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24th Epcot
International Flower & Garden Festival Welcomes Spring with New
Outdoor Kitchens, Topiaries and Entertainment
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Festival Runs March 1-May 29, 2017 |
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Celebrating
24 years when it kicks off March 1, 2017, the Epcot International
Flower & Garden Festival will jump-start spring with gardens of
earthly delights plus new character topiaries, entertainers and food
and drink offerings.
The festival, which expanded to 90 days in 2016, will open with an
irresistible array of fresh surprises and new treats: |
- Fresh, farm-market food and
beverage flavors will debut at two new Outdoor Kitchens
that will join 13 returning Outdoor Kitchens. Guest can sip and
savor their way around Epcot, enjoying chef-inspired noshes and
refreshing libations with or without a kick.
- The new generation of princess
topiaries (Snow White, Anna and Elsa – the first to be designed
and created with topiary facial features) will welcome a
brand-new Belle topiary as fans remember her from the
Oscar-winning Disney film, “Beauty and the Beast.” Located
outside the France pavilion with the Beast topiary, Belle will
come to life with sculpted facial features and her yellow ball
gown created with golden blooming Joseph’s Coat plants.
- Another festival first will be a
6-foot-tall topiary of Figment, the feisty dragon mascot
of the park’s Imagination! pavilion, perched atop a
5-foot-diameter ball fashioned from yellow Joseph’s Coat.
- The brand-new Epcot
front-entrance topiary garden inspired by a vintage Walt
Disney short film will spring to life with a floral-festooned
maypole featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy and Pluto.
- The popular Garden Rocks
concert series will expand to four days each week, with
three concerts each Friday through Monday presenting pop
musicians that span multiple genres over four decades.
- New Garden Rocks Dining
Packages will be available on select days at a number of
Epcot restaurants.
- Reimagined interactive play
gardens will include a new take on the “Cars”-themed garden
introducing a new character topiary from the June 2017 release
of the Disney•Pixar sequel, “Cars 3.” Music Garden Melodies
play area will return with new garden and topiary elements.
- For the first time, the event’s
Festival Center will extend operating hours from
Wednesday, March 1 through Sunday, March 5.
Throughout the rest of the festival, the center will be open
each Friday through Sunday with an entertaining mix of
gardening seminars and DIY workshops.
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One of the popular Outdoor Kitchen
gardens, Urban Farm Eats, will return with savory bites, sweet
treats and ideas for planting produce that can inspire growing
numbers of guests who want to learn to grow their own edibles.
“A lot of people, including young children, are serious foodies now,
and they have lots of questions about gardening,” says Eric Darden,
festival horticulture manager. “We’re getting more and more people
in their 20s and 30s asking, ‘How can I grow this?’ I think we’ll be
creating more gardeners because people can see what’s possible.”
The 2017 festival forecast will be sunny with colorful floral bursts
by day and a nighttime landscape aglow with twinkling lights: |
- Topiaries of Donald Duck and
nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie will share Future World space
in front of Spaceship Earth with Chip and Dale for
a “Fresh Epcot” selfie and family photo opportunity.
- Anna and Elsa topiaries
will return to the Norway pavilion festival landscape in
celebration of the park’s new Frozen Ever After Nearly
100 festival topiaries in all will include up to 70 character
creations such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lady and the
Tramp, Simba, Timon and Tinker Bell.
- Guests will encounter garden
surprises and special appearances related to Earth
Day and other spring activities.
- The Butterflies on the Go
garden will return with the story of the Monarch’s epic journey
across the continent and featuring butterflies emerging from
their chrysalises.
- On the way to the new Soarin’
Around the World film at the Soarin’attraction in The Land
pavilion, guests can discover gardens featuring edible
flowers, plants that benefit health and healing, and a
pollinator paradise.
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| Dozens of Disney-crafted “flower
towers” and beds of multi-colored blooms will transform the park’s
landscape. At least 70,000 bedding plants will surround the Future
World east and west lakes alone; on the water, 220 mini-gardens will
be set afloat. |
| For more information about
events at the Walt Disney World Resort,
contact your Academy Travel Representative directly, or call
609-978-0740 |
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Click here for a No Obligation
Disney Vacation price quote |
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Academy
Travel is an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner
Specializing in Walt Disney World,
Disneyland Resort, Disney Cruise Line, Adventures by Disney Vacations
and Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa
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