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The prettiest festival of the year is underway at Epcot! The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival has expanded to run a full 90 days this year through June 3, 2019. New sights, sounds and flavors of spring will delight your senses with all the new and exciting offerings at this year’s Festival!
Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival is famous for its dozens of Disney-crafted topiaries and beds of multi-colored blooms. These beloved beauties are back, including nearly 70,000 festival blooms that surround the lakes in Future World along with hundreds of colorful mini-gardens will be set afloat on the waters.
What’s New in 2019:
- The popular Garden Rocks Concert Series will expand to every day of the festival, featuring chart-topping artists performing three shows daily on the America Gardens Theatre stage. That’s 270 concerts – more than ever before – spanning multiple genres. Returning favorites like The Spinners and Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone will be joined by artists new to the festival like TobyMac, Steven Curtis Chapman, Eddie Palmieri and Colin Hay of Men at Work.
- Creative new culinary dishes and four new Outdoor Kitchens debut this year, including Arbor at The Gardeners Terrace featuring unique food and beverage, interactive experiences and specialty merchandise. Guests can also enjoy the all-new Health Full Trail presented by AdventHealth featuring the new Flavor Full Kitchen, Play Full Garden playground experience and Mind Full Retreat decompression area where guests can relax and unwind.
- Guests of all ages will enjoy a fun playground and garden located at Bo Peep’s Training Grounds presented by Toy Story 4, where Bo Peep will join topiaries inspired by her Toy Story pals Buzz & Woody.
- Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration family scavenger hunt will be more fun than ever this year with new locations to discover along the garden pollination trail. Guests can also commemorate their scavenger hunt experience with select merchandise offerings featuring everyone’s favorite bee, Spike. Another guest favorite returning to the festival April 5-21 (while supplies last) is the Eggstravaganza Scavenger Hunt, where guests can search for Disney character-themed eggs around World Showcase.
- In celebration of Disneynature’s “Penguins,” opening April 17, a 9-foot-tall art sculpture made from recycled marine debris will be on display in Future World featuring adult and baby Adélie penguins. Created by the non-profit organization WashedAshore.org, this work of art is designed to inspire guests to keep the world’s oceans and waterways clear of plastic pollution.
Our Favorites:
We are very excited to once again enjoy the Goodness Garden Butterfly House presented by GoGo squeeZ, where nearly 1,000 native butterflies willfly among the garden’s two dozen nectar plants. It’s fun to get up close to the butterflies, and if you are lucky, one might even land on you for the perfect selfie moment!
If you’ve been to Epcot or any of its festivals, you know a big part of the fun is the FOOD! In addition to eating our way through all of the 17 Outdoor Kitchens, we will be seeking out several other Epcot food-and-beverage locations – including Taste Track and Refreshment Port – because they are also offering festival-themed eats and libations.
And, if you didn’t know, you can also can enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner at 15 popular Epcot restaurants and guaranteed seating for a nightly concert with a Garden Rocks Dining Package. This is a favorite way of ours to enjoy a lovely meal and save time by skipping the long line for the concert!
We love getting a peek behind the magic! Do you like learning about gardening or getting to see behind the scenes? If so, you might enjoy some of the guided tours that are also available during the Festival for an additional fee. In Behind the Seeds – The Land, you can explore the fish farm and four greenhouses that make up The Land at Epcot. Additionally, two guided experiences exclusive to the festival include:
- The Royal Tea Garden Tour, presented by Twinings, which takes place each festival morning at the United Kingdom. For a small fee, guests can follow a knowledgeable guide through the tranquil tea garden setting to learn the history and artistry behind growing and blending tea. A post-tour treat of tea and scones is included. The shorter, complimentary English Tea Garden Tour also will be offered on select days.
- During the Gardens of the World tour, guests will join a Disney horticulturist for a three-hour walking tour to explore the award-winning topiaries and gardens that make the festival so special. Guests will learn about the unique role landscaping plays at Walt Disney World and discover new plant materials and gardening techniques to use for home gardens.
No festival visit is complete without a souvenir, right? As always, you can also commemorate your visit to the 2019 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival with official event merchandise. This year, there’s an array of whimsical apparel and headwear designed to capture the splendor of spring, garden tools and accessories, and magical Disney keepsakes to adorn your homes and gardens. We can’t wait to get our hands on the new Violet Lemonade Minnie ears!
Check out our video from the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.
Will you visit the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival this year?
