Designed by Imagineers, and located on the outskirts of Walt Disney World, the town of Celebration, Florida welcomed its first residents on 18th June, 1996.

Over 5,000 families had applied to be amongst the first ever homeowners to reside, full-time, in the grounds of a theme park. Conceptually, the town was a mash-up of the wistful nostalgia that inspired the designs of Disneyland’s original Main St, USA and Disney’s ‘utopian city of tomorrow’ vision (which, eventually, manifested as EPCOT).

In this episode, Olly, Rebecca and Arion consider the restrictions of living in a New Urbanist community; ask why the town remains over 90% white; and wonder whether anyone really needs singing bins…

Further Reading:

• Disney fan-site ‘Inside The Magic’ on Walt’s ‘Florida Project’: https://insidethemagic.net/2021/01/walts-disney-florida-project-lp1/

• Insider takes a tour of modern-day Celebration (2020): https://www.insider.com/what-it-is-like-to-live-in-celebration-florida-2020-1

• ‘Celebration: the creepy real life town Disney built in Florida’ (news.com.au, 2019):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCko6cVniEw

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026.

This episode originally aired in 2021.

#90s #Strange #US

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