{"id":57348,"date":"2017-11-07T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T13:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=57348"},"modified":"2022-04-09T00:22:53","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T04:22:53","slug":"10-things-im-looking-forward-seeing-epcot-international-festival-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/10-things-im-looking-forward-seeing-epcot-international-festival-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Things I’m Looking Forward To Seeing at the Epcot International Festival of the Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Epcot International Festival of the Arts<\/a> is Epcot’s newest festival and an opportunity for guests to celebrate all kinds of art. I had the chance to check out the festival this year and fell in love!\u00a0 I was so excited to hear that it is returning and even expanding in 2018. The festival will take place from January 12 through February 19. My original plan for this post was to rank my top 10 favorite things from the festival, but as it turns out, I loved it all!\u00a0 So, here they are in no particular order:<\/p>\n

The Food<\/h3>\n

The\u00a0International Food and Wine Festival gets all the attention when it comes to\u00a0unique\u00a0food, but the food at the Festival of the Arts<\/a>\u00a0was fantastic! A lot of effort was put into making the food look\u00a0artistic\u00a0and original. They did a great job because the food was gorgeous and tasty! I expect that food\u00a0will\u00a0be one of the highlights of next year’s festival as well.<\/p>\n

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The Entertainment<\/h3>\n

No festival would be complete without some special entertainment. The Disney on Broadway performances<\/a> at this festival\u00a0were\u00a0absolutely phenomenal!\u00a0 I had the opportunity to see Kissy Simmons and Alton Fitzgerald White\u00a0perform\u00a0songs from\u00a0The Lion King, as well as songs from\u00a0other\u00a0Disney shows.\u00a0They were incredible! You definitely want to check out one\u00a0(or more)\u00a0of these performances if you have the chance.<\/p>\n

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Amazing performances in the Disney Broadway concerts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Art<\/h3>\n

If you enjoy different forms of art<\/a>, you will love this aspect of the festival. There were booths set up throughout the park to purchase all kinds of art, both Disney themed and non-Disney themed. Many of the artists were present and available to talk to guests about their work. I purchased a photo of the Wishes fireworks show and the\u00a0photographer\u00a0was kind enough to autograph it for me. This was a nice touch!<\/p>\n

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Star Wars art in action<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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There were also opportunities to see art “in action” especially around the World Showcase. We encountered several artists working on projects throughout the day. Some of my favorites were chalk art done right on the sidewalk. Beautiful!<\/p>\n

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There were various chalk art drawings around the World Showcase<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The Seminars<\/h3>\n

A variety of art themed seminars were offered to guests at last year’s festival. Seminars varied in in price, but\u00a0some were even free to guests. I was fortunate enough to attend a seminar with Disney legend Marty Sklar<\/a> where he spoke about his years as an Imagineer. This was a once in a lifetime\u00a0experience\u00a0and I enjoyed every minute of it. When Marty passed away earlier this year, I was so thankful that I had attended that seminar\u00a0and had the opportunity to shake his hand.<\/p>\n

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Marty Sklar shares memories of work for the Disney Company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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I expect that this year’s seminars will be equally intriguing.\u00a0 Make sure to stop by and hear how artists like Mary Blair and Herb Ryman\u00a0influenced\u00a0the Disney parks. Or sign up to learn about\u00a0floral\u00a0arrangement, animation, or\u00a0calligraphy.\u00a0 Even if art isn’t your thing, there are plenty of food themed seminars available. There is certainly something for everyone!<\/p>\n

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Herb Ryman Art Exhibit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Scavenger Hunt<\/h3>\n

Just like other Epcot festivals, this festival had\u00a0a special scavenger hunt for the kids…and adults! Last year’s hunt was Figment themed.\u00a0Classic\u00a0paintings featuring Figment were placed throughout the World Showcase and it was our job to find them. For a small fee (I believe it was around $7) you could purchase a map\u00a0for\u00a0the\u00a0scavenger\u00a0hunt. Once you have found all the paintings and placed all of the stickers on your map, you can redeem your map for a prize. You also get to keep the map! Last year’s\u00a0prize was a choice of one of four fun Figment magnets.\u00a0Tip: You don’t actually have to complete the map to receive your prize, but you should. It’s fun!<\/p>\n

