NEWS: Disney Releases Schedule for 2019 Garden Rocks Concert Series

Most of the country is experiencing crazy cold temperatures and wind chills this week, so it’s the perfect time to start dreaming of spring! Spring at Disney World is a fantastic time to visit especially because the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival is in full swing. One of the great things about the festival is the Garden Rocks Concert Series, which is included with Epcot admission. Disney has released (a mostly complete) concert schedule with some amazing new artists (hello, Toby Mac)! Get your calendars out and start planning that spring vacation! Read all the details below:

Here are all the details from Disney Cast Member Jennifer Fickley-Baker:

We recently shared that the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival will return to Walt Disney World Resort March 6-June 3, 2019 with a wide selection of delectable bites at outdoor kitchens and dozens of Disney-themed topiaries blooming around the park.

New in 2019, the festival’s Garden Rocks Concert Series will expand to seven days a week, with a total of 270 concerts spanning multiple genres over the course of the 90-day event.

We’re excited to share part of the rocking line-up for the 2019 Garden Rocks Concert Series! Returning favorites like The Spinners and Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone will be joined by brand new artists like TobyMac, Steven Curtis Chapman and Colin Hay of Men at Work for what is sure to be the best year of Garden Rocks concerts yet.

• March 6-8: Journey former lead vocalist STEVE AUGERI (NEW) “Don’t Stop Believin’ ”
• March 9-10: Glass Tiger (New to Garden Rocks) “Don’t Forget Me (When I’m Gone)”
• March 11-12: Jon Anderson of YES (NEW) “Owner of A Lonely Heart”
• March 13-14: Tony Orlando “Knock Three Times”
• March 15-16: Wang Chung (NEW to Garden Rocks), “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”
• March 17-20: Simple Plan “Perfect”
• March 21-22: Ambrosia (NEW) “Biggest Part of Me”
• March 23-24: Magic Giant (NEW) “Set on Fire”
• March 25-27: Air Supply (New to Garden Rocks) “All Out of Love”
• March 28-29: Berlin featuring Terri Nunn “Take My Breath Away”
• March 30-31: The Smithereens (NEW to Garden Rocks) “Top of the Pops”
• April 1-2: Rick Springfield “Jessie’s Girl”
• April 3-4: Christopher Cross (NEW to Garden Rocks) “Sailing”
• April 5-7: The Spinners “Working My Way Back to You”
• April 8-9: Dennis DeYoung, original member of the group STYX “Come Sail Away”
• April 10-11: John Michael Montgomery (NEW) “I Love the Way You Love Me”
• April 12-13: Sister Sledge (NEW to Garden Rocks) “We Are Family”
• April 14-16: Night Ranger “Sister Christian”
• April 17-19: Sister Hazel (NEW to Garden Rocks) “All For You”
• April 20-21: Steven Curtis Chapman (NEW) “Cinderella”
• April 22-23: TobyMac (NEW) “The Elements”
• April 24-26: Lonestar “Amazed”
• April 27-30: The Orchestra starring former members of ELO “Evil Woman”
• May 1-4: Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone “I’m Henry VIII I Am”
• May 5-7: Don Felder, Formerly of the Eagles “Hotel California”
• May 8-9: A Flock of Seagulls (NEW) “I Ran (So Far Away)”
• May 10-11: Marshall Tucker Band (NEW to Garden Rocks) “Heard It in a Love Song”
• May 12-13 – Peabo Bryson (NEW), “If You’re Ever In My Arms Again”
• May 14-15: Richard Marx (New to Garden Rocks) “Right Here Waiting”
• May 16-19: STARSHIP starring Mickey Thomas “We Built This City”
• May 20-21: Colin Hay of Men at Work (NEW) “Who Can It Be Now?”
• May 22-23: War (NEW) “Why Can’t We Be Friends”
• May 24-27: The Guess Who “American Woman”
• May 28-29: Jon Secada “Just Another Day”
• May 30- June 1: Blood, Sweat and Tears “Spinning Wheel”
• June 2-3 – Eddie Palmieri (NEW), “Vamanos Pa’l Monte”

Garden Rocks concert performances take place at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. each night of the festival and are included in regular park admission. Guests can enjoy guaranteed concert seating by reserving a Garden Rocks Dining Package and enjoying breakfast, lunch or dinner at select Epcot restaurants. Reservations for concert dining packages open Dec. 13. For more info or to make a reservation, call 407-WDW-DINE (407-939-3463) or visit FreshEpcot.com.

