WDW Daily News

Check out some video from the Epcot International Festival of the Arts 2017.

There are three new reasons to tap your toes at Epcot. Fresh musical acts have been added to the lineup at the theme park’s World Showcase.

Full Story

The first-ever Epcot® International Festival of the Arts – a showcase of visual, culinary and performing arts from around the world – officially kicks off this weekend at Walt Disney World® Resort.

This new event will be held Fridays through Mondays Jan. 13 – Feb. 20, 2017. And, it will feature new art each week, showcasing celebrated work by Disney historical artists like Mary Blair and Herb Ryman. The event will also feature art being created live by artists like Joe Kaminski and Costa Alavezos.

Guests can enjoy the performing arts thanks to Disney Theatrical Productions, which will bring an exciting showcase of favorite music and Broadway talent to the America Gardens Theatre stage. Performances will be at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday through Monday of each festival weekend. Guests can expect to hear some phenomenal Broadway talent live, performing songs from some of Disney on Broadway’s award-winning shows, like ‪The Lion King‪, Newsies, and Aladdin.

New Food Studios will showcase culinary creations so delicious and intricate, guests may not know if the menus are for admiring or eating.

Plus, there will be hands-on experiences for the whole family, favorite Disney characters channeling their favorite artists, seminars and more.

The Epcot International Festival of the Arts is included with regular Epcot admission.

Beginning Jan. 13, 2017, guests can experience the ultimate cultural celebration as food, art and entertainment merge into an all-new event during the Epcot® International Festival of the Arts at Walt Disney World® Resort.

In collaboration with Disney Theatrical Productions, this new festival brings an exciting new showcase of favorite music and Broadway talent to the America Gardens Theatre stage. Throughout the six weekends of the festival, different pairings of phenomenal Broadway artists will perform songs from some of Disney on Broadway’s award winning shows.

We’re excited to share the lineup of performers for this brand new series:

• Jan. 13-16 and 20-23: Ashley Brown and Josh Strickland performing songs from: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid
• Jan. 27-30 and Feb. 3-6: Kerry Butler and Kevin Massey performing songs from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, Newsies and Aladdin
• Feb. 10-13 and 17-20: Kissy Simmons and Alton Fitzgerald White performing songs from Disney’s The Lion King, Aida, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid

Performances will be at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 8 p.m. Friday through Monday of each festival weekend.

The dining package includes a three-course meal or full buffet at participating Epcot restaurants and priority seating at the 8 p.m. concert. Prices range from $39-$69+ tax for adults, $23-$41+tax for children.

Also during the Festival, Future World Plaza will be filled with a variety of other visual and live performances including Epcot Living Statues, performances by Central Florida high schools and acclaimed university and college talent appearing through a partnership with Disney Performing Arts. Plus, Epcot’s American Music Machine will perform on the Future World Fountain Stage.

The festival runs Fridays through Mondays starting Jan. 13–Feb. 20, 2017.

Here’s something for guests to look forward to this year at Epcot® at Walt Disney World® Resort! In early 2017, your Clients will be able to visit Choza Tequila, an authentic outdoor tequileria, just outside of the Mexico pavilion. The menu will feature refreshing hand-crafted margaritas and classic Mexican cuisine like tacos, empanadas, chips and fresh guacamole.

Not only will guests be able to see, taste and listen to the best of the art world at the new Epcot® International Festival of the Arts, they’ll be able to bring out their inner artist with select experiences now available to book.

Over the six weekends of the festival, beginning Jan. 13, 2017 at Walt Disney World® Resort, guests can sign up for interactive workshops like the Gesture Drawing Class, led by former Disney animator Todd Bright. Gesture drawing of people is foundational practice for animators, storyboard artists, and directors. A single drawing tells a story. Todd’s Story Telling Drawings class will teach guests the art of quick sketching from life.

Other select workshops include watercolor painting, mixed media art, calligraphy and floral arrangements. The Interactive Workshops are $39+tax each Friday-Monday of the Festival.

Or, guests can book a meal and performance combo: a delicious breakfast, lunch or dinner, followed by a phenomenal Disney on Broadway inspired concert – nightly during the Festival from Jan. 13 – Feb. 20, 2017.

The concert series will pair Broadway talent with favorite songs from award-winning Disney shows such as “The Lion King,” “Newsies” and “Aladdin”. The Dining package includes a three-course meal or full buffet and priority seating at the 8:00 p.m. concert at participating Epcot restaurants. Prices range from $39-$69+ tax for adults, $23-$41+tax for children.

