As we look towards the future of Epcot, we wanted to create a single space for you to be able to reference for the World Celebration Epcot Festival Center. On this page you’ll find facts, descriptions, and photos of not only what the Festival Center will look like, but also a current look at the progress made from on-the-ground reporting from Epcot. (Updated July 18, 2021)
- Concept Art
- Opening Date
- Current Progress and Latest News
- Attraction Poster
- Location
- Model
- The Bigger Picture
Announced at the 2019 D23 Expo media preview event on August 22nd, the World Celebration Festival Center will host live events, and be the home base for Epcot’s signature festivals. It will provide a stunning elevated view of the entire park and an ideal spot to witness Epcot’s nighttime spectacular. This beautiful three-level structure will have one of the most remarkable architectural designs at any Disney park, featuring a plaza level, a middle expo level, and a park that sits in the sky on the top level.
World Celebration Festival Center Concept Art
In addition to a single piece of high-resolution concept art from the 2019 D23 Expo, we have a few different looks at the Festival Center thanks to various pieces of concept art released at The Epcot Experience. First, here’s the high-resolution concept art released by Disney.
Keep in mind that while we’re calling this the World Celebration Festival Center, this will also host various dance parties and more, as seen in the concept art below. Here is some more concept art captured from The Epcot Experience.
Opening Date
Disney has not announced an opening date for the experience yet, but we will update you the minute they do announce one. It’s likely that the World Celebration Epcot Festival Center will open with the rest of the Epcot spine overhaul project, as it will be one of the key entertainment elements moving forward.
Current Progress and Latest News
Summer 2021 – As we continue to keep an eye on the World Celebration Festival Center construction site, there has been essentially no movement. We have written a few stories that call the future of the World Celebration Festival center into question. Here are a few of those articles.
Beyond the stories, a look at the area from onboard the newly reopened EPCOT monorail shows that there isn’t any work taking place in the southwest section of World Celebration.
In the photo below, the overgrown area in the foreground is where the Festival Center is planned to go.
A July 2021 aerial photo from bioreconstruct shows that there has been no new work on the area since the southwest section of Innoventions was demolished in January 2020. In the photo below, we’re looking at the pavement pathways just on the other side of the construction wall nearest the Mickey florals.
Attraction Poster
Here’s the World Celebration Festival Center. In the art, we can clearly see the three different levels that guests will be able to enjoy – the plaza on the ground level, a middle level that will be used by Epcot festivals, and the rooftop that will be used as a park and nighttime spectacular viewing area.
World Celebration Festival Center Location
The World Celebration Festival Center will be located in the reimagined Epcot spine, or central avenue. There are quite a few new things coming to the Epcot spine that will greatly change the landscape of the park, perhaps none more so than the new Festival Center. We have a few pieces of concept art to go through quickly to pinpoint the location of the Festival Center, starting with a piece of concept art that was released to represent Epcot as it stood in 1982.
In the blink of an eye, the concept art changes to the Epcot overhaul concept art that shows that the Festival Center will stand roughly where Club Cool use to stand and possibly even the space behind (south of) it.
In order to better illustrate where the new World Celebration Festival Center will stand, here’s a closer look at the location of the Festival Center and a photo from the monorail beam looking at the exact area where it will stand. See the monorail in the concept art below?
Here’s a look from that monorail at the area where the Festival Center will stand, taking over the space used by some temporary festival kiosks. Note that the construction seen below isn’t for the World Celebration Festival Center, but rather a pathway widening project. That said, this seems to be roughly the same footprint that we expect the new Festival Center will take over.
World Celebration Festival Center Model
As part of the expansive model at The Epcot Experience, the World Celebration Epcot Festival Center is represented amongst the pavilions and more. We have a supercut of the preview video below, but here’s a look a some photos of the specific World Celebration Festival Center model as seen in The Epcot Experience overhaul model.
In addition to the stylized model in the greater Epcot overhaul model, there is a much more detailed model on display as well. We have a detailed post about this model (HERE), but wanted to provide a few photos in this post.
The Bigger Picture
It has been argued that festivals have kept Epcot afloat for years, and they will obviously play a big part in the future of Epcot as well. With 11 out of 12 months having an Epcot festival, the park will need a permanent Festival Center with the Wonders of Life pavilion being used as the PLAY! Pavilion in the Epcot overhaul project.
Disney will no doubt leverage the centralized location of the new structure to showcase dance parties and sell rooftop dessert parties for nightly spectaculars. By creating this space, Disney will have a lot more flexibility to put together shows and events at the front of the park. The new World Celebration Epcot Festival Center currently has more questions than answers, but is one of the most interesting parts of the Epcot overhaul project and it has the potential to be a beautiful space. Keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to cover the Epcot overhaul project and the new Festival Center.
[…] In this “then and now” post, we’re going to take a look at the phase one demolition that saw the southwest corner of Innoventions (or Communicore) removed completely to make way for a new structure. The new structure is the World Celebration Festival Center. For more on the Festival Center, check out our post where we detail everything we know (so far) about the project. […]
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