Garden Rocks Concerts return to the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival starting in March at Walt Disney World. This post covers the current lineup of bands and musicians, whether the dining package is worth the money, dates of the performances, and everything else you need to know. (Updated January 26, 2025.)
Let’s start with the basics. The EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival starts March 5 and runs until June 2, 2025. The Garden Rocks Concert Series will offer internationally recognized artists along with local Orlando talent at the America Gardens Theater. The concerts are included with EPCOT admission, and typically take place three times per evening, at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m.
During the Garden Rocks Concert Series, popular bands from the 60s and 70s–the grooviest, flower-filled decades–and beyond perform some of their greatest hits for the Flower & Garden Festival crowds. Garden Rocks Dining Packages are also available, allowing guests to enjoy a leisurely meal at 15 different EPCOT restaurants plus guaranteed seating to one of the concert performances that evening.
Here’s the schedule of the 2025 Garden Rocks Concert Series during the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival:
- March 7-8, 2025 – Tommy DeCarlo, former lead singer of Boston
- March 9-10, 2025 – Air Supply – 50th Anniversary Celebration
- March 14-15, 2025 – Blue October
- March 16-17, 2025 – Rick Springfield
- March 21-22, 2025 – Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone
- March 23-24, 2025 – 38 Special
- March 28-29, 2025 – Jason Scheff, singer of Chicago
This is only the “first crop” of performers harvested for the Garden Rocks Concert Series according to Walt Disney World. Expect the lineups for April, May, and early June 2025 to be released soon. We’ll update this accordingly once they’re available.
Garden Rocks Dining Packages are only offered Friday to Monday during the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival.
Walt Disney World guests who purchase the Garden Rocks Dining Package will receive concert badges at the restaurant after their meal. The badge will specify the date and show time they have reserved. Guests with the Dining Package will enter America Gardens Theatre in a separate queue and will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is guaranteed.
Choose from a variety of EPCOT eateries that offer Garden Rocks Dining Packages. Here’s what’s included with your meal:
- At Spice Road Table: 2 small plates, a shared tagine, a shared dessert platter and a nonalcoholic beverage (or alcoholic beverage for Guests 21 and older)
- At Other Participating Restaurants: An entrée and dessert, or one full buffet (where applicable)—as well as a nonalcoholic beverage (or alcoholic beverage for Guests 21 and older)
Plus, you’ll get one (1) guaranteed seat per person to one Garden Rocks concert on the same day.
Explore participating restaurants and dining package prices, which exclude tax and gratuity:
| Adult (ages 10 and up) |
Child (ages 3 to 9) |
|
|---|---|---|
| Biergarten Restaurant Germany Pavilion |
$66.00 | $35.00 |
| Chefs de France France Pavilion |
$69.00 | $34.00 |
| Coral Reef Restaurant The Living Seas |
$73.00 | $29.00 |
| Garden Grill Restaurant The Land Pavilion |
$66.00 – Breakfast $79.00 – Lunch/Dinner |
$40.00 – Breakfast $49.00 – Lunch/Dinner |
| La Crêperie de Paris France Pavilion |
$51.00 | $24.00 |
| La Hacienda de San Angel Mexico Pavilion |
$82.00 | $37.00 |
| Le Cellier Steakhouse Canada Pavilion |
$99.00 | $39.00 |
| Nine Dragons Restaurant China Pavilion |
$59.00 | $23.00 |
| Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts & Barbecue (same-day dining packages only) American Adventure Pavilion |
$36.00 | $21.00 |
| Rose & Crown Dining Room United Kingdom Pavilion |
$61.00 | $26.00 |
| Shiki-Sai: Sushi Izakaya Japan Pavilion |
$80.00 | $45.00 |
| Spice Road Table Morocco Pavilion |
$56.00 | $21.00 |
| Teppan Edo Japan Pavilion |
$80.00 | $45.00 |
| Tutto Italia Ristorante Italy Pavilion |
$75.00 | $28.00 |
| Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria Italy Pavilion |
$63.00 | $27.00 |
Advance Dining Reservations for the Garden Rocks Dining Package open on January 29, 2025.
Advance Dining Reservations will be released consistent with ADR rules for Walt Disney World, meaning that the entire event won’t be available at once, but rather, on a rolling 60+10 day basis.
If the Garden Rocks Dining Package is something you really want (more on whether you actually need it below), we’d recommend booking ASAP. That’s especially true for popular restaurants like Akershus, which is exceedingly difficult to book even without the package.
If you’re not able to score ADRs for Garden Rocks sit-down dining packages, fear not. You may be able to purchase a same-day dining package, which allows you to:
- Dine without reservations at Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts & Barbecue that day (Spice Road Table might also be an option)
- Enjoy guaranteed seats to a Garden Rocks concert later that day
To check availability for same-day dining packages, visit Regal Eagle’s Distinctly Patriotic Smokehouse: A Salute to All Foods, But Mostly Barbecued Meats ~ A Sam Eagle Craft Drafts & BBQ Joint. Same-day Garden Rocks Dining Packages are subject to availability and may not be available on peak dates.
