Disney World’s 50th Anniversary brought several new shows and attractions to the parks. One of those was a fun show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom featuring kites in the shape of Disney characters.
Timon and Pumba
Disney KiteTails has characters from The Lion King and The Jungle Book as intricate 3D kite creations, flying above the Discovery River Lagoon throughout the day. If you’ve loved this show as much as we do, we unfortunately have some very sad news.
Disney KiteTails will be ending after September 30th, 2022. Disney’s website has been updated to announce that the final performance will be on that date.
UPDATE: Because of the Hurricane Ian park closures in Disney World, Disney KiteTails ended early and is now officially closed.
©Disney
Until October 2022, you can watch KiteTails throughout the day, as it’s presented in a walk-by format. That means that it runs several times throughout the day (about every 20 minutes) from 9:10AM to 3:10PM. Each show lasts about 5 minutes. Be sure to check out the My Disney Experience app to see when the show is running during your visit!
Hey There!
At the D23 Expo this year, we also heard that the 50th Anniversary fireworks show in EPCOT (Harmonious) is going to end and be replaced with a new nighttime spectacular, but that change won’t be happening until sometime late next year.
Harmonious
If you’re hoping to catch one more performance of KiteTails in Animal Kingdom, be sure to visit within the next couple of weeks before it ends. Keep following DFB for more of the latest news from Disney World!
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noo i wont get 2 see it ill be there from 10/8-10/10
Trust me. You won’t miss much.
I was never a fan of Kite Tails, but Disney should consider scrapping the entire Harmonious program and remove all of the debris from the lake at Epcot. It spoils the view across the lake and the show itself is noting but alot of noise and histaria. Illuminations was much better and the final rendition before the Epcot show was discontinued, the show with the jet ski’s and the kites was great.
I didn’t feel this was not a show worth waiting around for, especially in the hot sun, but if you happened to pass by or catch it at the right time, it was fun to watch — the kites were massive and it was kind of fun watching them “crash” at the end of the show lol. A little sad to see it go, but hopefully they’ll make better use of that area!
Beloved show?! Most comments that I’ve read were making fun of the show/performers. I enjoyed it the one time I saw it. I don’t think it was given a chance and Disney never worked out the bugs of the performance.
Please don’t tease! When I saw the your email “Beloved Show is CLOSING PERMANENTLY in Animal Kingdom”,
I thought “OH NO!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t let it be Lion King!!”, as that is the only show in AK I would call “beloved”, or close to it. I am (was?) also a huge Nemo fan, but Kite Tails is just kinda fun.
I was so looking forward to seeing this Nov.8-17th trip. Such a shame. Spend $$$ to make something then close it after a short time.
Sure Disney closes a FREE show. Not surprised. Was EXTREMELY upset when they closed The Rivers of Light show which was fantastic. BRING THAT ONE BACK!!! PLEASE or something similar
Beloved? Really? It’s really less of a kite show and more of a flaccid parade balloons show.
We have a November trip so will miss this, didn’t exist on our last trip. So a bit disappointing as I’m sure they won’t have any kind of replacement for maybe a year.
Sadly they just can’t figure out the right show for that space. A ton of effort and expense went into building the seating and both Rivers of Light and KiteTails have had very short runs. Unfortunately this is because so many guests aren’t happy with nighttime shows unless they get fireworks and explosives. My concern is for the animals so I appreciate that the shows are designed around what is in the best interests of the animals.
Good riddance Kite Tails! Unfortunately, this show (if you call it that) was in an area that had quite a bit of seating, but the Kite show was really bad. Maybe a little cute for little ones, but the caliber of this show was not up to Disney standards at all. Hopefully some type of higher quality show will go into this area. Did I say that in all four parks this was the worst of the worst attraction to watch. ha!