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Scavenger hunt map<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The Merch<\/h3>\n

Surely you will want to take home a\u00a0souvenir\u00a0from\u00a0your\u00a0visit\u00a0to the International Festival of the Arts. I picked up a really cute Figment Tervis that I absolutely love. The usual items such as hats, shirts, and coffee mugs were also available. Of course, there were also plenty of\u00a0opportunities\u00a0to purchase artwork as well. The only thing missing was pins! There\u00a0were\u00a0no pins specific to the festival\u00a0last year, but hopefully that will change this year.<\/p>\n

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Festival merchandise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The\u00a0Photopass\u00a0Opportunities<\/h3>\n

Several\u00a0unique\u00a0Photopass\u00a0locations were set up around the park for guests to have their picture taken inside some classic art pieces. This was a lot of fun! We met a very creative\u00a0Photopass\u00a0photographer who took this whole\u00a0experience\u00a0to the next level. We\u00a0had\u00a0our picture\u00a0taken and got a lot of laughs out of the experience. Make sure to stop by\u00a0for some fun\u00a0memories to take home with you!<\/p>\n

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Lots of fun PhotoPass opportunities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The Interactive Art<\/h3>\n

At the International Festival of the Arts, you won’t just have the opportunity to look at art, you will have to opportunity to make art of your own!\u00a0There were stations all\u00a0around\u00a0to work on art like origami and places for kids to do small projects.<\/p>\n

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Guests help paint the mural<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of my favorite\u00a0opportunities\u00a0was\u00a0being able\u00a0to\u00a0paint\u00a0part of a large mural. Each guest was given a dish of paint and instructed to paint 7 squares of the mural. This is pretty much fool-proof, so even if you have zero artistic talent (like me), you can participate. The mural wall started\u00a0out blank, but as the day went on, we could see the images start to develop. After a few days (or less depending on how many guests are there) the mural was complete!\u00a0 It was awesome to\u00a0take\u00a0part in completing the mural. I hope this will be\u00a0back!<\/p>\n

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The completed mural<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Weather<\/h3>\n

This festival has a weather advantage in my opinion. It falls in January and February when the weather in Florida is\u00a0typically\u00a0very nice. Temperatures drop a little bit and there is usually less rain, making it a great time to walk around Epcot and enjoy all the festival offerings.<\/p>\n

The Smaller Crowds<\/h3>\n

I honestly hate to reveal this little secret because I don’t want it to change! Once the holiday crowds disperse,\u00a0Epcot usually\u00a0becomes\u00a0far less crowded. While I have waited in very long lines at the Food and Wine Festival, that was not the case at this festival. There\u00a0were\u00a0usually only a handful of people ahead of me to purchase food and drinks. I’m not sure how expanding the festival to 7 days a week will affect this, but I hope the crowds stay relatively low this year.<\/p>\n

Dare I say that even though this will only be the second year of the festival that it is already my favorite? I loved every aspect of it. The food, the art, the\u00a0activities, and the seminars. I cannot wait to go back and see what Epcot has in store for guests this year!<\/p>\n

Do you plan to check out the International Festival of the Arts? What are you looking forward to most? Share in the comments.<\/p>\n

Did you like this article? Make sure to share it with your friends! Check below for easy ways to share!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Epcot International Festival of the Arts is Epcot’s newest festival and an opportunity for guests to celebrate all kinds of art. I had the chance to check out the festival this year and fell in love!\u00a0 I was so excited to hear that it is returning and even expanding in 2018. The festival…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":57821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1695,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theme-parks","category-walt-disney-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57348"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58496,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57348\/revisions\/58496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}