2023 Guide to the Festival of the Arts at Epcot

Disney’s Festival of the Arts is back for 2023, and we couldn’t be more excited!

Held from January 13 – February 20, 2023, this celebration of art is the perfect bridge between the decorations of the Festival of the Holidays and the bright florals that the Flower and Garden Festival bring.

Here’s a guide to when it is, what you can do, and how to best experience it.

What is the Epcot International Festival of the Arts?

With nearly year-round festivals, you may be wondering what makes the Epcot International Festival of the Arts unique or worth checking out on your next visit.

The answer is lots.

The Epcot International Festival of the Arts is a celebration of the visual, culinary, and performing arts.

It’s packed full of things to see and do and taste and experience, and the wide variety of offerings is what makes this festival unique.

It’s also why it is quickly becoming a favorite of guests (and us!).

In fact, about the only thing we don’t like about this festival is how short it is!

With only about 5 1/2 weeks of fun, you’ll have to be quick if you want to check it out.

Below, you’ll see exactly what you can expect to find if you attend.

How much does it cost?

Attending the festival is free with Epcot admission, but some events are an extra charge.

When is it?

Aside from the beautiful art you’ll find during the festival, you are also very likely to find beautiful weather, too.

Festival of the Arts is held in January and February. This year it will be held January 13 – February 20, 2023.

Even though winter in Florida isn’t typically cold, it is definitely cooler than the summer. That makes it that much easier to stroll through the park, taking in all the sights, sounds, and tastes.

Festival of the Arts Map

Map

Here’s the map for the 2022 International Festival of the Arts. We will update with the 2023 map as soon as it is available.

What exactly takes place during the festival?

The focus for this festival is all about the arts, with offerings broken up into 3 categories: Culinary Arts, Performing Arts, and Visual Arts.

Here’s what you can find for each:

Culinary Arts

Food *is* art, and for this festival, the chefs of Epcot create visual masterpieces that are both a feast for the eyes and the stomach!

In 2023, there are 16 food booths (or Food Studios as Disney likes to call them), including 2 new ones: Moderne and Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey.

Food booths (AKA Food Studios) & Menus

Here is the full list of booths for 2023:

• The Artist’s Table (American Adventure): Treat your senses to artistically elevated comfort foods—like meatloaf, dumplings, hummingbird cake and more. Pair your dish with beer or a glass of wine.
• The Craftsman’s Courtyard (Near Disney Traders): Enjoy carefully crafted classics, like beef Wellington and roasted mussels—as well as a flavorful beer or cocktail.
• Deco Delights (Near Port of Entry): Satisfy your sweet tooth with sleek desserts inspired by Art Deco, from the gilded glamour of the roaring 20’s to the bright pastels of Miami Beach.
• The Deconstructed Dish (Near Port of Entry): Rediscover your favorite dishes fragmented and presented in a playful way—like a BLT, French onion soup and key lime pie.
• El Artista Hambriento (Mexico): A fiesta of flavor awaits! Delight in classic Mexican fare—from savory carne asada to creamy coconut flan.
• Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey: Art, Food and Little Sparks of Magic – NEW!: Sweeten your day with colorful treats, like fruit pizza, rainbow cake and the Pop’t Art—a sugar cookie with a fun twist. You’ll also find a variety of beers and hard ciders.
• Goshiki (Japan): Celebrate the Japanese culinary arts with delectable dishes featuring “the 5 colors” of Japanese cuisine. Highlights include sushi donuts, daifuku mochi and sake.
• Gourmet Landscapes (Canada): Savor stunning dishes artfully composed with the finest ingredients that have been farmed and foraged from the land. Enjoy wild mushroom risotto, beet tartare and more.
• L’Art de la Cuisine Francaise (France): Discover delicious French treats and baked goods, from savory to sweet—including a black winter truffle croissant and warm brie in a bread bowl. Pair your dish with a French wine or frozen martini.
• L’Arte di Mangiare (Italy): Indulge in Baroque cuisine, prepared with rich color and dramatic flavor. This food studio serves up fried mozzarella, ravioli and more.
• Moderne (Near Test Track Presented by Chevrolet®)- NEW!: Embark on a culinary journey with avant-garde menu items, including compressed watermelon, soft-shell crab and more.
• The Painted Panda (China): Enjoy decorative cuisine inspired by magnificent Chinese art, like General Tso’s chicken shumai or the char siu pork bun. Plus, sip bubble tea, Chinese-inspired cocktails and other refreshing beverages.
• Pastoral Palate (Germany): Help yourself to hearty dishes inspired by the rustic settings where Bavarian Folk Art was painted. Indulge in wild boar cassoulet, a red wine-braised beef short rib and more.
• Pop Eats (Near Port of Entry): Delight in mouthwatering masterpieces inspired by the most captivating Pop Art of the 20th century. Highlights include tomato soup with grilled cheese, as well as the colorful almond frangipane cake.
• Tangierine Café: Flavors of the Medina (Morocco): Take your taste buds on a Moroccan adventure as you enjoy delectable dishes like grilled kebabs, almond phyllo pockets and more. Pair your dish with hard cider or the chai tea mint mimosa.
• Vibrante & Vívido: Encanto Cocina (Between Morocco & France): Feast on authentic Colombian cuisine inspired by the Disney animated film Encanto—like spicy ajiaco soup or a house-made empanada with chorizo.

