Disney Announces Dates and Details about Festival of the Arts 2024

In 2024, Walt Disney World will host the eighth annual EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. Disney just announced the dates and details about what we can expect this time. Let’s talk about the 2024 version of what’s become a signature event.

The 2024 Festival of the Arts Debuts in Mid-January

Okay, here’s the Tweet:

Get your paintbrushes ready! 🎨✨ The EPCOT International Festival of the Arts returns Jan. 12, 2024! Stay tuned to the Disney Parks Blog for more updates on this colorful event in the future. pic.twitter.com/369izpsgFs

— Disney Parks (@DisneyParks) October 25, 2023

On January 12th, 2024, the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts will return. I consider this event one of Disney’s greatest recent success stories because it started so humbly. At first, EPCOT didn’t even host the festival daily, saving it for the weekends. 

To everyone’s surprise, the event proved instantly popular, drawing large crowds to the previous dead period of January. Within two years, the Festival of the Arts had switched to a daily event, and it’s stayed that way ever since. 

This year’s event will last through February 19th, providing EPCOT fans with 38 days of festivities! What are the festivities? Well, if you’re familiar with the Festival of the Arts, you’ll know that it’s a celebration of artistry.

While you explore EPCOT, you’ll discover several kinds of art, including drawings, music, and interactive performances. Typically, Disney hosts art pieces where you can take your picture within famous paintings. For example, you can cross the Delaware with George Washington or stand as the centerpiece of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. 

You’ll also find interactive art where you can paint a piece and then hand the brush to the next person. Throughout the day, you can return to study how the group project piece of art has evolved. 

Meanwhile, live performers will do everything from aerial acrobatics to mime to posing as statues. You might even find someone to do a song-and-dance routine, although I’ve never witnessed that personally. 

Fans of Disney animation will also enjoy the various illustrators. Some of them will paint famous Disney characters and scenes while you watch. I consider the Festival of the Arts to be Disney’s most creative month of the year. We’ve attended four times, and park officials have incrementally but noticeably improved the experience with each iteration.

Will DISNEY ON BROADWAY Return?

Disney hasn’t confirmed specific events per se. We didn’t get a Parks Blog notification yet. Instead, the 2024 version of Festival of the Arts has been updated on the official website. We can safely assume that everything showing there will return in 2024, though.

Specifically, the DISNEY ON BROADWAY concert series will be back. That’s not a surprise since these shows work as the signature events and backbone of the entire festival. Broadway performers head south to Florida to sing at the World Showcase. While there, they provide stunning Broadway renditions of some of your favorite Disney songs.

These shows rival the Candlelight Processional in terms of popularity and WILL sell out. Thankfully, EPCOT offers DISNEY ON BROADWAY dining packages so that you can guarantee seats for your traveling party. And yes, Disney is showing these packages already for 2024. Presumably, they’ll go on sale by the end of 2023.

What Else Will Return at This Year’s Festival of the Arts?

The Food Studios will also come back, which is a given. What’s an EPCOT festival without pop-up kiosks, right? Still, the Festival of the Arts dining options stand out because they’re so visually stunning. 

Disney explores the entire color palette in creating some of its dishes. In fact, one popular dessert actually is an artist’s palette with icing disguised as paint. 

The Wonderful Walk of Cuisine also appears likely to come back in 2024. This event is akin to cookie strolls in that you eat several specific dishes. Once you earn enough stamps for your work, you’ll unlock a prize, another dish that’s only available to those who complete the challenge. It’s always fun to try, and it’s easy for frequent EPCOT guests. You don’t need to finish the challenge in a single park visit. 

Finally, the images hint that Disney will once again sell art during the event. That makes sense since it’s a high-profit margin business for them. For you, it’s an opportunity to purchase exclusive merchandise that’s only available for roughly five weeks each year. Plus, much of it looks fantastic on your living room wall. 

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