2. The Epcot International Festival of Holidays

"A Salute to All Holidays, But Mostly Christmas," EPCOT's Festival of Holidays is nonetheless a really wonderful new-ish endeavor for the park, formally beginning only in 2017. It ranks high on our list because when it comes to the holidays, you really can't go wrong. Though it's a short festival (essentially running only between Thanksgiving and Christmas), the Festival of Holidays does successfully come across as a really vibrant, joyful, colorful, and celebratory season... which isn't easy to do when it doesn't snow.

Though this festival is new enough that traditions are still changing, there are a few key programmatic pieces that have made it really great. One is the absorption of the long-running Candlelight Processional – an annual, celebrity-hosted, choir-backed retelling of the Christmas story. There are also World Holiday Storytellers around World Showcase, each with mini-performances relating to the country's cultural traditions around the season, from Christmas to Lunar New Year to Hanukkah to the Epiphany. There's also a wonderful Holiday Cookie Stroll (think a bar crawl, but with international cookies) and of course, "Holiday Kitchens". 

Of course, the Festival of Holidays is also renowned for a holiday ride overlay! Though holiday overlays of the Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, "it's a small world," and Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! are annual events at Disneyland, they're much less common at Disney World. The exception is a fan-favorite one: "Living With the Land: Merry & Bright Nights" adds simple Christmas lights to the greenhouses and gardens of the Land pavilion's educational boat ride... a truly adorable overlay for such a "classic EPCOT" experience.

It wouldn't be surprising to see the Festival of Holidays grow in scope, but probably not its footprint. After all, it's hemmed in by the Food and Wine Festival that runs through mid-November, and by our number one festival that kicks off as soon as the holiday crowds depart... 

1. The EPCOT International Festival of the Arts

Also debuting recently (in 2017), the Festival of the Arts is such a natural fit for the park that it's shocking it didn't happen sooner. Combining the colorful gardens and plantings of the Flower & Garden Festival with the culinary samplings of the Food & Wine Festival and the personally-sized programming of the Festival of Holidays, the Festival of the Arts is basically a best-of EPCOT festival ingredients. If EPCOT's festivals are meant to draw in locals, gussy up an otherwise stark theme park with color, and add vibrancy and energy to the long walks between pavilions, then the Festival of the Arts is practically a master class in how to do it.

Sure, the "tapas" style offerings at the "Food Studios" are still pricey, but instead of merely being overpriced sample-sized raviolis, they're clever, Instagrammable apps and deserts, like "deconstructed key lime pie" and "paintbrush churros. And because "arts" can mean visual, culinary, musical, and performing, the park also offers the synergistic Disney on Broadway concert series, inviting performers from Disney's The Lion King, Frozen, Beauty & the Beast, and other serious theatrical offerings to take on classic songs.

But the coolest part of the Festival of the Arts is how incredibly interactive it is. Not only are there real artists creating and selling real artwork; there are also opportunities for guests to get in on the action. The most famous is probably a "paint-by-numbers" mural that arms guests with paint and a paintbrush and sets them loose to contribute to a real piece of art on display in the park. From chalk art to garden art, photo ops to scavenger hunts, this is probably the most interactive of the festivals, and thus makes the park feel beautifully alive.

Festival Seasons

Year after year, "Diet EPCOT" becomes a thing of the past, and EPCOT's full slate of Festivals shows no signs of slowing down! Even if the once-promised Festival pavilion has been downgraded to a new stage in the park's reborn "Communicore," the full slate of celebrations is still on track for 2022 and beyond...

So which festival is your favorite? Which would you like to see improved, and how? Let us know in the comments below!