This year marks the 18th anniversary of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival. Coincidentally, I moved here to Orlando 18 years ago.
Welcome to Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
The Walt Disney World Resort in Florida started out very different than Disneyland Park in California. If you didn’t bring tourists in from outside Central Florida, you didn’t have any attendance. That’s because few people lived in the Central Florida area prior to park opening. While Anaheim was also an empty area with orange trees outnumbering residents, it bordered Los Angeles, a city that was sprawling with suburban growth after World War II. Simply said, there was plenty of people to fill up Disneyland just from the surrounding area, even in the off-season.
Soon promotions like “Date Night at Disneyland” were a perfect way to get people to come out on the weekends from Santa Monica, the San Fernando Valley, and even as far away as from San Clemente. In years to come, State Fair days and Videopolis nights continued to bring the locals in. And even today, more than 80 percent of visitors to the Disneyland Resort come from within the state of California. No wonder there are more than 1 million Annual Passholders.
But the experience at Walt Disney World is very different. And while marketing tried many of the same promotions as its sister park did, it really wasn’t until the 1990s when local promotions really took hold. Not that there weren’t earlier events. You had Mormon night in the 1970s, and EPCOT’s Daredevil Circus Spectacular in the 1980s. My former Disney colleagues could not say enough about the pain of moving those elephants around Future World. And you thought horse droppings on Main Street was a problem!
Then, that all changed.
The Orlando area today is still no Los Angeles. But it has a population of more than 2 million; that’s nearly twice the population that existed back in 2000. At one point, between 2003 and 2004, approximately 1,100 people per day moved to Florida. In 2009, Flagler, Osceola, and Lake counties were listed as some of the 25 fastest-growing counties in the nation.
Of course, the local area was hit hard by the recession. But so was the country. Still, Disney continues to focus on the local market. These range from annual pass promotions and local discounts to hard ticket after-hour events like Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and Night of Joy. But a big favorite of those living in the area are the park events held annually. And the granddaddy of these is the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival.
Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
I remember one of the first years the event was held. As a Disney cast member, my office was above the Venetian Palace in Italy, and one of the most novel aspects of the original festivals was a train garden in nearby Germany. I’d spend my breaks watching the trains go in and out. At the end of that festival, they tore the whole thing out, including the river beds. But they put it back in the following year and then just left it in permanently. Over time it grew.
The trains have been with the Flower & Garden Festival since the beginning. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
This year, a temporary tower commemorating Rapunzel of Disney’s Tangled takes up one corner of the area.
Gracing a corner of the train garden between Germany and Italy is a tower dedicated to Disney’s new film, Tangled. Music comes from the tower, and the window up in the tower opens and closes. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
So having been at the festival many times years ago, I wasn’t particularly excited to attend the event again. After all, it is a sort of “been there, done that.” I felt like each of the same sets of topiary takes its turn at the front of the park: It’s Mickey and friends one year, princesses the next. Then you see the butterfly exhibit, and something in each land at World Showcase, and call it a day. To that end, I was just going to go in, take a few shots and head out.
Peter Pan and Captain Hook anchored at the entrance in 2007. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
Then the princesses took their turn up front in 2009. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
Mickey and the gang go camping in front of the park in 2010. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
This year, it’s Toy Story‘s turn. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I really enjoyed the event. Partly because the weather was so perfect (and isn’t that why we live in Orlando?). I called my wife and had her come join me out at the park. Part of the reason was that it just doesn’t seem like the Flower and Garden Festival without her, the other part is the flowers really look nice. Is it possible to say that the flowers were more beautiful than ever? Maybe they got the color combination down or something, but the flowers are really stunning. And the exhibits were really well done.
Here are what the flowers looked like in 2009. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
Here are what the flowers looked like in 2010. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
An aerial view of the splendor of Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival in 2011. Perhaps it’s the yellow flowers that make it pop up? The netted tent behind is the new location of the butterfly garden. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
They tripled the size of the butterfly garden, and it was still crowded with folks. They did the same to the Pixie Hollow area and that made it easier to navigate, as well. My favorite exhibit over the last couple of years has been the one focusing on water features. They didn’t have that this year. Instead, they incorporated the water features throughout other exhibits.
Moving the butterfly garden to the other side of Future World allows the Pixie Hollow garden to be greatly enhanced in size. It runs from the front entrance of MouseGears all the way around toward the back entrance of MouseGears. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
I wish they had kept Wonders of Life as is! That said, management has finally consigned itself to using the facility more effectively. I don’t think you can really get the impact of being at the festival if you don’t take in some of the lectures and seminars they offer. Catering again to the local audience, Ask an Expert and many of the Special Happenings are clearly tailored toward the local audience, with experts from the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida being available to talk shop. I love the addition of the HGTV stars as they host some of my favorite TV shows.
