Garden Rocks Concerts at 2024 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival: Dates, Lineup & Dining Packages

Garden Rocks Concerts return to the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival starting in March at Walt Disney World. This post covers the current lineup of bands and musicians, whether the dining package is worth the money, dates of the performances, and everything else you need to know. (Updated February 10, 2024.)

Let’s start with the basics. The EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival starts February 28 and runs until May 27, 2024. Once again the Garden Rocks Concert Series will offer its own ‘split approach,’ with internationally recognized artists performing Friday through Monday and local Orlando talent on Tuesday through Thursday at the America Gardens Theater.

The Garden Rocks Concert series is jam-packed with talent from returning favorites like The Pointer Sisters, Simple Plan, and the Plain White T’s. EPCOT also welcomes new groups for 2024, including Modern English, Crowder, Lit, and Monsieur Perine. For the first time, Raul Acosta & Oro Solido will share the stage with Magic Juan, then return the next day with Luisito Ayala and The Puerto Rican Power Band in a series of unforgettable performances.

These Garden Rocks performances are held in the America Gardens Theatre across from the American Adventure in World Showcase. The concerts are included with EPCOT admission, and typically take place three times per evening, at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m.

During the Garden Rocks Concert Series, popular bands from the 60s and 70s–the grooviest, flower-filled decades–and beyond perform some of their greatest hits for the Flower & Garden Festival crowds.

Here’s the schedule of the 2024 Garden Rocks Concert Series during the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival:

• The Vybe — February 28-29, 2024
• Jason Scheff — March 1-2, 2024
• Richard Marx — March 3-4, 2024
• Evolution Motown — March 5-7, 2025
• Berlin — March 8-9, 2024
• Rick Springfield — March 10-11, 2024
• Dian Diaz — March 12-14, 2025
• Modern English (NEW) — March 15-16, 2024
• Commodores — March 17-18, 2024
• Foreigners Journey — March 19-21, 2024
• The Orchestra — March 22-25, 2024
• Funkafied  — March 26-28, 2024
• Mike DelGuidice — March 29-30, 2024
• Pointer Sisters — March 31 and April 1, 2024

• The Female Collective — April 2-4, 2024
• Blue October — April 5-6, 2024
• Crowder (NEW) — April 7-8, 2024
• Hooligans — April 9-11, 2024
• Jo Dee Messina — April 12-13, 2024
• A Flock of Seagulls — April 14-15, 2024
• M-80’s — April 16-18, 2024
• Plain White T’s — April 19-22, 2024
• Champagne Orchestra — April 23-25, 2024
• Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas — April 26-27, 2024
• Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone — April 28-29, 2024
• Southbound — April 3o, May 1-2, 2024

• Monsieur Perine — May 3, 2024
• Rick Acosta and Oro Solido — May 4-5, 2024
• Fonseca (New!) – May 6, 2024
• Gilly and the Girl Band — May 7-9, 2024
• Simple Plan — May 10-13, 2024
• Element — May 14-16, 2024
• The Spinners — May 17-18, 2024
• Sister Hazel – May 19-20, 2024
• Epic — May 21-23, 2024
• Lit (New!) — May 24-25, 2024
• Casting Crowns – May 26-27, 2024

Garden Rocks Dining Packages are only offered Friday to Monday during the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. Packages are not offered on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays.

Walt Disney World guests who purchase the Garden Rocks Dining Package will receive concert badges at the restaurant after their meal. The badge will specify the date and show time they have reserved. Guests with the Dining Package will enter America Gardens Theatre in a separate queue and will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is guaranteed.

Each package includes:

• An appetizer, entrée and dessert or one (1) full buffet (where applicable), along with a non-alcoholic beverage
• At Spice Road Table, the Garden Rocks Dining Package includes 2 small plates, a shared dessert platter, and a nonalcoholic beverage
• One (1) guaranteed seat per person to one concert performance on the same day; the concert time will be assigned at the time of booking

Explore participating restaurants and dining package prices, which exclude tax and gratuity:

Advance Dining Reservations for the Garden Rocks Dining Package open on February 6, 2024. Advance Dining Reservations will be released consistent with ADR rules for Walt Disney World, meaning that the entire event won’t be available at once, but rather, on a rolling 60+10 day basis.

If the Garden Rocks Dining Package is something you really want (more on whether you actually need it below), we’d recommend booking ASAP. That’s especially true for popular restaurants like Akershus, which is exceedingly difficult to book even without the package.

If you’re not able to score ADRs for Garden Rocks sit-down dining packages, fear not. You may be able to purchase a same-day dining package, which allows you to:

• Dine without reservations at Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts & Barbecue that day (Spice Road Table might also be an option)
• Enjoy guaranteed seats to a Garden Rocks concert later that day

To check availability for same-day dining packages, visit Regal Eagle’s Distinctly Patriotic Smokehouse: A Salute to All Foods, But Mostly Barbecued Meats ~ A Sam Eagle Craft Drafts & BBQ Joint. Same-day Garden Rocks Dining Packages are subject to availability and may not be available on peak dates.

