The curtain has barely come down on the 2021 Taste of Epcot International Festival of the Arts, but the next big event on Walt Disney World’s seasonal event calendar is already beginning to blossom. We attended the final day of this year’s bite-size Festival of the Arts and received a bonus preview of the upcoming 2021 Taste of Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival.
The Festival of the Arts may be the newest and briefest of Epcot’s annual events, but if you’ve followed our previous Festival of the Arts coverage you know it’s also among our favorites. Epcot’s 2021 Festival of the Arts ended on February 22, and we had to pay one last visit for a final taste of this year’s flavors.
On our way in, we stopped to check out the new Leave a Legacy panels that were recently installed outside Epcot’s main entrance.
This is just a small portion of the colorful replacement for the stone monoliths that previously were located inside Epcot’s entry plaza.
Once inside Future World, you can quickly see how construction on the former Innoventions West building has completely hollowed out the structure.
And speaking of construction, you can’t help but spot the large barges installed in the middle of World Showcase Lagoon for the upcoming Harmonious nighttime spectacular.
Farewell to 2021 Festival of the Arts
During the event’s closing hours, guests queued up for their final chance to contribute to an Expression Section paint-by-numbers mural inspired by Mary Blair’s it’s a small world designs.
We had to pay one more visit to World Showplace, where pianist Carol Stein was entertaining guests with her famous medleys of Disney showtunes.
The steak tartare topped with a poached quail egg may qualify as the fanciest dish Festival of the Arts has ever offered. Luckily, it tasted as good as it looked!
Here’s a last look at a few of the other artistic edibles we enjoyed during the festival’s final hours:
Stormy skies provided a perfect excuse to grab some warm brie and red wine from France, then pretend we were sitting at a Parisian sidewalk cafe. Just squint to ignore the strollers and shorts; it’s almost like really being there!
In nearby Morocco, a new snack stand inside the mostly shuttered souk supplies, we found roasted chickpeas and other Mediterranean nibbles.
Mariachi Cobre is seen here performing their final Festival of the Arts concert. The Mexican ensemble is scheduled to return to the American Gardens stage during the Flower & Garden Festival.
To complete our Festival of the Arts Wonderful Walk of Colorful Cuisine, we ordered the panna cotta rose from Masterpiece Kitchen for our final tasting of the event.
That made us eligible to retrieve our bonus dessert, a frosted artist’s palette cookie.
This one tasted significantly better that the chocolate chip cookie palette we purchased earlier, making it a perfect end to our 2021 Festival of the Arts experiences.
Sneak Peek at 2021 Flower & Garden Festival
Even though the Festival of the Arts’ grand finale was still in full swing, signs of Epcot’s next event were already sprouting all around the park.
Preparations are well underway for the 2021 Taste of Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, which officially opens on March 3 and will run all the way through July 5.
The fan-favorite butterfly garden is being erected on the lawn between The Land and Imagination.
The overlapping events gave guests a preview of this year’s topiary displays, including this collection of classic characters in the U.K. pavilion.
The installation of Tinker Bell’s fairy garden display forced the early eviction of the Festival of the Arts character portraits.
Food booths and demonstration gardens are also currently being planted all around the park.
It won’t be long before the 2021 Flower & Garden Festival fully blossoms. Let us know in the comments below which element of this annual Epcot tradition you are most excited about!
For all there is to see and do at Walt Disney World, check out The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World, or to plan your family’s trip to Orlando, check out The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World with Kids. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and sign up for our newsletter here. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
