Mickey and friends celebrate 20 years

STARS turned out at Disneyland Paris to help celebrate 20 years since the attraction opened at Marne-la-Vallée - with footballer Zinedine Zidane and actress Salma Hayek leading the way.

Centrepiece of the 20th birthday celebrations for Mickey Mouse and friends is a new night-time spectacle, Disney Dreams, which covers Central Plaza, Sleeping Beauty Castle and Main Street.

It features fire and water effects, lasers, fireworks and other special effects with characters such as Peter Pan, Wendy and Tinker Bell, Mary Poppins, Rapunzel, Rémy from Ratatouille and Quasimodo.

Also there for the opening ceremony were film-maker Luc Besson, British singer Katie Melua, actor Jean Reno, round-the-world yachtswoman Maud Fontenoy and swimming champion Alain Bernard.

However, not present were around 150 striking Disneyland Paris workers who are involved in a pay dispute. One parade was cancelled for "safety" reasons on Friday. Managment and unions are to meet again on Wednesday.

The 900 hectare park - the full area owned by Disney is 1,943 hectares, which is one-fifth the area of Paris - has been visited by more than 160 million since it opened on April 12, 1992. Each year it has twice as many visitors as the Eiffel Tower.