Although we’re fans of Regal Eagle, Spice Road Table is without a doubt the way to go if you’re “forced” to do a same-day dining package. Yes, it’s more expensive, but it offers at least that much more bang-for-buck, with a menu that’s more approachable than you might think.
Check out our review, Spice Road Table: EPCOT’s Best Candlelight Processional Dining Package?, for more as to why that’s our top pick. Even though it’s written from the perspective of Candlelight, it applies equally to Garden Rocks.
The America Gardens Theater where Garden Rocks Concert Series is held can seat over 1,000 guests per performance, but a large chunk of these seats are set aside for guests who purchase dinner packages. All of these dinner package guests are guaranteed seats in one of the three nightly Garden Rocks concerts.
In addition to this, fans for particular acts often line up in advance, and seeing those lines, regular tourists also queue up. Consequently, it becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy–the standby line for performances can get longer because it’s long.
However, that only applies to popular performers…and in perusing the lineup, there aren’t all that many of those.
I’m personally looking forward to Blue Oyster Cult, but I don’t know that they’re truly popular these days. Perhaps if Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken appear with them as special guests. To that point, it’s relatively rare for the Garden Rocks concerts to fill America Gardens Theater to capacity. Just because the line looks long…doesn’t mean it’s going to be a packed house.
This is especially true for the earlier performances when the sun is still beating down on the outdoor amphitheater. Same goes for Garden Rocks concerts that don’t occur during the peak of Spring Break season. Much of EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival falls during shoulder or off-season, and the concerts aren’t too bad then.
To each their own, but we typically do not recommend purchasing the Garden Rocks Concert Series Dining Package. If your only experience with performances in this venue is Candlelight Processional, adjust your expectations. There’s far less demand for the Garden Rocks Concert Series than there is for Candlelight Processional.
FOMO is a powerful motivator, but you should be able to enjoy the concert just fine without paying extra for a dining package. We’ve watched many concerts in March through mid-October, and have never once bought one of these dining packages for either Garden Rocks or Eat to the Beat (during Food & Wine Festival).
We almost always show up a few minutes before the show starts and are easily able to score spots. In our view, the dining packages are a waste of money unless they’re the only way to get a specific, highly-coveted ADR (looking at you, Akershus) or you’re able to leverage them to the fullest advantage and don’t mind paying a slight premium for peace of mind.
In terms of value for money, the dining package is not that expensive. You are absolutely paying a bit of a premium for the Garden Rocks Concert Series Dining Package, and that’s even assuming you “optimization” your order and select the most expensive entrees, etc–but it’s not that bad.
If you elect not to do the Garden Rocks Dining Package and don’t want very long in line, you have a couple of options. First, show up to the standby line ~15 minutes before the first show of the day starts. Depending upon the popularity of the band and the weather, there are usually still plenty of seats in the sun (very few spots in the America Gardens Theater are shaded). If not, at least you didn’t waste a ton of time standing in line.
In most circumstances, that strategy will work just fine. You may not have the best seats, but you’ll still be able to see the show and have a seat. If the theatre is already full, we recommend trying to watch from the walkway behind the America Gardens Theatre.
Cast Members will manage crowd flow back here in the walkway, but you can simply stand behind the theater (not in the walkway) and watch the concert. This is actually a really good view for the Garden Rocks Concert Series, and is still reasonably close to the stage. It’s not like being in the cheap seats given the intimate size of the venue–think of it as sitting (well, standing) in the balcony of the America Gardens Theatre.
Honestly, this is more than what we do. We watched Garden Rocks maybe 3-4 times last year, and in each case it was a spontaneous thing. We simply happened to be passing the America Gardens Theater shortly before or after as the concerts started, and decided to grab a seat to get off our feet and enjoy some classic rock. I can’t even recall the last time we queued up in advance for one of these concerts. Our advice here is simply to give you more of a buffer and err on the side of caution.
Ultimately, watching the Garden Rocks Concert Series is pretty simple and straightforward, and should involve zero stress or pre-planning. Although we regularly buy the Candlelight Processional Dining Packages, we have never–not once!–bought dining packages for any of the other three festivals. From our perspective, it’s a waste of money, as we can still easily enjoy the performances with minimal effort.
We may not be right up front and center, but the views are good throughout the America Gardens Theater–and even behind it. To each their own, but we’d rather allocate our budget for visiting Walt Disney World on other things. If you have infinite resources and don’t mind wasting money, by all means, book the Garden Rocks Dining Package. As a splurge, it’s one of the absolute worst choices–save that money for something else…literally anything else…at Walt Disney World!
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Your Thoughts
Are you a fan of the Garden Rocks Concert Series? Which bands have you seen perform on the America Gardens Theater stage? Do you usually book the Garden Rocks Dining Package or wait in line? Think it’s worth the money? Do you have any strategy for seeing the shows without waiting? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