In addition to the booths above, you can also find festival treats at the following locations:

• Refreshment Port (near Canada): Serving poutine, the Artist Palette Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie and refreshing beverages
• Refreshment Outpost: Serving plant-based bratwurst, the Artist Palette Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie and assorted beers
• Funnel Cake: Serving a specialty funnel cake
• Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea Company (all 4 in-park locations): Serving a unique art-inspired beverage at each location
• Connections Café: Serving a Figment liege waffle
• Connections Eatery: Serving a fun blueberry vodka cocktail with cotton candy

Though all Epcot festivals feature food booths, there’s special attention paid to the food presentation at Festival of the Arts. Almost too pretty to eat!

Like this Artist Palette Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is served with a paintbrush, so you can “paint” with your frosting:

To help you keep track of what is available, you can pick up free maps and festival Passports at any food kiosk. You can also find electronic listings of menus in the My Disney Experience app.

Festival of the Arts Gift Cards

Like with the other festivals, Disney offers cute gift cards that fit around your wrist. These can be handy if you want to stick to a wine or snack budget (which is something we always do).

Just kidding. I’m sure they are handy for that, but we don’t participate in hateful things like “wine budgets.”

One of the complaints we have with the Food and Wine Festival is how tricky it can be to eat while standing and holding your flight of beer or glass of wine.

Because January and February are typically slower times of the year, that makes finding a place to sit and enjoy your food and drinks at the Festival of the Arts a little bit easier, which is a definite win in our book.

Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine

If you love sampling goodies at the Epcot festivals, you can’t go wrong with participating in this fun addition.

Much like the Cookie Stroll found during the Festival of the Holidays, the Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine offers guests an exclusive culinary prize for trying 5 vibrant food items (and getting 5 stamps in your festival passport!).

Here are what you needed to collect for 2023 (at least 5 of the 7):

• Gourmet Landscapes – Red Stamp: Blood Orange-Braised Beet Tartare with Mustard Vinaigrette, Pickled Clamshell Mushrooms and Golden Beets
• Moderne (NEW) – Orange Stamp: Pan-Seared Scallops with Vanilla-Butternut Squash Purée, Brown Butter Cauliflower Purée and Lime Foam
• Vibrante & Vivido: Encanto Cocina – Yellow Stamp: Chorizo and Potato Empanada with Turmeric Aïoli and Annatto Aïoli
• The Deconstructed Dish – Green Stamp: Deconstructed Key Lime Pie: Flexible Key Lime Curd, “Key Lime” Mousse, Graham Cracker Cake and Meringues
• Deco Delights – Blue Stamp: Orange Mousse with Lemon Cake and Raspberry Meringues
• Pop Eats – Indigo Stamp: Almond Frangipane Cake layered with Raspberry Jam and Belgian Chocolate
• Figment’s Inspiration Station at the Odyssey: Art, Food and Little Sparks of Magic (NEW) – Violet Stamp: Pop’t Art: Sugar Cookie with Blueberry Filling

