NEWS: An Exclusive 'Nightmare Before Christmas' Addition Is Coming To The EPCOT Festival of the Arts

It’s almost time — are you ready? We’re talking about the EPCOT Festival of the Arts, which starts SOON!

2024 Festival of the Arts

The festival will run from January 17th through February 24th and will bring a whole artsy vibe to ALL of EPCOT. There will be lots of unique food served at the festival’s many food booths, a Disney on Broadway concert series, chalk art, art performances, and SO much more. However, you might want to know a little bit more about some of the souvenirs you’ll be able to bring home from the festival, so let’s talk about the most IMPORTANT merchandise of this festival: the art!

We had the opportunity to speak with Aaron Babcock, Merchandise Manager for The Walt Disney Company, who gave us some insight into what kind of artwork would be coming to this year’s festival. Disney is bringing in 36 artists this year, most of them returning from previous years, although two are new to the festival. Babcock said, “This year, we’ve asked for a little bit more of a focus on some Park elements into the art because the guest are here at Disney, so we want to make sure that they have something that’s a little bit more unique to their experience.”

Artwork from the 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts

This year will include 114 new pieces with 43 Disney movies and TV shows represented, including Marvel, Lucasfilm, and Pixar. Over 240 characters are represented in the art, as well as 36 different Park rides. “So as you can see, we have a pretty broad diverse base to work with that we think should capture all of our guests’ imaginations and their precious character, attraction, and all those memories that they have, which is what we always strive to do,” Babcock said.

Artwork at 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts

Perhaps the most exciting thing he mentioned, though, was the inclusion of a new The Nightmare Before Christmas piece by artist Darren Wilson. This will be the first time in around 15 years that this film has been included in the EPCOT Festival of the Arts. Babcock said, “I do think there are a couple pieces that are going to be very, very popular. One is The Nightmare Before Christmas piece because we have not had one for so long, and it is such a popular film, and Darren is one of our more popular artists. So we think that piece will be very successful.”

More artwork from 2024

However, Moana 2 fans also have something to look forward to at this year’s festival. Josey Tsao created a Moana piece before the new movie came out, but it turned out to be a perfect representation of the sequel. The art features Moana in her boat with her ancestors behind her in their boats “But she didn’t know the movie,” Babcock said,” so I don’t know how she did this, but I think because there’s the emotional tie of that, and the story behind it and the general feeling about the film in the country right now, I think that’s going to also be another very popular piece.”

Festival Artwork for sale in 2024

But wait, there’s more. Because if you want to get up in your EPCOT nostalgia feels, you’ll want to grab the EPCOT Festival of the Arts poster. The poster, by artist Rob Kaz, features Figment flying over EPCOT, and in the distance, you’ll see World Showcase, and you discover that Figment is chasing Dreamfinder’s ship. “It’s very nostalgic,” Babcock said. “He [Kaz] has a large following, and the piece is one of those quintessential EPCOT pieces that you go, ‘Okay, I instantly recognize that, and that is what it is.'”

Acme Archives booth at the 2024 festival

So, how does Disney work with these artists to create the next masterpieces that will grace your living room walls? Well, it’s a process. Disney tells each artist to submit about eight concept ideas for their pieces. Then they go through and make sure that they don’t have too many of one thing or not enough of another thing to maintain balance with character, film, and attraction representation.

The art is one of the best parts of the festival!

“It’s not something that we’re directing them to do, or we’re saying, ‘Hey, you must paint this because we know it,'” Babcock said, stating that Disney wants artists to be passionate about their pieces. “We say, ‘Okay, we would recommend if you’re doing this piece, maybe simplify the character so that the character is the hero, or maybe move the character more to the background and let the castle be the hero. But the bulk of it is really their work. We go through it and we vet it to make sure that we’re in line with all the corporate brands, that we’re in line with storytelling, you know.”

Beau Hufford at 2024 EPCOT Festival of the Arts

If you can’t make it to this year’s festival, though, don’t fret. You’ll be able to find some of the pieces around Disney Parks later in the year, including Disneyland.

If you’re looking forward to seeing this year’s fantastic art pieces, you’ll want to make sure to stop by the EPCOT
Festival of the Arts to check it out! We’ll be there on day one, covering EVERYTHING, so stay tuned to DFB for more.

The 8 Definitive Rules for Going to the Festival of the Arts in Disney World

MAKE THE MOST
OF YOUR FESTIVAL DAYS

DFB's guide to the Festival of the Arts details everything you need to know to maximize your time, budget, and stomach space! Know what's worth it and what to skip with our full-photo menus of each booth, complete with DFB's Best of the Fest.

It includes all the must-have information for navigating this colorful festival at Disney World, including:

🍭 Booth & food photos, maps, and crawls with DFB's exclusive recommendations!
🖌 The COMPLETE schedule of events (so you don't have to go hunting for all the dates!)
🎨 All the details on special events, artist meet-n-greets, festival-exclusive merchandise, and more!

MORE Festival of the Arts INFO!

Click HERE for All of the Latest News and Details About the Festival of the Arts!

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How much artwork do you buy when you visit the EPCOT Festival of the Arts? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney to attend an interview about EPCOT Festival of the Arts merchandise. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