10 Activities Your Kids will Love at EPCOT Festival of the Arts

EPCOT Festival of the Arts is already in full swing this year. If you’re headed to Walt Disney World with the kids and have plans to attend the festival – let me be the first to tell you that you’re in for a real treat!

With the colorful theming, amazing food selections, and entertainment, this festival is a total must-do for my family. I have a feeling it will become your favorite festival, too!

The Festival of the Arts is a very interactive and hands-on experience. This happens to make it GREAT for the kids!

Of all the EPCOT festivals, this is one that I personally think kids enjoy the most. There’s just so many activities for them to do, especially in comparison to a festival like EPCOT Food & Wine.

So without any further ado, here’s the 10 activities your kids will love at EPCOT Festival of the Arts.

10 Activities Your Kids will Love at EPCOT Festival of the Arts

Go on a Scavenger Hunt

EPCOT offers a different scavenger hunt for each of the festivals. During the Festival of the Arts, your kids will go on an epic search throughout the World Showcase for Figment! Everyone loves Figment (Some Disney fans might debate this…LOL) and he’s hidden in art pieces around the festival.

Besides riding the attractions, this is my kids’ favorite thing to do! They adore these and look forward to each festival just so they can do the scavenger hunt.

To get started, head over to either of these merchandise locations; World Traveler, Disney Traders, or Mouse Gear. For about $8 bucks, you’ll pick up a map and a set of stickers. (Passholder discount applies.)

As you make your way around the World Showcase, see if your kids can locate Figment in the different art pieces. When they find him, they’ll place the sticker on the corresponding location on the map until they find them all.

Once they’ve uncovered all of Figment’s hiding places, return to any of the above merchandise locations. Cast Members will stamp their maps, and then they can claim their prize!

Scavenger Hunt Prizes

This year’s prize is these paper puzzles. Your kiddo can pick which one they’d like. My boys picked Mickey and Figment. (In years past, the prize used to be Disney collector pins. I miss those and hope they make a return!)

Just as a little warning though, Figment’s Brush with the Master’s scavenger hunt is a little more difficult than the other EPCOT hunts we’ve done. Some of the paintings are located inside theaters, merchandise locations, and eateries. You’ll have to actually go in all of the locations to find him. It took us quite a bit of time to find every Figment!

If you want to check out how we did with Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition and Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak, click here and here.

Chalk Full of Character

Another fun hunt is the Chalk Full of Character activity. Throughout the corners of the World Showcase there’s character chalk art hidden about. Challenge your kids to see how many Disney Characters they can find by the end of the day.

Paint By Number

Do you remember the paint-by-number activities that we used to do as kids? Well, there’s a larger than life version of this offered at the Festival of the Arts.

The oversized paint-by-number wall mural is a collective effort, too! Together, Disney guests paint by number with the finished product being a gorgeous wall mural. When we were there, it was a version of Starry Night with the additional of Space Ship Earth.

How cute are my friend Lin’s boys? Even with the masks, I can tell her little guy is smiling away! If you’re looking to book a Disney Vacation, Lin is your girl! She also has a super helpful Disney Mama’s Facebook group. You can join here.

On your way to the World Showcase, stop over at the Land Pavilion. There’s a little hut where you can pick up a small container of paint and a paint brush. Your kids can pick out the color they want, too!

Across from the hut, you’ll see the giant canvas. Cast Members are there to help you get started. Find your number and paint away! Depending on the day, you’ll be able to paint 5-7 squares. They will even give you a bookmark of what the finished masterpiece will look like.

Play with Your Food

There’s so many amazing food options available during this festival. They are really unique and plated so beautifully. What’s a celebration of the arts without including the culinary works?!

Now, some of these options might be a little too weird or unfamiliar to kids. Like I already know my kids aren’t going to eat the Chilled Seafood cocktail with Black Octopus or the Chicken Roulade with Violet Mustard. But there’s some really great options for kids.

A popular item that I know your kids will love is the Artist Palette Jumbo Chocolate Chip cookie. These cookie are humungous and served up nice and warm. The icing looks like blobs of primary colored paint…and it includes a paint brush.

My two boys had so much fun with these! They painted all sorts of stuff on their cookies. If you follow along in my Instagram stories, my oldest son proudly exclaimed that he painted California! Ha! I died!

They both said that these tasted super yummy, too!!

More Kid-Favorites:

Orange Cream Shake – The Citrus Blossom

Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake – The Deconstructed Dish

Raspberry or Lemon Soft-serve – Decadent Delights

Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese – POP EATS!

Red Velvet Funnel Cake – The American Adventure

Passion Fruit Mousse – Vibrante & Vivido Food Studio

Hop into a Masterpiece

Located throughout EPCOT are some really fun photo ops. Many of these look like famous works of art and are created in a 3-D type diorama. When you step into the frame, it looks like you actually become a part of the piece.

