One of our favorite festivals at Epcot, the International Festival of the Arts, celebrating visual, culinary, and performing arts, may be wrapping up the fun for 2022, but now is the perfect time to start dreaming of 2023!
Did you know, once you enter Epcot your festival entrance is completely free? There are additional, immersive activities and concerts you can enjoy for no additional cost, food booths to sample fun and festive fare, all adding up to a fabulous festival! What happened in 2021? Throughout the festival, chefs showcased dishes inspired by art movements, visual masterpieces come to life and Broadway stars sang beloved show tunes in a celebration of performance art that's sure to captivate festivalgoers as only Disney can.
Among festival highlights: A guest favorite, the DISNEY ON BROADWAY Concert Series, presented three shows each evening of the festival. Broadway stars performed cherished songs from more than 25 years of award-winning stage productions. We booked individual dining packages to pair with concert performances, letting us savor & sip around the world at 15 Food Studios that served up creative international and domestic food and beverages to delight every palate. From Morocco to Canada and America, all-new dishes were artfully created with a presented feature on every menu.
We were able to lace up our sneakers for the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine, a fun food stroll highlighting five sweet and savory offerings listed in the Festival Passport. We collected all five passport stamps to qualify for a delectable Artist Palate Cookie. Yes! Dazzling art took center stage at the festival with must-see masterpieces by more than 100 Disney and visiting artists found throughout EPCOT.
We could even catch a glimpse of artists at work with a peek inside the Disney Artist Gallery or the WonderGround Gallery. At ground level, works of chalk artists were on display along the bridge to Showcase Plaza. The Showcase Plaza stage came alive with musical acts, a spectacle of thrilling strength with Art Defying Gravity and Visual Art in Performance, led by an artist who paints favorite Disney Characters in a matter of minutes.
Finally - of course, there was fun for all ages! Kids could create their own chalk art masterpieces at Kid's Chalk Art while families could leave their creative mark on a larger-than-life mural at Expression Section: A Paint by Numbers Mural. At Animation Academy, we learned from an animation artist how to draw a Disney Character.