And the best part is, you don’t have to do it all in 1 day. As long as you finish by the last day of the festival, you can snag the prize!

VIDEO: Why Festival of the Arts is our Fave

Figment Popcorn Bucket

The insanely popular Figment popcorn bucket is back for 2023.

But, good news! No need to wait in line this year. You can purchase the popcorn bucket via Mobile Order in the My Disney Experience app.

When ordering through the app, look for a location called “EPCOT Souvenir Release.” From there, select your return time and complete your purchase. The popcorn bucket costs $25 and is limited to 2 buckets per Disney account.

When you are notified that your order is ready, return to the pickup location inside of the Odyssey building (currently home to the Inspiration Station booth) to retrieve your bucket. You will be assigned a pickup window number that you can locate once at the pickup station.

Performing Arts

What would an Epcot festival be without entertainment? Here’s what you can find at this year’s Festival of the Arts:

Disney on Broadway

One of the highlights of Festival of the Arts is the Disney on Broadway concert series at the American Garden Theatre, which is located at The American Adventure pavilion in the World Showcase.

We’ve seen some fantastic artists during these concerts.

Every pair of artists performs a different set list based on the shows they’ve participated in, plus a sprinkling of a few other songs from Disney’s Broadway shows.

We’ve found that not every show is equal. Some artists focused on signature songs from shows, while others stuck to some of the lesser-known numbers.

If your trip lands on dates where you can see multiple shows with different performers (they rotate every couple of days), we recommend trying to do that.

During this time of the year, the smaller crowds mean that it is a lot easier to find a seat for one of these concerts than it is for things like the Candlelight Processional during the holidays.

If you don’t care about how good your seat is, you can likely walk up and grab a spot shortly before the show starts.

For guests that want to be up closer, we recommend lining up 30–45 minutes early, or, for a truly up-close experience, consider one of the dining packages (more on those below).

In 2023, the Disney on Broadway Concert Series runs daily (at 5:30, 6:45, & 8 p.m.) at the American Garden Theatre.

Here’s the full lineup for 2023. Note that the last concert is special in that it showcases 4 performers instead of the usual 2:

• Jan. 13, 15, 16, 19, 20
  • Kara Lindsay (“Newsies”) & Kevin Massey (“Tarzan”)
• Jan. 14, 17, 18, 21, 22
  • Arielle Jacobs (“Aladdin”) & Adam Jacobs (“Aladdin”)
• Jan. 23, 25, 26, 29, 30, Feb. 2, 3
  • Patti Murin (“Frozen”) & Robert Creighton (“Frozen”)
• Jan. 24, 27, 28, 31, Feb. 1, 4, 5
  • Mandy Gonzalez (“AIDA”) & L. Steven Taylor (“The Lion King”)
• Feb. 7, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19
  • Kissy Simmons (“The Lion King”) & Josh Strickland (“Tarzan”)
• Feb. 6, 8, 9, 12, 13, 16, 17
  • Ashley Brown (“Mary Poppins”) & Michael James Scott (“Aladdin”)
• Feb. 20
  • Special, extended finale performance featuring Brown, Scott, Simmons & Strickland

Disney on Broadway Concert Series Dining Packages

If you want a guaranteed seat without having to get there too early, you can do a Dining Package. Reservations for the 2023 Dining Packages opened up on December 13.

