
Disney worked with a number of sponsors to try and get as many of the 50 bands that had
prepared for the inauguration to come out to EPCOT Center for the event.
The Osceola County Commission chipped in $150,000 and sponsors such as Days Inn, Eastern Airlines,
Delta Airlines, Greyhound, and even Burger King all helped in offering lodging, travel,
and amenities for the bands.
The Walt Disney Company themselves invested $350,000 towards the event.
However, the event being held during Memorial Day weekend meant that many of the school
bands involved in the parade would be let out for summer vacation, and in many cases
for upperclassmen, some would have already graduated from their schools.
So despite their efforts to get everyone over to Epcot for the parade, Disney was only able
to get about a third, or 2,500 marching band members from 16 different states to attend.
There was also somebody else they hadn’t been able to get to commit to the event: The President.
It made sense, after all.
The President’s schedule is typically pretty packed and all sorts of security concerns
need to be ironed out for such a public event.
Despite not getting any confirmations from the White House on whether or not the Reagans
would attend however, Disney moved forward with planning the event anyway in hopes that
they would eventually commit.
President Reagan, after all, had a history with Disney that dated all the way back to
the opening day broadcast of Disneyland in 1955 which he co-hosted along with Art Linkletter.
Luckily a few weeks prior to the event the White House would finally respond to Disney,
confirming the attendance of the President and the First Lady.
The event itself was a grand affair.
It kicked off with the President arriving to EPCOT via Marine One before getting into
a motorcade that made a lap around the entirety of World Showcase.
From there the President and First Lady joined Disney CEO Michael Eisner and his wife, Jane
Eisner, in a specially constructed air conditioned and bullet-proof viewing room at the American
pavilion.
Both Eisner and Reagan spoke at the event before the parade of all 2,500 band members began.
The parade also featured Disney’s 1907 calliope which, itself, had a long history of being
used in Disney events that goes as far back as 1955.
For the grand finale, four F-16 fighter jets performed a flyover at the park, a firework
display, said to be the largest at Disney World up until that point, took place, and
15,000 red, white, and blue balloons were released into the sky.
Of course, not about to pass up the promotional spectacle of the year, Disney televised the
entire hour and a half event which to no surprise included plenty of moments in which the features
and attractions of EPCOT Center were pitched to the watching American public.
Surprisingly, despite being such a large and unique event, there was no additional ticket
price required to attend.
It simply required a normal park ticket to EPCOT Center, which at the time cost $18 for
adults and $15 for children.
After the parade, just as quickly as he had arrived, the President then left for a political
fundraiser event in Miami that afternoon.
With a few months of planning and half a million dollars Disney and the other sponsors had
taken an unfortunate weather situation and made the best of it.
The President’s Inaugural Bands Parade paid off for Disney.
While they personally invested over a quarter of a million dollars into the event, the publicity
they gained from it and it’s coverage was worth far more than that.
And if only for 90 minutes, it put EPCOT Center into the forefront of the minds of millions
of Americans who were watching.