A Celebration in Arendelle: a Frozen water show

Every day, A Celebration in Arendelle plays out on the water of the World of Frozen land. You’re invited to the Snowflower Festival, the kingdom of Arendelle’s most cherished tradition, which honors the loving gesture Anna made for her sister Elsa.

First comes Kristoff’s boat, its prow carved in honor of Sven, carrying Olaf too. Right behind is the villagers’ barge, where everyone rushes through final preparations, recreating the snowflower emblem as a surprise for the royal sisters. Olaf appoints himself director of operations and bursts into "I’m a very busy snowman," his own rewritten take on "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" Of course, things don’t go as planned. Then Anna and Elsa sail in on their royal longship to open the festivities.

Behind the scenes, the show relies on three custom-built boats and an Olaf animatronic controlled live by a Cast Member, a park employee. If it breaks down, a fallback version swaps in an Olaf puppet, handled the way it’s done in Mickey and the Magician. Add pyrotechnics, water jets, and lighting designed to work in daylight and after dark.

Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, who wrote the songs for Frozen and Frozen II, penned the show’s original number, "Snowflower." Tyler Koontz, already the orchestrator of Disney Tales of Magic, conducted the orchestral and choral score, recorded in London at Abbey Road Studios with a symphony orchestra of roughly 90 musicians. Traditional Nordic instruments (Swedish nyckelharpa, dulcimer, Norwegian flutes) were added at the Disneyland Paris studio, played by musicians with Nordic roots.

This is the resort’s first water show on such a scale. Its boats were built by Couach Construction Navale, based on Arcachon Bay with over 120 years of know-how, and partly decorated by the Prelud workshop near Dijon. Drivers steer them by hand, with no rail and no automation. Nearly 400 suppliers worked on the project, and 83% of them are French companies.

With World of Frozen and its lake, Disney Adventure World got its first big expansion. Built specifically for this outdoor space, A Celebration in Arendelle is the first water show of this size there, with none of the constraints of a traditional theater stage. Its official premiere was on March 29, 2026, the same day the new area opened and the second park switched to its new identity.

Walt Disney Imagineers teamed up with water choreography experts to create this show for both day and night. From the start, the basin was designed to hold heavy underwater equipment, including fountains, spotlights, and pyrotechnic rigs. All the technology is hidden inside the Scandinavian facades, making room for synchronized visual effects that recreate ice and winter fog.

Here, the Frozen story comes alive on the water, with Anna, Elsa, Olaf, Kristoff, and Arendelle’s villagers. You’re a guest at the Snowflower Festival, the biggest tradition in the kingdom, while the characters perform favorite songs from the movie around a Viking ship that cruises along the dock. Singing along is welcome: join in on the Frozen songs with the characters if you feel like it, but there’s no pressure.