Here’s how they work:

Dining Packages give you priority seating at one of the concerts, although, for most concerts, they are not necessary.

The seating for these packages are in the very first few rows of the theater. Unless you want the very front-row center, there isn’t any need to line up early.

The following prices exclude tax and gratuity.

Visual Art in Performance

If you love visual arts, this performance is for you!

Here’s how Disney describes it:

Behold a high-energy, on-stage performance by a guest visual artist painting favorite Disney characters. In just minutes, colorful Disney images magically appear before your eyes.

The 2023 featured artists include:

Trevor Carlton

• January 14 to January 17
• February 3 to February 6
• February 10 to February 13
• February 17 to February 21

Stephen Fishwick

• January 27 to January 30

Trevor Carlton & Stephen Fishwick in a Dueling Artist Format

• January 20 to January 23

This experience takes place in World Showcase Plaza, Thursday through Sunday and on select Mondays during the Festival.

You can find daily showtimes in the My Disney Experience app.

Art Defying Gravity

Witness incredible displays of strength, grace, acrobatics and agility.

Performances take place in World Showcase Plaza, Saturday through Wednesday during the Festival.

You can check the My Disney Experience app for showtimes.

Visual Arts

With over 100 artists, plus fun photo ops and opportunities to create your own art, there is plenty to see and do.

Photo ops

These fun life-sized paintings are always a hit.

Inside each painting, you’ll find a tip sheet that tells you how you should pose. 

Be on the lookout for these Artful Photo Ops

Here are the photo ops available for 2023:

• Mexico Pavilion: Homage to Frida Kahlo
• Between Italy and Germany: Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci)
• Between Italy and Germany: The Scream (Edvard Munch)
• The American Adventure Pavilion: Washington Crossing the Delaware (Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze)
• International Gateway: Luncheon of the Boating Party (Pierre-Auguste Renoir)
• Bridge to World Showcase: Peter Pan Storybook
• Italy Pavilion courtyard: Birth of Venus (Sandro Botticelli)
• Bridge to World Showcase: Café Terrace at Night and Sunflowers (Vincent van Gogh)

Magic Shots

There are also a bunch of fun, brightly-themed PhotoPass options this year at Festival of the Arts. And, yes, many feature Figment.

Figment Magic Shots

• Figment Wings: Most Disney PhotoPass locations in Epcot
• Figment Chalk Art: At the main park entrance and near the entrance to World Showcase under the Monorail beam
• Figment Flying: Most Disney PhotoPass locations in Epcot

Tiny World Magic Shot: Festival of the Arts Edition

• Available at the main park entrance during daytime and after dark

Paintbrush Prop + Magic Shot

• Find after 6 p.m. at the main park entrance

Pixel Stick

• Find after the sunsets near the Creations Shop on the pathway to World Showcase

Chalk art

You’ll once again be able to find artists around the World Showcase creating masterpieces out of chalk.

Both 2D and 3D pieces are available to see.

Kids can join in on the fun by leaving their own chalk masterpieces from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm at Kid’s Chalk Art, which is offered at the bridge to World Showcase Plaza.

Paint-by-Number Mural

Back for 2023 is the giant, paint-by-number mural.

If you have “add some graffiti to a wall in Epcot” on your bucket list, this experience is for you!

Ok, this isn’t graffiti, BUT it is an interactive experience that lets you help create a work of art large enough for all to see.

And, don’t be afraid that it will be all filled in before you get a chance to help.

Disney resets it with a blank one regularly.

You can find it in World Nature on the walkway from the Imagination! pavilion toward Test Track from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Figment’s Brush with the Masters

We are team “love a good scavenger hunt” and Festival of the Arts gets its very own Figment-themed version.

This fun scavenger hunt takes guests on a World Showcase tour while teaching you all about art.

Every time you find the Figment-themed picture frame, add the corresponding sticker to the pavilion on your map. Once completed, return your map to Disney Traders or World Traveler for an artful surprise.

