2022 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival Dates & Details

Disney has announced details and dates for the 2022 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. This post shares everything we know so far, including the extent to which it’ll incorporate Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary into the event and speculation about the likelihood that Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will open during the festival.

Next year’s Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will run from March 2 to July 4, 2022. It’ll be tied for the longest Epcot Flower & Garden Festival ever–with this year, when it also ran for 125 days. This year’s event amounted to a significant extension from the “normal” Flower & Garden Festival, which previously concluded in early June.

As with this year, the goal is to likely buoy attendance at a time of year when Epcot is usually slower than the other parks at Walt Disney World. Extending the end date from the beginning of June until July could help accomplish that. Whether that strategy was successful with this year’s Epcot Flower & Garden Festival is debatable…

This year, summer was the busiest season at Walt Disney World, with Americans making up for lost time traveling. (As we’ve pointed out repeatedly over the last ~5 years, summer is not normally peak season at Walt Disney World anymore.)

For its part, Epcot saw moderate crowd levels throughout the summer months, as show on the graphs below:

Epcot’s wait times and crowd levels were significantly lower than the other 3 parks, but higher than a normal “Diet Epcot” season. However, the Disney Park Pass system also pushed some guests to Epcot, as the other 3 parks were fully booked at various points, leaving Epcot as a “consolation prize” for locals or those who booked late.

In other words, we can’t really draw any definitive conclusions from Walt Disney World extending festival season at Epcot. Or we could draw whatever conclusions we so desired. The data would support a variety of different narratives. It probably increased per guest spending–that seems like a safe bet given the food booths and merchandise options–which is likely what matters most to Disney.

Next, the question of whether Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will open during the 2022 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, and if so, when. Walt Disney World has revealed the nebulous “Summer 2022” timeframe. Technically, that means any time from June 21 through September 22, 2022.

Unless something goes tremendously wrong, we can rule out August or September as opening dates. Walt Disney World isn’t opening a new ride that cost several hundreds of millions of dollars just in time for the fall off-season. They just aren’t. Disney has its own definition of “seasons” and summer starts on Memorial Day weekend and ends when schools go back into session in early to mid-August. That’s when the ~3 month Halloween “season” begins.

In our view, opening Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind around Memorial Day or the weekend thereafter makes more sense than waiting until Flower & Garden is over after Independence Day. Usually, July bookings are strong regardless, and Disney will likely want the attraction open before then to help with heavier crowds.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has a ton of marketing potential. It could convince Marvel enthusiasts (and there are a lot of them) to not just visit Epcot, but to book Walt Disney World trips earlier in the summer, during a time that might not be as busy as July. As such, we’d expect a late May or early June 2022 opening to take full advantage of this marketing potential.

Of course, that’s just our guess. For what it’s worth, in last year’s Epcot Flower & Garden Festival preview post, we also guessed Walt Disney World would purposefully hold off on opening Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure until after summer–even though it was finished–even as others were predicting its opening was weeks away.

As for concrete details about the 2022 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival, Walt Disney World has announced a new main entrance topiary display will feature Goofy and a 50th birthday cake for the World’s Most Magical Celebration.

Other character topiaries will include Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Remy, Anna & Elsa, Lady & the Tramp, Figment, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Germany pavilion, Lumiere and Cogsworth in the France pavilion, and more.

Walt Disney World’s Horticulture team is busy planting, pruning and planning now for the kaleidoscope of bright blooms and floating gardens scattered throughout Epcot, with each one making a perfect backdrop for family photos.

Gardeners will marvel at thousands of blooms forming colorful, living panoramas all around Epcot, and the entire family can experience the Health Full Trail presented by AdventHealth along the Imagination walkway to learn tips for staying well.

With 18 food booths, World Showcase will play host to the 2022 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival’s Outdoor Kitchens and other food & beverage locations, offering a smorgasbord of flavors and beverages.

This should be about on par with this year. In addition to the Outdoor Kitchens, there are more and more existing snack stands with special menu items for the festivals.

The popular Garden Rocks Concert Series will return in 2022, featuring favorite tunes at the America Gardens Theatre. Walt Disney World promises more details about the musicians playing during the 2022 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival soon.

You’ll also find blooming keepsakes including vibrant apparel, drinkware, accessories and more with new merchandise collections launching just in time for the 2022 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.

Ultimately, we’re reasonably satisfied with the tentative lineup for the 2022 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Even though Disney has moved away from the “Taste of” naming convention, these events have still been scaled back by virtue of not having a festival center now that World ShowPlace has returned to private event space, the Odyssey is hosting Epcot Experience, and Wonders of Life is being converted to the Play Pavilion (maybe?).

Still, the loss of a festival center is mostly no big deal since the heart of the event revolves around the horticulture. Our biggest hope is less about the substance of this event and more what could coincide with the 2022 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival. It would be great if Connections Cafe is finished, that walkway reopens, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind debuts. All of that would go a long way in making Epcot a more pleasant park to experience–some pretty garden displays would certainly help, too!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

Did you attend Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival this year? Are you excited to experience the 2022 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival, or will you be sitting this one out? Excited for the return of the Garden Rocks concert series? Optimistic that Cosmic Rewind will open before the end of the event? Any tips you want to share to make the most of the experience? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!