Five Things to Know About The Festival of the Lion King

Festival of the Lion king is a theatre in the round stage show in Africa at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It combines audience participation, remarkable costumes and the music we all know and love to create a half-hour-long show that every member of the family can enjoy. To learn more, read on; but if you just can’t wait for the nuts and bolts, here’s your shortcut.

1. Be prepared…to participate.

Festival of the Lion King is performed in the Harambe Theatre in Africa and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The queue isn’t terribly interesting, but when the doors open you’ll enter a large (1500-seat) theatre in the round with bleacher seating. The bleachers are divided into four sections, the purpose of which becomes clear when the show begins.

Four actors appear on stage, introduce themselves, and explain that each group will be essentially a cheering section. Each is assigned an animal – elephants, lions, giraffes, or warthogs – and will be responsible for making that animal’s noise on cue. Each group practices their best impression of their animal, so be ready to make some noise.

2. You’re transported to an African savanna.

The premise of the show is that it’s a tribal celebration presented by Simba and friends. So, it’s not a condensed version of the animated feature. The show uses actors, acrobats, floats, puppets, and all of your favorite songs from the Lion King.  It’s more like a musical revue, filled with dance, action, singing, and circus-style acts like the Tumble Monkeys and the Flying Birds.

The performers transform the stage into an African savanna, filled with zebras, gazelles, birds of all sorts – and of course elephants, lions, and giraffes. It’s colorful and engrossing; there’s never a dull moment.

The 30+ minutes speed by and before you know it, you’ve arrived at the grand finale: the Circle of Life. At the performance we recently attended, kids joined in the dance during the finale, something that was discontinued for a while during the pandemic.

3. The circle of life is a line between two theaters.

The Festival of the Lion premiered when Animal Kingdom opened on April 22, 1998. Originally, the Festival was first performed in an open-air theatre at Camp Minnie-Mickey. Where’s that you ask?

Imagineers had originally intended to create a land named Beastly Kingdom. But budget issues forced them to instead build Camp Minnie-Mickey.) At that point, The Festival was supposed to run for only a while. To help with costs, it utilized puppets and floats from the recently discontinued “Lion King Celebration” parade at Disneyland.

Seeing how popular the show was, the open-air theatre was enclosed in 2003, allowing performances to continue. Then Camp Minnie-Micky closed on January 5, 2014, to make room for Disney to build Pandora – the World of Avatar. Without a home, the festival closed – until it moved into its new home, the Harambe Theatre on June 1, 2014.

4. Secrets of the show.

⭐ The Lion King has had seven live adaptations in Disney parks since the movie was released in 1994. They include a parade, two theater-in-the-round shows, and four stage shows.

⭐ The show uses more than 136 costumes. All take their inspiration from authentic African prints and fabrics.

⭐ The 50 cast members perform 7 to 8 shows a day. Several of the original actors went on to perform on Broadway.

⭐ The Simba puppet that appears on the rock float is 12 feet tall.

⭐ When the show premiered, Timon didn’t move his lips and was unable to make facial expressions. When the show reopened in 2014 at Harambe Theater, the costume got an upgrade so Timon can now move his mouth and blink his eyes.

⭐ The Harambe Theater can seat 1,500 guests. This means that on an average day, more than 10,000 guests see the show!

⭐ Elton John and Tim Rice wrote five original songs for The Lion King animated feature. You and your kids know them all by heart.

5. The Nuts and Bolts.

Festival of the Lion King is performed in the Harambe Theatre in the Africa section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The theater is behind and to the left of Tusker House restaurant. The queue has a shaded open-air portion, but the line occasionally extends beyond this and it can get hot while you wait.  Since the show is indoors, performances are not affected by bad weather.

Seating inside is in four sections of bleacher-style backless metal seats. The bleachers can make viewing difficult for shorter folks, so if you have small children or short adults in your party, sitting higher up will give you a better view of the action. So that everyone may enjoy the show, Handheld Captioning, Assistive Listening, and sign language are available. Guests may remain in their wheelchair/ECV.

The show is not open for Early Theme Park Entry or Extended Evening Theme Park Hours. When the parks are moderately busy, you may not get into the next show if you arrive close to showtime during peak hours. In the middle of the day, you should arrive 35-45 minutes before showtime. This can be one of the rare instances where making a reservation with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass can save you more than 10 minutes in line, but they are usually freely available same-day so there’s no need to spend an advance pick on one.

The Bottom Line.

We rate Festival of the Lion King as “not to be missed.” The music, the costumes, the audience participation all combine to make a memory you’ll cherish for years to come. Make no mistake: this is not the Broadway production, but in its own way, it’s the most spectacular stage show you can see at Walt Disney World. And that’s why it’s one of the longest-running shows at the park!

Have you seen The Festival of the Lion King? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below.