The Epcot International Festival of the Arts is back, with a wide swath of disciplines gathering. It remains a very visual event, but it’s also designed to entertain ears and taste buds.

Returning to the theme park are sets of Broadway singers, the walk-in works of art, behind-the-scenes exhibits and creative cuisine served up at two dozen outlets. (One or two have Skittles products, which, we must admit, are colorful choices.)

This fest, which debuted at Walt Disney World in 2017, is included with regular Epcot admission. It runs from Jan. 16 through Feb. 23.

CommuniCore encore

For the second year, “Once Upon a Stage: The Magic of Disney on Broadway” exhibit is set up inside CommuniCore Hall. Props and costumes from “The Lion King,” “Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast” are featured.

“The focus really is for that walkthrough experience to be more of that behind-the-scenes aspects of our Broadway productions, and kind of getting that real peek behind the curtain, so to speak,” said Christopher Revetria, a producer with Disney Live Entertainment.

“There’s going to be an exceptionally exciting element from ‘Aladdin’ that will be outdoors, actually, not within the space, that I think guests are really going to engage with,” Revetria said without being a spoiler.

Also outdoors and nearby are musical acts on the CommuniCore Plaza stage. Among the instruments in use are violin, guitar, ukulele, sitar and saxophone. Returning are Benoit Lajeunesse and Don Black, and “we’re excited to be incorporating some new talent this year on that stage,” Revetria said.

Broadway bunch

A dozen actors are scheduled to appear in the Disney on Broadway concert series at America Gardens Theatre. That includes six newbies to the event. Newcomers are Isabelle McCalla (“Aladdin”), Sierra Boggess (“The Little Mermaid”), Anastacia McCleskey (“Tarzan”), Ainsley Melham (“Aladdin”), James Monroe Iglehart (“Aladdin”) and Susan Egan (“Beauty and the Beast.”)

The six festival veterans include Kissy Simmons (“The Lion King”), Josh Strickland (“Tarzan”), Ashley Brown (“Mary Poppins”), Mandy Gonzalez (“Aida”), Adam Jacobs (“Aladdin”) and Jelani Remy (“The Lion King”).

Jacobs and McCalla kick off the lineup Friday. Showtimes each day are 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Food front

The 2026 festival menu has 56 edible items, 30 of which are listed as new to the fest. Among the fresh options are Nashville hot chicken sandwich (sold at Connections Eatery) and steakhouse lobster Caesar salad (Artist’s Table). It’s also fun to say Plate of Impossible Bites, which is listed as roasted turkey breast, onion and bacon custard tart, cherry gel, brown butter toast milk foam and pineapple-toffee butter. It’s sold at the Fictional Victuals kiosk near the Disney Traders store.

On the sweet side are deconstructed key lime pie (from Deconstructed Dish near Test Track) and color scheme cake — one that uses Skittles Pop’d, a freeze-dried candy — from Figment’s Inspiration Station within the Odyssey.

On the beverage menu, there are 71 items, 27 of them new to the arts fest. Among them are a matcharita (from El Artista Hambriento in Epcot’s Mexico) and the nonalcoholic “grapey apple boba” from Goshiki in Japan.

In the cards

Disney Lorcana, a trading card game, is making its Epcot arts fest debut.

In non-theme park play, the game revolves around Illumineers, glimmers, inklands, a lorebook and other buzzwords and actions that are important to players. It’s built upon Disney characters and locations.

During the festival, participants get questbooks on the bridge to World Showcase and follow instructions to collect four specific (but “larger-than-life”) cards. This leads to three specific collectible cards: Rapunzel as an appreciative artist, Donald Duck being a pie-slinger and Stitch in rock star mode. Their roles represent the arts.

Certainly the cards are imaginative. The Lorcana website refers to them as “mini masterpieces.”

Also on the bridge to World Showcase is a new photo op based on a Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse card from the game’s “Fabled” set.

Return engagements

Many of the arts fest staples are again on hand at Epcot. Displays of artist wares, available for purchase, ring World Showcase and seep into other parts of the park. There are meet and greet opportunities with real, live human artists,

Also back are chalk art experiences – both on the ground and on buildings – plus paint-by-number group murals and a Figment-based scavenger hunt. Animation Academy, where visitors learn to draw a character from a featured artist, is held at America Gardens Theatre at 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. daily. There will be seven Artful Photo Ops, those 3-D re-creations of famed artwork designed to insert visitors into the scene.

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