How fun, right? There are a ton of these located throughout the World Showcase and in Future World. Make sure to post these on Instagram and tag me. I’d love to see your kid’s face in a famous work of art!

Watch Amazing Performers

In several different locations around the World Showcase, you can find some incredible entertainment and performers. The level of talent in these is so impressive and most kids would be totally captivated.

The two favorites in our family were the Art Defying Gravity Acrobatic Group and the JAMMitors.

Art Defying Gravity can be found performing on the center stage of the World Showplace building. This is an acrobatic group that is a, “spectacle of thrilling strength acts that defy gravity and the imagination.” They were VERY entertaining!!

The JAMMitors are always crowd pleasers. These guys are a high energy percussion group. They play on metal ovens, pots, pans…you name it, they play awesome beats on it!

They perform several times a day at the outdoor stage in the Canada Pavilion. If you see a redhead and her two crazy kids getting down…just look away…we have zero shame when it comes to dancing with the JAMMitors!

Also new this year, the Voices of Liberty can be found at the America Gardens Theatre. Here you’ll find them singing out Disney favorites from all of the Disney Songbooks. They are worth the visit…so magical!!

Meet Disney Artists

The main focus of the festival is, of course, the ART! Make sure you stop and checkout some of the art pieces in the Festival Markets.

There is absolutely mind blowing talent here! There were so many pieces that my kids wanted to take home. From Star Wars, favorite characters, pop art, realism….I could go on and on. There’s something for everyone.

Your kids will love to pick out a piece of art to hang in their room. The original canvas paintings can be very pricey. The perk, however, to attending the festival is that you get the option of buying the prints at a much lower cost. Sometimes these artists only offer prints of their work during the Festival of the Arts. So if you see a print you want, grab it!

If price is a concern, some of the artists also offer smaller pieces of art for around $5-10.

Be sure to meet some of the artists. Many of them demonstrate their talent live in action. They are so friendly and willing to chat. Some sign autographs, too!

If there’s a particular artist that you’d like to see, scan the QR code at one of these signs and download the schedule.

Also, you can’t miss the sidewalk chalk art! These blow my mind every year, especially the ones that are 3-D. Many times you’ll see the artists creating the chalk art before you very eyes. It’s amazing!

Become an Artist!

Not only can your kids meet famous Disney artists, they can also become one themselves. There’s several opportunities for some hands-on fun!

At the America Gardens Theatre, there is the Animation Academy. Your kiddos can learn how to draw a Disney character from an animation artist. This is only offered two times throughout the day, at either 12:30 and 1:30. So if this is a must-do, just make sure to plan accordingly so you don’t miss it.

My friend Brandy always takes the most beautiful photos of her kids! Here they are showing off their very own Goofy animations. I just love each of their representations!

Mom Hack: Consider tossing an empty paper towel roll in your park bag. You can roll up your kid’s special animation drawings and stick them in the paper towel roll. This will keep them from getting folded or bent during your trip.

I’ve been telling every mom I know about this. Only because I failed miserably, and our animation drawings got crushed in my bag.

Wave to Your Favorite Characters!

Character interactions aren’t unique to the festival, but they’re totally worth adding to the list the things your kids will love at EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts. We saw several of our favorites during our day there…

Character interactions continue to be different during the phased reopening. You can’t actually meet or hug any of the characters. Specifically, at EPCOT, you’ll see Character Cavalcades make their way around the Wold Showcase. You can also find some of your favorite characters hanging out in specific locations throughout EPCOT.

Here’s a quick list of some of the most popular character sightings at EPCOT right now:

Mickey and Friends – Cavalcade around the World Showcase

Princess Cavalcade – Cavalcade around the World Showcase

Anna & Elsa Procession – World Showcase

Elsa has also been seen waving to guests out in Norway

Alice and Mary Poppins – in the gardens of the UK Pavilion

Joy and Pooh Bear – the field between the Land and Imagination Pavilion

Have a Colorful Day!!

If you’re headed to the Festival of the Arts with the kids this year…no need to worry about keeping them entertained! There are so many kid-friendly activities at EPCOT Festival of the Arts! They are going to love it and I promise you will, too!

If you’d like to see how our festival adventures went down, don’t forget to follow me over at Instagram. If you missed it, you can check my Instagram highlights. We have new park stories each week!

I’m also over at Pinterest! You can save this post by clicking on the Pin It! button below.

I’m also on Facebook! I’d love to have you there.

Let me know if you have any questions or other tips I may have forgotten. It helps out our other readers as well. Tag me in your photos and let me know if your kids loved the festival as much as we did!

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