The 2019 edition of Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival will feature concerts every day of the week, a significant expansion of the event’s live music schedule.
With the larger lineup, the America Gardens Theatre will feature a total of 270 concerts under the Garden Rocks banner over 90 days, as each act will perform three times daily — at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. — throughout the festival, which runs from March 6 through June 3. For the 2018 edition of Flower & Garden, bands were only featured Friday through Monday.
“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,” Jennifer Fickley-Baker, editorial content manager for the Walt Disney World Resort, wrote on the Disney Parks Blog.
The partial Garden Rocks lineup announced by Disney includes:
— March 9-10: Glass Tiger
— March 17-20: Simple Plan
— March 28-29: Berlin featuring Terri Nunn
— March 30-31: The Smithereens
— April 3-4: Christopher Cross
— April 5-7: The Spinners
— April 12-13: Sister Sledge
— April 20-21: Steven Curtis Chapman
— April 22-23: TobyMac
— April 24-26: Lonestar
— April 27-30: The Orchestra starring former members of ELO
— May 1-4: Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone
— May 5-7: Don Felder, formerly of the Eagles
— May 20-21: Colin Hay of Men at Work
All the concerts are included with admission to Epcot. Guaranteed seating can be obtained with a Garden Rocks Dining Package, which will go on sale December 13.
The ever-growing festival schedule at Epcot comes as the park prepares for a major transformation over the next several years. As some long-shuttered Epcot attractions have been left to decay behind closed doors, Disney has begun construction on major new additions like the “Guardians of the Galaxy” roller coaster and an imported ride from Disneyland Paris themed after the Pixar film “Ratatouille.”
2019’s biggest changes will be the closure of the park’s long-running nighttime show, “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth” and the opening of the Disney Skyliner, a gondola transportation connecting Epcot to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and four Disney World hotels.