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Dixieland Band Stand
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The Dixieland Band Stand is part of the shoreline.
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The Dixieland Band Stand is on the Rivers of America waterfront.
It’s across from New Orleans Street, the Frontierland “neighborhood” with wrought iron balconies.
There you’ll also find Don DeFore’s Silver Banjo Barbecue Restaurant.
New Orleans Street is not the same as New Orleans Square.
New Orleans Street and the Dixieland Band Stand are older than New Orleans Square, which opened in 1966.
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Listen to the Disneyland Strawhatters at 2:00, 3:00, 3:45, and 4:30 p.m.
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The Dixieland Band Stand is the home of the Disneyland Strawhatters, a Dixieland jazz combo whose members—not surprisingly—wear straw hats.
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Enjoy a snack at an outdoor table while you listen to the music.
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The Strawhatters might change the rest of their wardrobe—but not their straw hats.
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When it’s not being used as a concert location, you can enjoy this structure as a pleasant, shaded gazebo, with great views of the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island across the water.
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Get a front row seat for the Disneyland Strawhatters.
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The Dixieland Band Stand in Frontierland was one of the park’s original features when Disneyland opened in 1955.
In the 1961 edition of Walt Disney’s Guide to Disneyland, a caption next to a photo of the Strawhatters in front of the Dixieland Band Stand reads, “The ‘Strawhatters’ fill the air along Frontierland’s Rivers of America with lilting Dixieland refrains.”
However, the end was near for the waterfront Dixieland Band Stand by 1961.
The waterfront area where Adventureland met Frontierland was reconfigured when construction began on New Orleans Square.
The Dixieland Band Stand disappeared and did not return to Frontierland.
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Here’s the Frontierland waterfront in 2004. There’s no bandstand.
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The tradition of Dixieland Music didn’t disappear with the original Dixieland Band Stand.
Each fall from 1960 through 1970, Disneyland held a Dixieland at Disneyland event with many legendary performers, including Louis Armstrong.
After New Orleans Square opened in 1966, the sounds of live Dixieland jazz and other jazz could often be heard in its streets and outdoor cafés.
There’s even a bandstand at the French Market Restaurant.
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Here’s the bandstand at the French Market Restaurant, New Orleans Square, in 2005.
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© 2007 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks
Updated April 25, 2008.
Five historic photos (1956-1959) of the Dixieland Band Stand: by Charles R. Lympany and Frank T. Taylor, courtesy of Chris Taylor.
Photo of former site of Dixieland Band Stand: by Allen Huffman, 2004.
Photo of the French Market Restaurant bandstand: by Allen Huffman, 2005.
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