A night parade is in the works to be revived in Sacramento, more than 115 years after the spectacle lit up city streets to celebrate what was said to be the world's first long-distance electric power transmission.

The parade was first held Sept. 9, 1895, during a Grand Electric Carnival that heralded the arrival of electric power in Sacramento. Sacramento's electric carnival parade was so beautiful that Walt Disney Co. later used it as a model for its Electric Light Parade.

The Old Sacramento Business Association is working to revive the night parade during winter holiday festivities in 2011. The plan is to recreate the parade to expand the seasonal celebration and to play up the city's history as the birthplace of many innovations, said Melissa Martinez, executive director of the business association, a business improvement district.

"We were so innovative and we were so at the forefront," she said. "Somehow we've become sleepy. We're not looked at as the city that's dynamic and innovative — and yet everything we are was based on that."

The Grand Electric Carnival was held two months after electricity had first come to the capital 22 miles away from Folsom, where Folsom Dam had been completed in 1893. Until then, electricity hadn't been transmitted more than five miles.

The Sacramento Bee ran a story about the feat, and later, the electric carnival. "The Lightning Blazed," ran the headline, "And Flooded Sacramento's Streets With Lakes of Liquid Fire. A Glorious Dawning, Then Glowed the Sunlight of an Aurora of Progress and Prosperity."

The electric carnival was held for two days during the 1895 state fair to ensure the entire state knew. So many light bulbs outlined the state Capitol and filled Capitol Park trees that the light could be seen for 50 miles.

The highlight was a parade of sparkling floats on streetcars that glided on luminous downtown streets.

"They realized that the best way to celebrate it was during the state fair, because they could bring as many visitors as possible to witness this first transmission of electricity," said Martinez. "The Grand Electric Carnival was one big party. It was 48 hours of just craziness."

So many people came, that residents rented out beds in their homes, she added.

The Grand Electric Carnival has inspired a Carnival of Lights being held this year in two places: Old Sacramento, which will host a Theatre of Lights, and downtown, primarily at St. Rose of Lima Park at Seventh and K Streets. www.sacramentopress.com/headline/11032 The event will be expanded each year. The night parade is expected to be added in two years.

Floats in the original parade were sponsored by local companies. The modern-day electric night parade is expected to include sparkling horse-drawn carriages, business-sponsored floats and community residents.

"Anything's a possibility," Martinez said. "I think it's something everybody could get involved with."

Artifacts courtesy of the Sacramento Public Library's Sacramento Room. Photos by Suzanne Hurt, a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.