RELATED ARTICLE: 9 Things We Love About the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival

By D.W. Noonan

Epcot now hosts four fabulous festivals every year drawing countless visitors to celebrate those seasons with special programming. Many events and activities return to Epcot every year, but festival planners also like to create new things for visitors to enjoy. This spring, the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival runs from March 6 to June 3. There are a lot of things about the Flower and Garden Festival, but the following nine tops the list.

9 – The Weather

While the days in Florida generally range from warm to hot all year long, the springtime days perfectly fall in the middle with temperatures averaging in the mid-70s to low 80s. During the festival, you’re not likely to suffer from relentless heat beating down upon you or cool breezes giving you the shivers. Also, Florida’s dry season occurs from March to May, meaning that during the festival, you’ll usually find clear skies, low humidity, and not much precipitation. These nearly perfect days enhance your experience of the blossoming flowers of Epcot. Any summer guest at Walt Disney World has certainly endured sweltering humidity and heavy thunderstorms that drive them indoors, but we love the fact that we can avoid them during the Flower and Garden Festival.

8 – The Floral Variety

The diversity of flowers that Disney horticulturalists display during the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival is mind staggering. Disney achieves this through intensive preparation that requires more than a year of work and around 24,000 cast members. The stunning colors draw a multitude of pollen-carrying insects, melodious songbirds, and photo-snapping humans to the festival. Be sure to bring a quality camera to capture the spectacular images that you’re not likely to find elsewhere.

7 – The Fragrances

Naturally, the great floral variety will produce the most pleasant aromas you’ll ever smell. Delight your olfactory senses with fragrances from over 30 million blooms as you stroll through lively gardens, linger among the flower towers, and visit purple martin and butterfly habitats. The experience draws you closer to nature and helps you to appreciate all the tools that flowers employ to attract insects to carry their pollen. Festival attendees love the freshness of nature’s perfume, and you’ll be sure to enjoy it, as well.

6 – The Gardening Tips

Visit the Festival Center in Future World to receive the best gardening tips from experts in the field. You’ll love picking the brains of horticulturalists, master gardeners, and cutting-edge researchers from Walt Disney World and University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Science. The information you can glean from the professionals is first-rate and includes topics like sustainable gardening, current horticultural trends, composting techniques, and more. Use what you learn to plant your first garden or to improve your current gardening skills.

5 – The Play Gardens

The 2019 Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival hosts two play gardens for the little ones to explore. Parents may take a breather while their kids play an instrument or climb around the playsets.

4 – The Kid-Friendly Learning

The festival not only provides lots of educational opportunities for adults but also for kids. Butterflies on the Go is an exhibit that allows children to encounter a multitude of butterflies, learn about their life cycles, and maybe even witness one or more emerging from a cocoon. Also, kids can learn about migratory purple martins by visiting their habitat. Other educational presentations geared to the children are provided by the National Park Foundation, the National Park Service, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, and the Disney Conservation Fund. The festival serves as the perfect occasion for kids to learn even while having fun at Epcot.

3 – The Character Topiaries

By far, we find the topiaries created for the Flower and Garden Festival to be nothing short of amazing. Disney’s horticulturalists become plant sculptors as they transform shrubbery into three-dimensional depictions of popular Disney movie characters. The staple characters appear all over the place, but the festival planners also add new characters and motifs each year. You’ll see everything from Anna and Elsa to Winnie the Pooh, so make sure you snap lots of photos of these incredible topiaries to add to your vacation albums and scrapbooks.

2 – The Outdoor Kitchens

Disney vacationers love Epcot for its variety of cuisine and libations. During the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, the diversity of food and drink increases with the installment of thirteen new booths around the World Showcase. These 15 Outdoor Kitchens feature garden-fresh inspired food and craft brews, ciders, and wines from the nations and regions represented. These creative recipes extend beyond the already delicious cuisine at each pavilion, so you’re bound to find something new. The Outdoor Kitchens serve as reason enough to love the festival, especially for foodies.

1 – The Concerts

We love music, and Walt Disney World pulls out all the stops with their Garden Rocks Concert Series to give us what we want. Located at the America Gardens Theatre, the concert series showcases popular musical acts from the past every weekend. Clap, stomp, or dance to the beats of groups like the Pointer Sisters, Starship, Gin Blossoms, and Blood, Sweat, and Tears, to name a few. No matter what weekend you visit during the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, you’ll be sure to find a rockin’ concert to enjoy.