Although we’re fans of Regal Eagle, Spice Road Table is without a doubt the way to go if you’re “forced” to do a same-day dining package. Yes, it’s $12 more expensive, but it offers at least that much more bang-for-buck, with a menu that’s more approachable than you might think.

Check out our review, Spice Road Table: EPCOT’s Best Candlelight Processional Dining Package?, for more as to why that’s our top pick. Even though it’s written from the perspective of Candlelight, it applies equally to Garden Rocks.

The America Gardens Theater where Garden Rocks Concert Series is held can seat over 1,000 guests per performance, but a large chunk of these seats are set aside for guests who purchase dinner packages. All of these dinner package guests are guaranteed seats in one of the three nightly Garden Rocks concerts.

In addition to this, fans for particular acts often line up in advance, and seeing those lines, regular tourists also queue up. Consequently, it becomes something of a self-fulfilling prophecy–the standby line for performances can get longer because it’s long.

However, that only applies to popular performers…and in perusing the lineup, there aren’t all that many of those. I’m personally looking forward to Blue Oyster Cult, but I don’t know that they’re truly popular these days. Perhaps if Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken appear with them as special guests. To that point, it’s relatively rare for the Garden Rocks concerts to fill America Gardens Theater to capacity. Just because the line looks long…doesn’t mean it’s going to be a packed house.

This is especially true for the earlier performances when the sun is still beating down on the outdoor amphitheater. Same goes for Garden Rocks concerts that don’t occur during the peak of Spring Break season. Much of EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival falls during shoulder or off-season, and the concerts aren’t too bad then.

To each their own, but we typically do not recommend purchasing the Garden Rocks Concert Series Dining Package. If your only experience with performances in this venue is Candlelight Processional, adjust your expectations. There’s far less demand for the Garden Rocks Concert Series than there is for Candlelight Processional.

FOMO is a powerful motivator, but you should be able to enjoy the concert just fine without paying extra for a dining package. We’ve watched many concerts in March through mid-October, and have never once bought one of these dining packages for either Garden Rocks or Eat to the Beat (during Food & Wine Festival).

We almost always show up a few minutes before the show starts and are easily able to score spots. In our view, the dining packages are a waste of money unless they’re the only way to get a specific, highly-coveted ADR (looking at you, Akershus) or you’re able to leverage them to the fullest advantage and don’t mind paying a slight premium for peace of mind.

In terms of value for money, the dining package is not that expensive. You are absolutely paying a bit of a premium for the Garden Rocks Concert Series Dining Package, and that’s even assuming you “optimization” your order and select the most expensive entrees, etc–but it’s not that bad.

If you elect not to do the Garden Rocks Dining Package and don’t want very long in line, you have a couple of options. First, show up to the standby line ~15 minutes before the first show of the day starts. Depending upon the popularity of the band and the weather, there are usually still plenty of seats in the sun (very few spots in the America Gardens Theater are shaded). If not, at least you didn’t waste a ton of time standing in line.

In most circumstances, that strategy will work just fine. You may not have the best seats, but you’ll still be able to see the show and have a seat. If the theatre is already full, we recommend trying to watch from the walkway behind the America Gardens Theatre.

Cast Members will manage crowd flow back here in the walkway, but you can simply stand behind the theater (not in the walkway) and watch the concert. This is actually a really good view for the Garden Rocks Concert Series, and is still reasonably close to the stage. It’s not like being in the cheap seats given the intimate size of the venue–think of it as sitting (well, standing) in the balcony of the America Gardens Theatre.

Honestly, this is more than what we do. We watched Garden Rocks maybe 3-4 times last year, and in each case it was a spontaneous thing. We simply happened to be passing the America Gardens Theater shortly before or after as the concerts started, and decided to grab a seat to get off our feet and enjoy some classic rock. I can’t even recall the last time we queued up in advance for one of these concerts. Our advice here is simply to give you more of a buffer and err on the side of caution.

Ultimately, watching the Garden Rocks Concert Series is pretty simple and straightforward, and should involve zero stress or pre-planning. Although we regularly buy the Candlelight Processional Dining Packages, we have never–not once!–bought dining packages for any of the other three festivals. From our perspective, it’s a waste of money, as we can still easily enjoy the performances with minimal effort.

We may not be right up front and center, but the views are good throughout the America Gardens Theater–and even behind it. To each their own, but we’d rather allocate our budget for visiting Walt Disney World on other things. If you have infinite resources and don’t mind wasting money, by all means, book the Garden Rocks Dining Package. As a splurge, it’s one of the absolute worst choices–save that money for something else…literally anything else…at Walt Disney World!

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Your Thoughts

Are you a fan of the Garden Rocks Concert Series? Which bands have you seen perform on the America Gardens Theater stage? Do you usually book the Garden Rocks Dining Package or wait in line? Think it’s worth the money? Do you have any strategy for seeing the shows without waiting? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!