The EPCOT Transformation Ended 8 Months Ago…But It Changed More Than You Think!

It is almost time!

The EPCOT International Festival of the Arts just ended, which means it is time to welcome the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival. The festival is set to return on March 5th and run all the way until June 2nd. This festival is full of colorful fun, including beautiful topiaries, the Butterfly Garden, and delicious eats. 

The EPCOT Transformation was officially completed last June when CommuniCore Hall and Plaza opened. These two areas opened after last year’s Flower and Garden Festival wrapped up. 

In case you need a refresher, EPCOT was plagued with construction walls as new additions joined the park, like Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Connections Eatery and Cafe, Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and so much more! While EPCOT still has some walls up due to the ongoing construction of Test Track, the park is much more open after the completion of the EPCOT Transformation. 

Believe it or not, these construction walls affected many of EPCOT’s festivals. We had the opportunity to talk with three Cast Members who worked on this year’s Flower and Garden Festival, where they gave us insight into how different this year’s festival is, thanks to construction walls coming down. 

Chelsea Florig, Food and Beverage Project Manager; Amanda Lauder, Chef de Cuisine—Pastry; and Daniel Sicilia, Executive Chef, gave us a look behind the curtain at what it is like to create and curate outdoor kitchen menus and themes. 

This year, new booths are coming to the Flower and Garden Festival, and they were asked to explain the process of creating new booths and then how they decide which booths to replace. Chelsea shared that the EPCOT Transformation really affected the number of outdoor kitchens that they could have. So why not just move outdoor kitchens around? Well, the team pays attention to the theming of an area; they don’t just want to put a booth somewhere without thinking about its surroundings.

For example, The Honey Bee-stro has a lot of theming, and that is not a booth that you could just place in another area of the park. The walls coming down made this year’s festival a bit easier as there was more room to place booths throughout the park.

As we mentioned above, two new booths are coming to this year’s festival: Yacht Grub and Beach Grub. Chelsea told us that they pay homage to the Yacht Club and the Beach Club, two EPCOT area resorts. With the walls being down, they were able to place these booths in a strategic location between the World Showcase walkway and the Imagination! Pavilion. 

Chef Daniel let us know that it is typically very hard to replace booths, but the added space this year made curating booths and menus so much easier. This is the first year that the Flower and Garden Festival will be able to utilize EPCOT’s new festival space, CommuniCore Hall and Plaza. This new addition to the park can also be used for two food booths, one inside CommuniCore Hall and one outside in the Plaza. 

We know that CommuniCore Hall got a bad rap when it first opened as people were disappointed with the final product compared to the concept art. While it may have been underwhelming for guests, the new kitchen inside of CommuniCore Hall is super helpful for chefs when it comes to creating menus. 

Chef Daniel told us that since there is a full kitchen, it has “great firepower compared to the outdoor kitchens, which allows us to do more things.” So, while CommuniCore Hall may have disappointed guests when it first opened, it is super helpful in bringing new menu concepts to life. This year, CommuniCore Hall will be home to Farmers Feast, and the menu will rotate each month. 

Don’t fret; we know that Flower and Garden has big shoes to fill after Once Upon A Stage: 30 Years of Disney on Broadway filled CommuniCore Hall during Festival of the Arts. Chelsea told us that for Flower and Garden, you will be able to get a “bee’s-eye” view into how the horticulture team created the topiaries you see around the park. The best part? It will be Spike the Bee-inspired!

It was so cool to hear these behind-the-scenes stories, and they just made us even more pumped for Flower and Garden to start! We are less than a week away from the start of the festival, and we will be there to check out EVERYTHING! So make sure to keep following along with us here at AllEars.

Everything CONFIRMED For EPCOT’s 2025 Flower and Garden Festival

Will you be checking out the 2025 EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: We were invited by Disney to attend a Flower and Garden Cast Member Interview. This did not affect our reporting of the event — our opinions are our own.

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