New paint and signage have been added inside the Wonders of Life building. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
Curiously, one of the things they didn’t advertise was The Land. In years past ,they noted the Listening to the Land ride and the Behind the Seeds tour as part of the Flower and Garden Festival. This year, they weren’t listed on the map. It seemed as if they had gotten wise to the fact that the people who come to these events ride those attractions at other times during the year, and that they didn’t need to draw the crowds away from what was seasonally being offered.
Lots of characters are making appearances throughout Epcot’s Flower and Garden Festival. More so than it seems in previous years. Alice, shown here, and Mary Poppins are both hosting the Tea Garden in the United Kingdom pavilion. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
Beyond the Flower and Garden Festival, there are other major events that draw the local crowds:
Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. In Orlando, you know it’s spring when the Flower and Garden Festival occurs. You know it’s fall when it’s time for the Food & Wine Festival. Since I don’t drink, and since I’m always trying to watch my weight, the event has a much more limited appeal to me. Still, there was one year where it was really amazing. As a cast member, I participated in a press event that kicked off the Epcot Millennium experience during Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival. Accompanying a team of journalists from Mexico, we were each given a lanyard that allowed us unlimited food and beverage at all of the World Showcase kiosks set up for the event. The evening climaxed with the first-ever showing of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. Now that was a great event!
The tastes of the world can be found during the annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
ESPN the Weekend. Held just last weekend, this event is only one weekend a year. This year it was stuffed with crowds waiting to see their favorite athletes. That said, I’m not a big sports fan, so covering it again this year didn’t hold as much appeal to me. Still, the excitement at the ESPN Hot Set in front of the Sorcerer’s Hat at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or over in the ESPN Sports Zone is palpable.
Annually, ESPN broadcasts from the shadows of the sorcerer hat. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
I especially loved watching athletes showcase their skills on the games of the sports zone, and even taking on some of the sports they weren’t famous for.
Merril Hoge, former running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Bears, shows off his throwing skills for the cameras. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
And it’s exciting to see the fans react. You know many of them don’t come to Walt Disney World except during this event. But they have a great time and you can see it on their faces.
At first I thought that these were faithful fans. As I got closer, I realized they were part of the Streetmosphere gang. When I finally left, I wasn’t quite sure. The lines get blurry at ESPN the Weekend. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
ABC Super Soap Weekend. Held not only in Florida, but also in California, Disney flew over its daytime stars to an annual gig that lasted from 1996 to 2008. Stars like Kelly Ripa and the eternal soap star Susan Lucci drew in heavy crowds for the weekend event. I was one time catching a flight back to Orlando, and the entire first class section was filled with soap stars and their families. For them the flight over was like a family reunion. Now it’s gone–no big deal as I’m less into soaps than sports. But to fans, the event is very much missed.
Robert S. Woods of One Life to Live signing autographs during ABC Super Soap Weekend at Disney California Adventure. Photo by Alex Stroup.
Festival of the Masters. This is another event in the fall, and it doesn’t require money to get in. While Flower and Garden is the major park event, this is the great-granddad, in that the Festival of the Masters has been happening for more than 35 years. Like ABC Super Soap weekend and ESPN: The Weekend, this is a one-weekend-only event, and it’s packed with people enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Typically some 150 award-winning artists will showcase their wares. From painting to jewelry, from photography to sculpture, it’s an event most Disney tourists don’t know about. But the locals do!
Star Wars Weekends. Now this is my kind of weekend. Our family puts it on the calendar every year. That said, I think every Disney fan on the East Coast has put this year’s Star Wars Weekends on the calendar, too. With Star Tours: The Adventure Continues opening up in May a few weeks ahead of the opening at Disneyland (don’t worry Disneyland, you get Ariel’s Undersea Adventure an entire year ahead of us), this clearly will be a draw for more than just the local audience. But, still, this is something that folks around here love. We have friends who participate annually as Storm Troopers that parade down the streets of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. And my kids, who don’t normally do the character meet and greet thing, love to get their photo with their favorite Star Wars hero or villain.
It’s only a couple of months away. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
Star Wars characters meet and greet guests throughout the park. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
Storm Trooper Donald. Where else but Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Photo by J. Jeff Kober.
When Star Wars Weekends end, you know in town that the summer tourists are coming. That’s the time the locals go elsewhere for vacation… but we’re always back in time to do it all again. To us, these events are like seasons of the year, which is important, because, here in Orlando, you really don’t have seasons.
What do you think? Are you a local? Is there something you especially enjoy about living close to Walt Disney World? Are you from out of state, but still make an effort to attend these events? What is your favorite? What do you miss?