The festival runs Fridays through Mondays starting Jan. 13–Feb. 20, 2017.

Book one of these select experiences today by calling 407-WDW-PLAY.

Take a look at the topiaries around the entrance of Epcot for the Holiday Season.

 

 

Celebrating 24 years when it kicks off March 1, 2017, the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will jump-start spring with gardens of earthly delights plus new character topiaries, entertainers and food and drink offerings.

The festival, which expanded to 90 days in 2016, will open with an irresistible array of fresh surprises and new treats:

• Fresh, farm-market food and beverage flavors will debut at two new Outdoor Kitchens that will join 13 returning Outdoor Kitchens. Guest can sip and savor their way around Epcot, enjoying chef-inspired noshes and refreshing libations with or without a kick.
• The new generation of princess topiaries (Snow White, Anna and Elsa – the first to be designed and created with topiary facial features) will welcome a brand-new Belle topiary as fans remember her from the Oscar-winning Disney film, “Beauty and the Beast.” Located outside the France pavilion with the Beast topiary, Belle will come to life with sculpted facial features and her yellow ball gown created with golden blooming Joseph’s Coat plants.
• Another festival first will be a 6-foot-tall topiary of Figment, the feisty dragon mascot of the park’s Imagination! pavilion, perched atop a 5-foot-diameter ball fashioned from yellow Joseph’s Coat.
• The brand-new Epcot front-entrance topiary garden inspired by a vintage Walt Disney short film will spring to life with a floral-festooned maypole featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy and Pluto.
• The popular Garden Rocks concert series will expand to four days each week, with three concerts each Friday through Monday presenting pop musicians that span multiple genres over four decades.
• New Garden Rocks Dining Packages will be available on select days at a number of Epcot restaurants.
• Reimagined interactive play gardens will include a new take on the “Cars”-themed garden introducing a new character topiary from the June 2017 release of the Disney•Pixar sequel, “Cars 3.” Music Garden Melodies play area will return with new garden and topiary elements.
• For the first time, the event’s Festival Center will extend operating hours from Wednesday, March 1 through Sunday, March 5. Throughout the rest of the festival, the center will be open each Friday through Sunday with an entertaining mix of gardening seminars and DIY workshops.

One of the popular Outdoor Kitchen gardens, Urban Farm Eats, will return with savory bites, sweet treats and ideas for planting produce that can inspire growing numbers of guests who want to learn to grow their own edibles.

“A lot of people, including young children, are serious foodies now, and they have lots of questions about gardening,” says Eric Darden, festival horticulture manager. “We’re getting more and more people in their 20s and 30s asking, ‘How can I grow this?’ I think we’ll be creating more gardeners because people can see what’s possible.”

The 2017 festival forecast will be sunny with colorful floral bursts by day and a nighttime landscape aglow with twinkling lights:

• Topiaries of Donald Duck and nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie will share Future World space in front of Spaceship Earth with Chip and Dale for a “Fresh Epcot” selfie and family photo opportunity.
• Anna and Elsa topiaries will return to the Norway pavilion festival landscape in celebration of the park’s new Frozen Ever After Nearly 100 festival topiaries in all will include up to 70 character creations such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lady and the Tramp, Simba, Timon and Tinker Bell.
• Guests will encounter garden surprises and special appearances related to Earth Day and other spring activities.
• The Butterflies on the Go garden will return with the story of the Monarch’s epic journey across the continent and featuring butterflies emerging from their chrysalises.
• On the way to the new Soarin’ Around the World film at the Soarin’attraction in The Land pavilion, guests can discover gardens featuring edible flowers, plants that benefit health and healing, and a pollinator paradise.

 Dozens of Disney-crafted “flower towers” and beds of multi-colored blooms will transform the park’s landscape.  At least 70,000 bedding plants will surround the Future World east and west lakes alone; on the water, 220 mini-gardens will be set afloat.

For more information about the 24^th Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, call 407/W-DISNEY (934-7639).  As the festival nears, more details will be available at epcotinspring.com. The festival, including all gardening programs and exhibits, is included in regular Epcot admission.

Disney ‘s slowest-growing Florida theme park will be getting a makeover. Imagineers may be hard at work getting Pandora — The World of Avatar ready to open next summer at Animal Kingdom and breathing new life into Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Toy Story Land and Star Wars Land in the coming years, but Epcot appears to be the theme park giant’s next target for rejuvenation.

Full Story