The map costs $9.99 plus tax. You can pick it up at Port of Entry, Creations Shop, World Traveler, or Pin Traders – Camera Center.

Artist Booths

With over 100 artists stationed throughout the park, there is a lot of fantastic art to see. You can check out the 2023 artist appearance schedule here.

And this isn’t just paintings and sketches.

There are tons of different things!

You can even make your own art, like at this Spin Art booth:

There’s something for just about every taste and style available to look at and purchase.

Animation Academy 

Animation Academy is a popular experience that used to take place at Hollywood Studios and currently is held daily at Animal Kingdom, but Disney also brings it to Epcot for Festival of the Arts.

You can draw Disney characters with help from a real animation artist at the America Gardens Theatre. The step-by-step session includes an artist’s board, paper, and a pencil.

Stop by America Gardens Theatre at 12:30 pm and 1:30 pm daily for a session with one of these artists:

• Will Gay
• Lon Smart
• Ron Cohee
• Matthew Dewater
• Brian Blackmore
• Sarah Schmidt
• David Holbrook
• Michael Montgomery
• Alex Maher
• Andy Quiles

These mini-workshops are led by animation artists that teach you how to draw a Disney character.

Note: These classes are fast-paced and probably not ideal for small children.

When you’re done, you’ll be left with a fun souvenir to take home. 

These sessions can be very popular, so we recommend lining up about 30 minutes before your desired session.

Drawing on Inspiration

If you love classic Epcot attractions and gorgeous art, definitely take a look at this display where you’ll find side-by-side pieces of artwork completed by two Disney Imagineers:

You can find this on the walkway from World Nature (near the Imagination! pavilion) to the World Showcase.

Face Painting

At the face painting station near Refreshment Outpost in World Showcase, you can special art inspired face painting options for the festival.

Prices start at $25 for the artsy designs.

Merchandise

Fun (and CUTE!) Festival of the Arts merchandise can be found throughout the park.

The majority of merchandise is inspired by Figment and features rainbows of color. Items can be purchased at the festival, with some items also available on Shop Disney.

The festival merchandise this year includes passholder exclusive tees, spirit jerseys, limited edition MagicBands, tumblers, and many more items.

You can even find this adorable limited edition Fruity Fig Bar Figment Disney Munchlings.

How to Plan Your Time

Since this festival takes place at a time of year that has fantastically mild temps, it’s fairly easy (and comfortable) to fit it into an afternoon and evening if you’d like to spend the morning touring attractions or have a late arrival.

You’ll find that the seminars and workshops are busier on the weekends, as this festival has quickly become quite popular with the locals. So, if you can do a weekday, we highly recommend you do that.

Historical Festival of the Arts Information

There are a few things that Disney used to do for Festival of the Arts that we haven’t seen for several years. And while we don’t anticipate that they will make a return in 2023, we are keeping the information here just in case.

Workshops and seminars (not returning for 2023)

Typically there is a mix of workshops and seminars available during Festival of the Arts. Some are complimentary, and some cost extra.

Get the complete schedule, details, and pricing info on the Disney World site.

Here’s a few highlights from previous years:

• Ink & Paint Animation program will let participants learn about 2D Cel Animation and paint their own Ink & Paint Cel with a Disney Ink & Paint artist*
• Workshops that cover a wide variety of artistic skills such as 3D paper crafting, animation, mixed-media art, plus more*
• Seminars on creating your own works of art

* additional fee to participate

Living Statues (not returning for 2023)

Putting a whole new spin on “rock-hard abs,” these living statues definitely made you look twice. But, although they were fun to see, they haven’t returned for several years.

*********************************

What questions or other info do you have about the Festival of the Arts?

Please share in the comments.

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With 15+ years planning Disney World trips, Heather joined WDW Prep in 2014 to help others plan for their own families. As the WDW Prep Editor, she travels monthly to stay current and has helped propel the site to millions of views per year. Email Heather

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