The new Epcot International Festival of the Arts opens at Walt Disney World

January 13, 2017, 11:43 AM · Walt Disney World this morning opened the first of six weekends of its new Epcot International Festival of the Arts. Featuring visual, performing and culinary arts, the festival helps fill the gap on the calendar between Epcot's Food and Wine and Flower and Garden festivals. The festival runs Fridays through Mondays from now through Feb. 20.

The highlights? Well, that depends upon what you're into. Want to see Disney's Broadway stars performing some of their favorite songs? Head to the America Gardens Theatre in World Showcase. You'll find performances there at 5:30, 6:45, and 8pm each night of the festival. Mary Poppins' Ashley Brown and Tarzan's Josh Strickland are up this weekend.

Love the visual arts? You'll find visiting artists' work displayed throughout World Showcase. Or head over to the Odyssey Festival Showplace, where you'll find seminars on everything from cel painting to photography to watermelon carving.

That last one blurs the line with the culinary arts, which are represented by food booths throughout the park, serving 75 food and beverage items created by Disney's chefs for the festival. Many have a visual arts theme, including the "Pop’t Art" sugar cookies with chocolate hazelnut filling (i.e. Nutella), which look very much like a wildly decorated Pop-Tart. Or this...

Other food items include more "traditional" festival fare, such as flatbreads, sandwiches, charcuterie, seafood, craft beer, and wines. The festival is included with Epcot admission, though special workshops at the Odyssey and the food and drinks are extra charges.

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Replies (3)

January 13, 2017 at 1:28 PM · The savory cronuts look amazing at the link. I am going tomorrow and can't wait. I was drooling at some of the drink descriptions but here's hoping we don't have the usual drunk crowd of locals that they do at Food and Wine.
January 17, 2017 at 8:20 AM · It was packed on Saturday with long lines for the food and the "usual crowd of drunk locals" aka the UCDL. The plates were pretty small and the cronuts looked interesting but were tiny. Same type of prices as Food & Wine and unfortunately they just had to sing "that" song from Frozen. Gah!
January 20, 2017 at 6:04 AM · Waste of time

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