The Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival showcases beautiful flowers, plants and food around Walt Disney World’s Epcot every spring. In 2025, the festival runs from March 5th to June 2nd and is in its 32nd year of existence. This post will give an overview of what to expect out of the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, including our favorite parts of the festival.

Over the years Epcot has become Festival Central. The Food & Wine Festival and Flower & Garden Festival have taken up more dates every year. They have also recently added the Festival of Arts in January and February as well as Festival of the Holidays in November and December. While the festivals started as a nice addition to slow parts of the year, now their reach may be a bit overextended. Aside from huge crowds, this isn’t that big of a deal if the festivals offer something unique. While I can debate the merits of the Food & Wine Festival (which we’ll cover when the time comes), I do think the Flower & Garden Festival does offer something fresh to Epcot.

Epcot began as a park that, among other things, celebrated the beauty of the world and the ingenuity that would lead the planet into the future. Flower & Garden showcases both of those ideas and combines them seamlessly. Using the beauty of blooming spring flowers, Epcot enhances those with topiaries, flower beds, butterfly gardens and, of course, food.

Now that Epcot is more of a theme park and less of a construction site, the festival should have an even more notable impact. As always, most of what guests will see is in World Showcase but the rest of the park will feature a few topiaries, food kitchens and other entertainment, as well.

While there haven’t been many details announced for 2025, here is what the 2024 Flower & Garden Festival included!

Outdoor Kitchens

Like the other Epcot Festivals (notably Food & Wine), Flower & Garden utilizes temporary booths around World Showcase to offer unique food items to guests. These booths are called Outdoor Kitchens. Most of these booths are themed to the countries around them. Most of the food items range from 5-10 dollars, with a few outliers. The alcoholic beverages range from $7-$10 typically and the non-alcoholic drinks are usually around $5. The portion size is never very large but is comparable to most snacks throughout the parks. Generally, I think the items at these booths are a little overpriced for what you get but the quality of food usually makes up for that. They are a good use of a Disney Dining Plan credit. I’ve never been overly disappointed in what I’ve paid for a snack at Flower & Garden or Food & Wine Festivals despite admitting that they’re overpriced. You can check out the 2025 menus here.

We tried a number of different items from previous years, many of which are still around. You can read about those here. A few of my favorite booths from the last few years are the Magnolia Terrace in American Adventure and Epcot Sunshine Griddle near Test Track. There are a host of new dishes this year and plenty of interesting things to try. We recommend snacking around here on a weekday, as the festival will get even more busy on the weekend.

Topiaries and Gardens

While the food is good and follows a pretty natural theme, the star of the festival is the, you guessed it, flowers and gardens. These are spread throughout the park but reside near or in World Showcase more than anywhere else.

The gardens are a nice treat that you can happen upon naturally throughout Epcot. Most of that is thanks to the season and flowers blooming. Many of these gardens or plants could be found throughout Disney Parks thanks to the wonderful horticulture staff that the parks utilize. There are exceptions that make Epcot unique though. My favorite of which are the beautiful gardens that surround the ponds on your way to World Showcase. If given the chance, entering the park via monorail is a great view of those gardens.

Another of my favorite gardens were the bonsai trees in the Japan Pavilion. I enjoyed seeing the different types of plants that aren’t typical in our country. There were a number of new gardens and exhibits for 2024 to check out throughout the festival.

The topiaries are a fantastic treat, that are a little less ‘natural’ than the gardens. That doesn’t make these presentations any less impressive or beautiful. These topiaries are most often of Disney characters and generally fit in with whatever area they reside. This year are 70 of them, including a Groot edition that plays music!

Butterfly Garden

One of my favorite aspects of the festival is the Butterfly Landing Presented by AdventHealth. I could have included this in the Topiaries and Gardens section but I spent a good amount of time in the tent so it deserved a special shoutout. There’s an array of different butterfly species as well as some beautiful plants.

While the garden isn’t very big, we spent nearly half an hour in there, snapping photos and looking at all the different plants and butterflies. I thought it was a beautiful area that was really inviting.

What Else Does the Festival Offer?

The Flower & Garden Festival also features the Garden Rocks Concert Series. Each night a band plays in the America Gardens Theater. The sets are 30 minutes long at 5:30, 6:45 and 8:00 each evening. Here are the bands playing this year!

March 7-8 – Tommy DeCarlo, former lead singer of Boston
March 9-10 – Air Supply – 50^th Anniversary Celebration
March 14-15 – Blue October
March 16-17 – Rick Springfield
March 21-22 – Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone
March 23-24 – 38 Special
March 28-29 – Jason Scheff, longtime singer of Chicago
March 30-31 – TBD
April 4-5 – THE ORCHESTRA Starring ELO and ELO Part II Former Members
April 6-7 – Sugar Ray
April 11-12 – Simple Plan
April 13-14 – Jo Dee Messina
April 18-19 – Mike DelGuidice
April 20-21 – A Flock of Seagulls
April 25-26 – Taylor Dayne
April 27-28 – 98 Degrees
May 2-5 – Plain White T’s
May 9-10 – Jon Secada
May 11-12 – Maverick City Music (NEW)
May 16-17 – The Spinners
May 18-19 – The Pointer Sisters
May 23-24 – The Outlaws (NEW)
May 25-26 – Don Felder, formerly of the Eagles
May 30-31 – The Cat Empire (NEW)
June 1-2 – We The Kingdom (NEW)

There are dining packages at participating restaurants to guarantee seating for these concerts that can be booked starting January 29th. I wouldn’t worry about that too much but to each their own. The packages are a bit overpriced but might be worth it if you’re really interested in a specific band.

At this year’s festival, the whole family can enjoy two seasonal scavenger hunts. Throughout the festival, follow Spike the Bee on his pollination trail where he’s “buzzing” to collect nectar from all the beautiful gardens with Spike’s Pollination Exploration. And for a limited time, you can also hop around World Showcase for the Egg-stravaganza Hunt! Twelve beautiful, bunny-inspired eggs will be placed throughout the park.

Both scavenger hunt maps will be available for purchase while supplies last. Once your journey is complete – whether or not you find all the items – you can redeem your map at Disney Traders, Creations Shop or World Traveler at International Gateway for a special surprise.

Is the Flower & Garden Festival worth making a special trip for? How much extra time will I spend in Epcot due to the Festival?

Above are the two questions I consider to most align with those interested in the festival. There’s no hard and fast rule for this. If you like and enjoy plants more than the average person then the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival is definitely for you. Even if you’re not that into plants, like me, then you will still probably find the festival interesting, informative and beautiful. Is it worth making a special trip to Epcot for? Probably not, unless money isn’t an issue or you live close by. But, if you’re planning a trip and are somewhat flexible in timing then spring might be a good choice.

As far how many hours or days to allot for Epcot when the Festival is ongoing… That answer is even more tricky. I think you could fill up just a day exploring the Flower & Garden portion of Epcot as well as the World Showcase Pavilions. More realistically, if you’re planning for a day and a half for Epcot on a normal trip, I’d just make it two full days. If you have kids, that may be pushing it but I think most adults could easily spend 2 days at the park experiencing Epcot and Flower & Garden.

If you have questions or comments about the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, please leave them below in the comments. Want discounted tickets to Walt Disney World? Check out this site! Planning at trip to Disney World? Check out our Disney World Trip Planning Guide. If you enjoy what you’re reading here on Wandering in Disney, please subscribe to the blog on the right side of this page. That’s where you can find links to our social media accounts, as well. Thank you for reading!