Walt Disney World has revealed new particulars for the 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, together with a sneak peek on the Encanto topiaries and Orange Bird merchandise, plus full lists of the gardens and shows. We have all of that, plus commentary and ideas about this 12 months’s “Fresh EPCOT” occasion.
In case you’ve missed previous protection, this 12 months’s EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival will run from March 1 to July 5, 2023. Held for 127 days, it’s 2 days longer than the occasion has been for the final 2 years. Walt Disney World has prolonged each Flower & Garden and Food & Wine by round a month every in recent times, successfully bridging the hole between the 2. See our Ultimate Guide to the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival Guide for every part you want to know earlier than you go!
During the four-plus months of the 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, friends can discover lush gardens, pattern candy and savory bites with refreshing sips (for a payment, in fact!), and store new merchandise collections that includes Orange Bird, Snow White and Figment. Starting at sundown, a vibrant spectacle of sunshine might be proven on Spaceship Earth, with the Beacons of Magic returning for one more new show…
More than 200,000 bedding vegetation are added to the gardens of EPCOT for the Flower & Garden Festival, together with a further 60,000 bedding vegetation that create the long-lasting floral designs that make up the World Celebration East & West Lakes. The Dragon topiary, positioned within the Japan pavilion, consists of sun-loving succulent vegetation, including bursts of colours to the almost 20-foot-long show.
Because the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival might be celebrated throughout two seasons, plant shows may even evolve with the climate, making for true seasonal magnificence and element. Guests visiting throughout each spring and summer time months might even see new picks because the season adjustments. A mid-festival “refresh” has all the time occurred throughout the occasion, however it’s grow to be rather more pronounced in the previous few years.
Making their debut this 12 months, topiaries of Mirabel, Antonio, Isabela and Luisa from Disney Animation’s Academy Award-winning “Encanto” greet friends in the principle entrance of EPCOT. Each Encanto topiary options particulars impressed by every character, together with Isabela creating stunning flowers between her palms and an illuminated butterfly for Mirabel.
A brand new topiary of Princess Tiana from The Princess and The Frog graces the American Adventure in World Showcase that includes a surprising ball robe and illuminated fireflies. In the France pavilion, Lumiere and Cogsworth topiaries return with revolutionary new parts, together with lit candles for Lumiere and a working clock for Cogsworth.
Disney Horticulture and Walt Disney Imagineering labored collectively to design, construct and develop various topiary shows.
This course of started almost a 12 months in the past. Artists developed sketches, Imagineers designed 3D fashions, expert welders molded frames, and horticulture specialists selected plant supplies. Here’s a behind the scenes have a look at how that occurred:
Here’s the complete checklist of topiaries on the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festvail and the place you could find them:
- Encanto, Including Mirabel, Antonio, Isabela and Luisa – NEW!
Main Entrance - Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Chip, Dale and Pluto
Bridge to World Showcase and World Celebration - Woody, Bo Peep and Her Sheep
World Nature Near The Land Pavilion - Goofy
World Showcase - Tiana – NEW!
The American Adventure Pavilion - Buzz Lightyear
World Discovery Near Mission: SPACE - Donald and Daisy
Community Garden Near Connections Café in World Celebration - Figment
Near Imagination! - The Three Caballeros (Jose, Donald and Panchito)
Mexico Pavilion - Anna and Elsa
Norway Pavilion - Troll
Norway Pavilion - Dragon
Japan Pavilion Near Torii Gate - Pandas
China Pavilion - Simba and Friends (Rafiki, Simba, Mufasa and Sarabi)
Between Imagination! and The Land Pavilion - Pumbaa and Timon
Between Imagination! and The Land Pavilion - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Germany Pavilion - Lady and the Tramp
Italy Pavilion - Beauty and the Beast
France Pavilion - Lumiere and Cogsworth
France Pavilion - Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy
Between France and Morocco Pavilions - Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Tick Tock Croc
Between United Kingdom and Canada Pavilions - Winnie the Pooh and Friends (Rabbit, Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger)
United Kingdom Pavilion - Tinker Bell’s Fairy House Garden
United Kingdom Pavilion - Bambi and Friends
Near Imagination! and Refreshment Port - Geese
Canada Pavilion - Butterflies
Main Entrance, Scentsy Garden, Butterfly House and World Showcase
Walt Disney World has additionally launched new information about two new gardens which are debuting for the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival. First is the Community Garden in World Celebration. In this, friends can join with the earth and one another at this celebration of a various and thriving communal backyard plot.
Second, there’s Shishi-odoshi within the Japan Pavilion. This is a spot for quiet contemplation of the methodical motion and soothing rhythm of this conventional Japanese bamboo water fountain.
