Last year’s holiday decor has barely been put away, but EPCOT is already decked out again for the International Festival of the Arts 2024, which runs now through February 19th. We ended our Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend with a moist-but-memorable visit to this year’s festival, and we came away with four new finds you won’t want to miss during Walt Disney World’s most artful annual event.
Stormy skies couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm for attending opening weekend of this year’s EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. Even though the majority of this year’s offerings are encore appearances, there’s a handful of delicious debuts to be found. Here are four of our favorite fresh additions for 2024 to EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts.
New EPCOT Festival of the Arts 2024 Figment Popcorn Bucket
First and foremost, the number one thing that has social media buzzing this Festival is the new Figment popcorn bucket, inspired by the Imagination pavilion, which is home to the adorable purple dragon. Now you can own your own Louvre-like transparent pyramid (made of plastic instead of glass, natch) complete with removable Figment figurine and color-changing LED lights.
You’ll also get a small prepackaged bag of rainbow-colored popcorn for the $30 price tag, but who buys popcorn buckets for the popcorn anyway?
The best part of this year’s new 2024 Figment Festival of the Arts popcorn bucket is that, unlike in years past, you don’t have to wait in a massive queue to purchase it. Simply sign into Disney’s smartphone app and use Mobile Order to select an available pickup window, then swing by the Imagination Station inside the Odyssey facility for fast-and-easy pickup.
Here’s a video showing how smooth the Figment popcorn pickup process is:
While you’re inside Odyssey, be sure to spot the Figment animations projected on the walls, as well as the beret-wearing figure watching from above. Alas, the fascinating pin art tables from the old ImageWorks have not returned this year, but you can pay to participate in spin art, sand art, and similar creative activities.
New Food at the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts
Now that we’ve satisfied our multicolored sweet tooth, it’s time to do some serious eating around the World Showcase! The outdoor kitchens at EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts always feature food that’s almost too pretty to eat, and 2024 is no exception. There are no entirely new kiosks for 2024, and many of the menu items are identical to 2023, but we found a few notable new entrées that are well worth tasting.
If you’re looking for protein, walk over to The Craftsman’s Courtyard (between Mexico and Disney Traders) for the new Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak sandwich. They’ve packed a ton of flavor into this pint-size loaf of French bread, with sweet caramelized onions, umami-filled mushrooms, and rich blue cheese fondue, balanced by a crunchy bite of arugula. The steak on our sandwich was cooked well done but was still very tender and tasty.
At $7, this is a good mid-priced pick for meat-eaters, but if you’re pairing it with the hearty oatmeal nitro stout, be prepared to give the head plenty of time to settle before drinking.
On the other hand, dairy-friendly vegetarians will want to make their first and last stop at Gourmet Landscapes outside Canada, where the new Verjus-roasted beets are a big hit.
Purple and golden, a variety of fresh beets are cooked just enough to be forkable—no limp canned beets here—then delicately composed with funky goat cheese and microgreens, with candied nuts and berry gastrique adding a sweet finish. And at only $5.50, this dish is one of the better bargains at this year’s festival.
Finally, at the opposite end of the expense spectrum, the nearly all-new menu at France’s L’Art de la Cuisine Française is headlined by a $14.75 duo of hot and cold salmon dishes that’s actually worth the high price tag, provided you’re a fish fanatic.
Also available separately for $7.95 each, the combo includes a delicate, flaky puff pasty topped by well-done salmon bathed in a velvety Chardonnay-shallot sauce, paired with a disc of dense flaxbread domed with silky mousse and smoky salmon slivers. For best effect, be sure to pair it with the new Elderflower Liqueur Cocktail, a flute of sparkling wine cocktail spiked with St. Germain and mint.
New Artwork at Festival of the Arts 2024
Art and artists are at the heart of every EPCOT Festival of the Arts. As always, there are painters, sculptors, and other artisans on hand displaying their creative efforts. Begin by bearing left at the park entrance towards Connections Cafe, where you’ll find a new display of four Imagineer-created paintings paying tribute to Spaceship Earth.
We always love seeing longtime favorite Disney fine artists like Ashley Taylor and Noah, alongside the young emerging talent who are added to the roster of artist appearances throughout World Showcase each year.
You can even see some original artworks being created right before your eyes!
Unfortunately, wet weather on opening weekend interrupted the sidewalk chalk artists, whose ephemeral creations along the park’s central walkway were largely washed away.
But rain didn’t keep guests from filling in the 2024 festival’s first paint-by-numbers Participation mural.
A different design will be unveiled during each week of the Festival of the Arts.
If you really want to get yourself into the artistic spirt, the best new visual addition to the EPCOT Festival of the Arts 2024 are the new “living painting“ photo ops located between World Celebration and World Showcase.
Step into a storybook scene from the recent film Wish, or step in time with the famous dancing penguin waiters from Mary Poppins, and get immortalized in a memorable souvenir photograph!
New Live Performers in Disney on Broadway 2024
Last but certainly not least, the Festival of the Arts always brings first-class musicians, acrobats, and other performers to EPCOT, including a rotating cast of live entertainment at World Showcase Plaza.
The headlining Disney on Broadway concert series is once again back at EPCOT’s American Gardens Theatre, this time with some brand-new pairings of performers direct from the Great White Way, singing energetic original arrangements of classic Disney showtunes.
Best of all, they are included in regular admission; demand is much lower for these shows than for the Christmas candlelight processionals, and you should have no problem securing a standby seat without paying for an optional dining package.
This year, the 2024 Festival of the Arts launched with a litany of firsts, as Caissie Levy and Patti Murin— the original Anna and Elsa from Broadway’s Frozen—reunited onstage in EPCOT for the first time in forever since New York City to sing “I Can’t Lose You“ (which was added for the show’s national tour) together for the first time, in addition to some favorites from other Disney shows.
To top it off, Levy and Murin’s concerts—which continue on select days through January 23rd—are the first time Disney on Broadway has ever featured two female divas.
If you can’t make it to EPCOT in person, enjoy a full performance from Caissie Levy and Patti Murin with this 4K video:
What new (or old) feature of EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts 2024 are you most excited about? Please let us know in the comments below!
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