Epcot International Festival of the Arts
As January approaches we are getting closer and closer to the next Epcot Festival, and the first Festival of 2026, Epcot International Festival of the Arts!
We are so excited for this year’s festival, over the years it has become our favorite of all the Epcot fests. The only downside to this festival is how short it is, running for just over a month from January 16 through February 23 in 2026.
There is so much to see and do at this festival, with the focus of course being on art! But not just paintings and sculptures, this festival celebrates all the arts! There are amazing Broadway performances, musicians, acrobats, and so many artists to see you can base an entire trip around this festival!
Here are some of the amazing things you can see and do at this Epcot festival:
Performances:
One of our favorite aspects of this festival are the performances. They offer a Broadway Concert Series daily with Broadway stars performing at the America Gardens Theater. This series is amazing, we definitely recommend making time to see at least one of the performances. The lineup of performers is available on the official Disney World website and they offer performances three times daily. They also have a dining package for this which guarantees you a seat at one of the three showtimes, but standby seating is also readily available.
Besides the Broadway series, a variety of other performances occur with this festival, typically at a stage set up in CommuniCore Plaza. In past years they’ve had musicians, acrobats, and one of our favorites, a speed painter who will make amazing Disney art in a matter of minutes!
Artist Studios:
Throughout Epcot you will find many tents set up selling various artist’s art. These tents are scattered throughout World Showcase as well as the World Celebration area, and you can pretty much find something for everyone. While paintings tend to be the most prevalent type of art for sale, they also have sculptures, furniture, and even jewelry.
One thing we love is that the artists will often times have smaller, less expensive, prints of their larger art. Some even have postcards, so if you find something you love, but your budget won’t support buying it, you can often find that print in a more affordable size.
The artists also will often make appearances at the festival so they can sign the pieces you’ve purchased. We’ve met a number of the artists over the years and it is such a cool experience to be able to talk with them about their art.
Food Studios:
Now it wouldn’t be an Epcot festival if food wasn’t involved, and for this festival the food booths are called Food Studios. There are fewer booths at this festival than others, however the food isn’t the main focus here, although the food they do have is some of the best of all the festivals. Some of our favorite food and drinks out of all four Epcot festivals have been from Festival of the Arts.
Some standouts for us that thankfully return every year are the tomato soup with pimento cheese, bacon, and fried green tomato grilled cheese at Pop Eats, the wild mushroom risotto at Gourmet Landscapes (Canada), and the red wine braised beef short rib at Pastoral Palate (Germany).
Chalk Art:
Have you ever watched someone create something and are just in awe? That’s how we feel watching the chalk artists create their chalk art. In the area between World Celebration and World Showcase, chalk artists set up shop and create amazing art right there on the sidewalk. Some are even 3D and you can step inside for a cool photo-op!
We are always amazed at how talented these artists are, spending hours creating these pieces that are soon to be washed away just to be replaced with a new one. There are often an artists or two out there working, so be sure to stop by and check it out, often times we’ve found the artists are happy to talk about their art while they are creating their pieces!
Paint by Numbers Mural:
After being inspired by all the art around you, you too can join in on the fun and help create a mural by doing the paint by numbers at the Expression Section! This is a completely free activity where you are given a small container of paint and a brush and you get to paint a few squares that coincide with the paint number you are given. This is a fun little activity and it’s really cool to see how the mural progresses over the day and week. Each week of the festival they will have a different mural, so if you are there over multiple weeks, you can see more than one being created! As you exit the area after finishing your painting, you get a bookmark with the completed mural printed on it!
Figment Scavenger Hunt:
Similar to the other Epcot festivals, Festival of the Arts has a scavenger hunt where when completed you get a small prize! For this festival you’re looking for Figment in art! We find this to be one of the harder of the scavenger hunts, but still a lot of fun!
Photo Ops:
One of our favorite things about this festival is the special photo ops, and we’re not talking Magic Shots here although they do have those as well. At this festival they actually have life size art you can step into and become part of the art! It is such a cool thing and is so fun to do. One thing to note though is they often do not have photopass photographers at these locations, so if you are by yourself it’s harder to get the shots, but we’ve had luck asking others to get pictures for us.
Chalk Characters:
Yet another fun activity to do during this festival is to find the character chalk art throughout the park. This is different than the chalk art on the ground between World Showcase and World Celebration, these are more like stickers that are placed around the park of various Disney characters. There is no prize for finding them all, but it is fun to partake in the hunt for them!
In the countries of World Showcase you’ll find characters that are from movies that are set in that country and there are often multiple characters scatter throughout each country.
This festival has so much to offer, the art is amazing to see, the performances are phenomenal, and there are so many activities to keep you busy that you can base a trip around this festival. Oh, and don’t sleep on the food at this festival, it has some of the best of all the festivals!
I hope everyone going this year has an amazing time, enjoy the art!
