Walt Disney World has released a list of 5 new things to do at the 2025 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts, the fan-favorite winter-time special event that some would argue is the best fest of the year! This post shares a rundown of the activities, exhibits, merchandise, and more.
In case you missed it, Walt Disney World already released official dates for the 2025 EPCOT Festival of the Arts, which will run from January 17 through February 24, 2025. This continues its tradition of starting the Friday of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend. The good news is that it won’t maintain the tradition of ending on Presidents’ Day, but end its run the following Monday.
Walt Disney World has dubbed EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts as the “ultimate celebration of world-class food, amazing visual art, and live entertainment.” We agree. This is our favorite festival of the year, and we love chatting with artists, watching the performers, eating our way around the booths (not mandatory for a good time!), and enjoying some of the art on display.
The real focal point of EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts is, as the name suggests, the artists. You can see live painting, hear live music, see entertainment–you get the idea. It’s very interactive and participatory in a way that the other festivals just are not, and even though the performers have been scaled back over the years, there are still far more than during Food & Wine, for example. You can read everything you need to know in our full Guide to the 2025 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts.
Suffice to say, you could spend an entire day in EPCOT just enjoying the artists without ever purchasing a snack. One of the underrated “activities” that we would recommend doing is talking to the artists at the individual booths. We mention this because, if you’re like us, you might skip past the merchandise marketplaces at EPCOT’s other festivals. That’s a mistake here.
Stop in all of them. Talk to the artists, and buy something–big or small, it doesn’t matter. We’ve found that some of our most meaningful merchandise from Walt Disney World over the last decade is almost all from the EPCOT Festival of the Arts. Obviously, we’ve loved the art on the items we’ve bought, but it’s more than that. These items aren’t just superficial souvenirs–they’re the physical manifestation of a memory, a relic of a great day at EPCOT. Just thought I’d share that here as I admire one such piece of art on the wall as I’m writing this.
Anyway, here’s what’s new for the 2025 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts according to Walt Disney World…
Opening Bites Food Studio
Just outside at CommuniCore Plaza, enjoy food. This menu is all about paying homage to the foods and drinks immortalized onstage. Keep an eye out for the full EPCOT Festival of the Arts Food Guide for more decadent details about Food Studios around the park coming soon.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Opening Bites is the Festival Favorites window or its own standalone Food Studio. Honestly, I’d be perfectly fine with Walt Disney World increasing the number of Food Studios at Festival of the Arts. That might be an unpopular opinion (or maybe not?), but after encountering long lines pretty much everywhere last year (and not just opening weekend!), it’s clear there’s demand for at least 5 more booths. (And the event to be about 2-3 weeks longer!)
New Artful Photo Op
With the Artful Photo Ops, you can step into the canvas and strike a pose. This includes returning favorites like Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edvard Munch’s The Scream, which have been around since the very beginning.
For the 2025 EPCOT Festival of the Arts, there is a new Artful Photo Op inviting you to voyage alongside our favorite seafarer featuring Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Moana.”
Festival Merchandise
Paintings, prints, accessories, apparel, trading items – and more! It’s fitting that the Festival of the Arts has art curated from a variety of artists and mediums ready for you to bring home to a gallery of your own. And of course, what would a festival celebrating inspiration be without a brand new, art-themed collection of merchandise dedicated to our favorite imaginary dragon, Figment?
I normally could not care less about festival merchandise, but Walt Disney World has my attention after the glorious Figment Not-So-Ugly Christmas Sweater. Also, I firmly believe that Festival of the Arts has the best merchandise of any event, so I always browse what’s available–not just the art.
My biggest hope here is that Walt Disney World finally comes to its senses and does not use CommuniCore Hall as a makeshift gift shop. I feel secondhand embarrassment for them with that. Speaking of which, some cause for optimism…
Once Upon A Stage: 30 Years of Disney on Broadway
At CommuniCore Hall, experience the magic of Broadway both on and off the stage in this walkthrough exhibit celebrating three decades of Disney on Broadway. Discover costumes and props from your favorite stage musicals, then venture behind-the-scenes to see how the classic animated films “The Lion King” and “Aladdin” were reimagined for the Broadway stage.
This is really the main event, and the only notable new thing for the 2025 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. I really, truly hope that this is Walt Disney World finally getting the message and realizing the CommuniCore Hall flex space needs to be flexed into something good.
I am cautiously optimistic, especially since this is accompanied by concept art. However, I’m not allowing myself to get too excited for this–or honestly, excited at all. As you might recall, I was really looking forward to the supposed “enchanting forest” of the Glittering Grove presented by Balsam Hill. Let’s just say my expectations versus the reality of Glittering Grove were two very different things–I honestly cannot believe how pathetic it is. (Half of the trees don’t even have working lights, which isn’t that big of a deal, since the display is underwhelming regardless.)
Suffice to say, I’m going to take a more measured approach here, just in case this ends up being like 3 cardboard cutouts of Aladdin and the Lion King like you might’ve spotted at a Blockbuster Video that was going out of business. I really hope that’s not the case, but thus far, the story of CommuniCore Hall has been an endless saga of disappointment, with Disney finding new ways to underwhelm. (Not to be entirely negative–the Gingerbread Spaceship Earth is cool!)
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you looking forward to any of the new things to do at the 2025 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts? Do you typically focus on foods, entertainment, meeting artists, or a mixture of the above? What are you looking forward to trying at the Food Studio booths during the 2025 Festival of the Arts? Any questions? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your thoughts in the comments!
