Flower and Garden Festival 2023 - PREP 347

The 2023 Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival spans more than 120 days. We were at the opening days of the festival to check out every topiary, garden, merchandise product, scavenger hunt and ate and drank every item at the outdoor kitchens. Shannon highlights the good – and not so good – in this episode, so you can strategically plan your food and drink to maximize your time and money.

In this article

Flower and Garden Festival Basics

This is a longer festival at Epcot and runs from March 1-July 5, 2023. If you are going to travel anytime during those months, it is important to know how to plan your trip even if you do not plan to do all of the festival offerings.

Topiaries and Exhibits

The festival has food, exhibits, and entertainment focused on gardening. The topiaries are everywhere throughout Epcot. The most beautiful are the Encanto topiary at the entrance of the park. If you are interested in seeing all of the topiaries, be sure to check out our Flower and Garden Festival Topiary Map.

There are also lots of gardens and exhibits. Our favorite is the floating gardens near the Imagination Pavilion. The gardens are especially vibrant this year.

Also in this area you will find a butterfly house. Winnie the Pooh does appearances on the lawn right by the butterfly house, which is especially cute.

Scavenger Hunts and PhotoPass Magic Shots

The Scavenger Hunt for the festival is called Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration Scavenger Hunt. You can purchase the scavenger hunt for $9.99 at several Epcot shops. Once you find Spike in all of the location, you can turn it in for a prize.

There is also a limited time Easter scavenger hunt. This Egg-stravaganza scavenger hunt begins March 13th. It also is $9.99. When you find all of the Disney Characters on Easter Eggs, you can turn it in for a prize.

You will also find Flower and Garden Festival collection merchandise and this year it is very cute! You’ll find Orange Bird, Snow White, Figment, and Annual Passholder collections.

There are some exclusive Magic Shots just for Flower and Garden Festival.

Our tip is when you stop at a PhotoPass photographer, let them know you’d like all of the Magic Shots.

Entertainment

The entertainment for this festival is called Garden Rocks Concert Series. There are bands that perform three times a night at the American Gardens Theatre. There are dining packages available but we don’t think those are necessary. If you arrive about 30 minutes prior to the show, you can get in line for a seat.

The nighttime entertainment on Spaceship Earth is Encanto themed for the festival. It’s beautiful and goes with the topiaries at the front of the park.

Food Booths

The Good

We experienced each food booth and ate 150 items of food and drinks. I will not go through each item, but I will highlight the best and worst.

One of my favorite booth is Farmer’s Feast. They have a rotating menu and we’ve always liked everything we’ve had each year. It is located near Test Track.

We enjoyed the items on the first menu and will try the next menu when it is available.

Also in this area is BrunchCot and we enjoyed this a lot as well. Any of. the food items and cold brew were our favorites.

Citrus Blossom is inside the Odyssey building. This booth has the Orange Bird sipper, making it very popular. We really loved the Shrimp Tempura, Lemon Meringue, and we loved the UFO Citrus Hazy Wheat beer.

Jardin de Fiestas is the food booth in the Mexico Pavilion. There were some good and not so good options. The prices and portions on the food were really good. The beer was also very good.

Northern Bloom is in the Canada Pavilion. We loved the beer and the cake. Last year we loved the savory items and this year we didn’t. We hope that it was just a bad day and they will improve.

Trowel & Trellis is near Refreshment Port and it’s hard to go wrong at this booth. This is a vegetarian booth with great flavors and portions.

Our first stop is often the booth in France: Fleur de Lys because the lines can get long – with good reason! We love the savory items and the beer especially at this booth.

La Isla Fresca is in the Morocco Pavilion and we love everything here! We loved it last year and again this year. It is right next to Tangierine Cafe, making it a great location!

Tangierine Cafe is another fantastic booth. We love the food and ciders. There is limited indoor seating and outdoor covered seating, which is wonderful.

The American Pavilion has another great option: Magnolia Terrace. We love the panini and bread pudding especially.

In Germany, we love the Bauernmarkt booth. We loved everything here except for one thing – savory and sweet – with one exception.

The Bad

These are the items we’d avoid and encourage you to avoid them as well!

Bauernmarkt had favorite items, but we did not line the wine here. It was bad last year and we really didn’t like it this year as well.

Refreshment Port has poutine and while we like the traditional poutine, the other items are not good. It is not very appetizing.

Lotus House is in China and while we want to like it, we have disliked it each year. There is much better food to enjoy – this one is not worth the price.

Our very least favorite booth is the Primavera booth in Italy. This is by far the most expensive booth and also our least favorite. In addition to not tasting good, the drinks are not labeled with brand or details. This is definitely worth skipping.

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