With greater than 15 Outdoor Kitchens positioned all through the park, friends can benefit from the freshest flavors as spring offers solution to summer time, together with greater than 50 new foods and drinks gadgets. Guests also can take a tasty tour by means of the gardens and discover EPCOT with Garden Graze, a contemporary meals stroll highlighting 11 scrumptious candy and savory plant-based choices – all listed within the Festival Passport.
We lined the FULL Outdoor Kitchen Food Booth Menus for the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival final week, so you’ll be able to see the entire choices there. If you ask me, this lineup sounds actually good, with extra promising dishes than we’ve seen at any EPCOT occasion shortly. I’m personally trying ahead to the shrimp scampi poutine (no joke) and can possible inadvertently be testing whether or not it’s suitable for eating a whole dish of that earlier than using Cosmic Rewind.
Also returning for the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival is the favored Garden Rocks Concert Series within the America Garden Theatre. Those performances function internationally acknowledged artists Friday by means of Monday and native Orlando expertise rocking the home Tuesday by means of Thursday. This 12 months’s lineup contains:
- Smash Mouth
- Blue Oyster Cult (New)
- The Pointer Sisters
- Luis Figueroa (New)
- Piso 21 (New)
- Switchfoot (New)
- AJ Croce (New)
- Casting Crowns (New)
- Jason Scheff (New)
- Plain White T’s
- Simple Plan
- And many others!
Dining packages for lunch and dinner can be found at eight EPCOT areas with assured seating on the Garden Rock Concert Series. See Garden Rocks Concerts at 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival: Dates, Lineup & Dining Packages for every part you want to know.
Personally, I’m holding out hope for Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken seem with Blue Oyster Cult as particular friends. I obtained a fever, and the one prescription is MORE COWBELL!
Speaking of contemporary additions to this 12 months’s competition, the merchandise collections will function new designs…with a blast from the previous. In specific, Orange Bird is the star of a brand new ‘70s-inspired collection that reminds me of my grandparents’ lounge. Just add some wooden paneling and shag carpet to that Spirit Jersey and it’d be proper on the cash!
In addition to that, there’s a Loungefly backpack, headband, a limited-edition Disney Munchling, CORKCICLE tumbler, and a bunch of different stuff. As a fan of Orange Bird, I actually recognize the character being included into extra designs, even when these aren’t for me. (Also, the colour decisions look extra like autumn than spring, however what do I find out about vogue…)
Finally, there’s the brand new Snow White assortment with a Dooney and Bourke bag, garden-inspired headband, and extra. There’s additionally a Figment Collection with Crocs and extra. Guests can go to Festival Markets, Odyssey, and Creations Shop to buy these collections whereas provides final.
Not to be a debbie downer or something, however I’d like to see extra regular Figment merchandise. Don’t get me incorrect, it’s cool to see the character represented on EPCOT occasion gadgets. However, there have been (actually) extra Figment “Dropping Beets” gadgets final 12 months than all common new Figment merchandise releases mixed.
No disrespect to the Dwights of the world, however as a bona fide beet-hater, there’s no means on earth I’m shopping for that stuff. I’m extra more likely to buy the Figment crossover with bears and Battlestar Galactica (talking of sci-fi, see the Stargate for a restricted time–earlier than it glows away endlessly after April 2, 2023!) than I’m a bunch of beets merchandise! Why launch so many area of interest merchandise however not simple crowd-pleasers for the imaginative carnivores who love Figment however hate gardening?!
Ultimately, the tentative lineup for the 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival sounds strong. We’re getting a brand new Encanto topiary show, which must be an ideal addition (nonetheless ready on an Encanto meet & greet over a 12 months later, although!). We’re getting a bunch of nice new and returning gadgets to the Outdoor Kitchens. We’re even (perhaps) getting extra cowbell courtesy of Blue Oyster Cult.
My solely grievance is absolutely in regards to the Figment facet of issues. What was added for this 12 months’s Festival of the Arts was an ideal begin, however I’d actually like to see Walt Disney World doing extra with Figment. I’m undoubtedly biased, however EPCOT’s festivals ought to incorporate the park’s unofficial mascot in additional substantive methods, which I believe in flip would assist promote much more Figment merchandise (…and in flip improve the chances of a brand new attraction!).
With the Figment meet & greet and new film across the nook–and the character clearly capable of transfer merchandise that isn’t about beets–now could be the time to enhance his presence. Figment is to EPCOT what Duffy is to Tokyo DisneySea–a license to print cash–however Disney simply doesn’t appear to appreciate it as a result of they’ve made an excessive amount of bizarre beets merchandise that hasn’t bought nicely. But I digress. We’re actually trying ahead to the 2023 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited to expertise the 2023 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, or will you be sitting this one out? Looking ahead to the brand new topiaries of Mirabel, Antonio, Isabela and Luisa from Encanto at EPCOT’s entrance? Excited for the return of the Garden Rocks live performance sequence? Any questions we may help you reply? Hearing suggestions about your experiences is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!