Artist David Miller creates a painting at Epcot International Festival of the Arts 2021.
Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS
ORLANDO, Fla. — Epcot International Festival of the Arts, the first theme park special event of 2024, has launched. And there are notes to be made. It’s a brief fest by Walt Disney World standards, running daily through Feb. 19, so act fast. The lineup includes hands-on artistic activities, Broadway-level performances, interaction with artists, culinary arts and shopping.
Popcorn culture
What does it say about us as a society if the buzz at an arts festival centers on a popcorn bucket? I’m not angry; “bewildered” fits the situation better. But yet, another collision of collectibles and Figment, beloved Epcot dragon, can only lead to demand. On opening day, folks used lanyards to wear them around their necks, which is even more clunky than usual given the design’s pointy shapes based on the park’s Imagination pavilion. (Over the shoulder is a practical alternative.)
Disney sells the containers for $30 while supplies last. Online resellers are taking in between $60 and $75 for them, about what folks still are getting for the 2023 Figment bucket these days. (My brow gets furrowed when I see sellers throwing in a festival passport, which is free. Again, bewildered.)
The Artful Photo Ops continues to be a crowd favorite, and the three new walk-in images were clustered together on the bridge that connects World Celebration and World Showcase. It’s pretty roomy there, and you can knock out a trio of images quickly.
The Mary Poppins-inspired penguin frame is fun, and many folks pose as if waddling along. (Advice: Stand behind the birds, but not in front of the tea time setting, if possible).
The palette-style placards for each scene contain fun Disney film facts, including about the artists.
Eats and ‘Encanto’
I had a personal goal of eating something new to me and something new to the fest, and doing this by standing in one line was preferred.
I hit the jackpot with Vibrante & Vivido: Encanto Cocina (the listing is in the very center of the passport, by the way).
The chorizo and potato empanada (new to me) had a little kick, of course. I wished I had opted for a fork and knife instead of finger-fooding it, as the drizzled aioli was messier than anticipated.
If you know me, you know I like fruit, and I like desserts, but I’m not a fan of fruit-based desserts. But this Food Studios’ passion fruit-filled mango cheesecake (new to fest) was tasty, not too tangy and light. Maybe hitting the chocolate wall over the holidays caused this improved attitude.
Other new foods on the to-do list: grilled marinated skirt steak with blue cheese fondue (Craftman’s Courtyard), puff pastry with salmon and spinach (L’Art de la Cuisine Francaise) and Minnie-inspired Rock the Dots white chocolate and orange mousse (Pop Eats).
By the numbers
The passport tells us that Expression Section, the produced-by-masses, paint-by-numbers mural, is in World Celebration.
This year’s version is on a (temporary) black wall southwest of the new Walt Disney statues, and it faces the Imagination pavilion and the rose garden shortcut of sorts.
Painting begins at 11 a.m. daily.
