It’s the start of a new year, which means it’s time for the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts! The 2023 festival runs from January 13th through February 20th. We’ve already got the full menus for the food studios, seen the line-up for the Broadway concert series, and even checked out some of the booths that have started to pop up around EPCOT. So what’s left to do before the start of this year’s festival?

Before the party officially begins on Friday (January 13th), we’re bringing you a SNEAK PEEK at some of the food, merchandise, and more that you’ll find at the 2023 festival! Come along with us to check it all out before your upcoming trip.

We were invited to attend a media preview of the event, which put some of the new items for this year’s Festival of the Arts on display.

Helloooo Festival of the Arts! This EPCOT festival kicks off tomorrow and we’re taking a little sneak peek before the fun begins. #artfulepcot #mediaevent pic.twitter.com/3YWIpUNcOZ

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2023

When we arrived we received our badge and were welcomed with a cloud of bubbles!

What a way to kick off a festival!

You know we’re having fun now! 🫧 We found a bubble machine by the Odyssey in EPCOT!#artfulepcot #mediaevent pic.twitter.com/W79QBDU5GG

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2023

This festival celebrates art in various ways, including culinary arts, visual arts, and performance arts. Of course, one of our favorite things about any EPCOT festival is the food — so let’s check it out!

Food Coming to the Festival of the Arts

Okay Figment fans, get excited, because a new booth totally dedicated to your favorite dragon has arrived!

We got to witness the unveiling of this new booth at the Odyssey pavilion.

This is one of the NEW booths at this year’s Festival of the Arts, and it’s dedicated to our pal Figment! Who’s ready for some Figgy-inspired treats?#mediaevent #artfulepcot pic.twitter.com/6ruDyxjUC0

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2023

This pavilion is covered in bright rainbows that fit the theme perfectly.

We also got to take a sneak peek inside!

And here’s a look INSIDE Figment’s Inspiration Station! #mediaevent #artfulepcot pic.twitter.com/LzKwzF876d

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2023

While here we were able to sample a variety of dishes from across the festival. But not before hearing from Chef Philip Rizzo, who told us about some of the eats.

Chef Phillip Rizzo is here to give us a preview of all of the colorful goodies we’re going to try at this year’s Festival of the Arts and Figment’s Inspiration Station! #mediaevent #artfulepcot pic.twitter.com/dsfTd77byf

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2023

We got to try out this rainbow beer flight — who knew beer could come in this many colors?

Chef Rizzo showed us some dishes from a few different booths.

We got to sample some items from The Artist’s Table, like this Three-Meat Meatloaf. This is a green pea pudding, carrot ketchup, shaved carrot salad, and snap pea dish filled with veggies.

Another item from this booth was the Duck and Dumplings. The smoked duck breast is paired with ricotta dumplings, petite vegetables, and a duck jus.

The last plate from The Artist’s Table was a Hummingbird Cake. This banana cake is paired with flavors of pineapple, coconut, and pecans. It’s topped with cream cheese frosting and has a side of banana sorbet.

Moderne is a new booth for this year and we got to try some of their food! First up was the Compressed Watermelon Tataki. The watermelon rind is pickled for a savory dish and comes with yuzu pearls, watermelon foam, and wasabi. This booth is definitely for adventurous eaters!

We also tasted a dish called The Tropica. With ingredients like lilikoi mousse, guava cake, coconut crémeux, compressed pineapple, and mango gel, we can understand how it got its name!

Another new dish is The Angry Crab. This dish is comprised of a whole crispy soft-shell crab, green papaya salad, mango-sriracha fluid gel, and coconut-lime foam with pomegranate and mango crush pearls.

Last but not least is of course Figment’s Imagination Station! We received another watermelon dish, this time in the form of a Fruit Pizza. This watermelon slice is topped with compressed cantaloupe, berries, and berry balsamic.

Next up was their Rainbow Cake which was almost too pretty to eat. It’s topped with freeze-dried SKITTLES! We really liked this cake — it was super moist and had almost an almond flavor. The texture was light and the skittles on top added a fun crunch!

Then we got to wash it all down with a Grape Smoothie, which also has the same freeze-dried candy on top. The purple smoothie fit this Figment glass perfectly! The drink was very heavy on the grape flavor, and while we liked it, it was almost too grape-forward (we were getting childhood medicine vibes).

Here’s the glass without the smoothie.

How fun!

See ALL the food booths and menus for this year’s festival HERE.

Merchandise Coming to the Festival of the Arts

We also got up close and personal with some of the new merchandise for this year!

First up, we have three different pins for the Festival. Each one features Figment in a different design!

There are also two drinkware items. First, we found this Figment mug.

The back is a chalkboard that you can actually write on!

And we saw this tumbler with the Festival of the Arts logo!

This tumbler is a Corkcicle, which are amazing at insulating your drinks.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a merchandise line without a Spirit Jersey. This one features Figment and says “Create your own Magic.”

We’re really enjoying the chalkboard and paint theme they have going on. Annual Passholders can also pick up one of these Figment tees.

And if you need some help budgeting, you can add money to a convenient gift card wristband and use that for the festival!

Add as much as you want and then simply use it at the booths and merchandise locations around the park. Easy peasy!

You can pick up these items at their merchandise stand inside the Figment booth.

We also learned that the Figment popcorn bucket will ONLY be available by Virtual Queue this year with a pickup station inside the Odyssey Pavilion, so keep that in mind if that’s on your must-buy list.

The famous (or perhaps INFAMOUS) Figment popcorn bucket is returning this year! Find out more here.

The food and merchandise are just part of this park-wide festival. Don’t forget that you can also take part in a Figment-themed scavenger hunt …

…lend your artistic skills to the interactive wall mural, and stroll through the amazing Walking Chalk Gallery.

You can also meet real Disney artists at the festival, chat with them, and purchase copies of their art to take home! At this event, we got to meet an artist named Jason Ratner, who created the amazing EPCOT print you can see below.

We also met Terralynn Lake, who was working on this stunning piece.

It’s incredible to watch them work!

You’ve got to love seeing artists at work! #mediaevent #artfulepcot pic.twitter.com/aOmJ1KxNkZ

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2023

Fans of Disney history will enjoy this year’s festival. Inside the Figment pavilion, you will be able to see original projections from Journey Into Imagination!

Inside Figment’s Inspiration Station, guests will be able to see some of the original projections from Journey Into Imagination! #mediaevent #artfulepcot pic.twitter.com/ArTQIc8b9L

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) January 12, 2023

We found out about another activity coming to the festival that we are SO excited about. The ORIGINAL pin boards from Journey into Imagination are on display and guests will be able to use them! These tables are the ones from 1983 when the ride opened, located in Imageworks on the 2nd floor (where the rainbow tunnel was).

They will be in the Odyssey Pavilion so head over there if you want to check them out!

There’s a lot to see and do in EPCOT for the Festival of the Arts, so be sure to check out our full guide and keep following the blog for full coverage on the first day of the event!

Visiting the festival this year? Be sure to download our FREE printable list of all the menus before you go!

Are you visiting the Festival of the Arts in EPCOT this year? Drop your questions about the event in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of the 2023 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

The post Get a SNEAK PEEK at the Food and Merchandise for the 2023 EPCOT International Festival of the Arts first appeared on the disney food blog.