The Walt Disney World Resort today announced the dates for the next Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, which will be the 27th annual installation of the park's big spring event.
The festival will kick off on March 4 and run through June 1 next year. With the arrival of a new Ratatouille dark ride in World Showcase's France pavilion next summer, Epcot is setting the stage with a new Remy topiary that will anchor Ratatouille Garden in that pavilion, one that will feature the many vegetables used in that traditional French dish.
Disney promises more detail to come on the menus at the festival's Outdoor Kitchens, as well as the line-up for the Garden Rocks Concert Series. Of course, there are several other festivals on Epcot's calendar before we get to Flower & Garden. Here is the current Epcot festival schedule:
Between now and next summer, Disney also will open several new attractions and restaurants in Epcot, starting with the new Epcot Forever show that replaces IllumiNations on October 1. That new production will run for a limited time (despite its name) before Disney opens HarmoniUS on the World Showcase lagoon in the summer of 2020. Also later this year, the Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts and Barbecue restaurant will open in the former Liberty Inn space in World Showcase's The American Adventure pavilion.
January brings three new movie attractions to the park: Awesome Planet will open in The Land pavilion; Canada Far and Wide 360 will open in the Canada pavilion, and the Beauty and the Beast Sing-along film will go into rotation with Impressions de France in the France pavilion.
Also this winter, the Space 220 Restaurant will open next to Mission: Space, followed by the Remy's Ratatouille Adventure ride in the France pavilion this summer. A new crepes restaurant also will open in the France pavilion as part of that expansion.
Beyond next year, Epcot will be welcoming the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind roller coaster in the former Universe of Energy pavilion, as well as a Play Pavilion in the old Wonders of Life building, a new movie for the China pavilion called "Wondrous China," a rewrite of the Spaceship Earth ride, and a Mary Poppins attraction in the United Kingdom pavilion.
But the project that Epcot visitors will notice most during the next few years will be the reimagining of the park's entrance, as Disney completes the removal of the Leave a Legacy installation and the Innoventions building, transforming the current Future World into three new neighborhoods: World Nature, World Discovery, and World Celebration. The project will include the construction of a three-level structure overlooking the World Showcase Lagoon that will anchor the new Dreamers Point park at the far end of the central World Celebration area. For more on these and other Disney theme park construction projects, please read our report from the most recent D23 Expo.
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