EPCOT's 35th Celebration

Pi on my Cake

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
I've been thinking about this for a while, about what I would do if given the chance to run the celebration.

I only had one objective: make it at least sound doable. No bringing back Wonders of Life for one month. Sorry.

EPCOT's 35th Festival

You enter the park, as usual, but you know this won't be an usual day. This year, EPCOT is gaining a new, once-in-a-lifetime festival. From August 26th to October 14th, guests can experience EPCOT's Festival of the Future. And you're one of the lucky guests.

The festivities begin at the entrance. The usual plaza loop has been replaced by one which mixes orchestral compositions of recent themes with old music from the early days of EPCOT. Listen well, as a new rendition of the theme from Soarin' drifts into the theme from Listen to the Land. You're a music fan, so you make your way to Mouse Gear.

Amongst the 35th merchandise is the brand new 35 Years of EPCOT: We've Just Begun to Dream disc compilation. It's a 10-disc set, each one with about twenty to thirty tracks, which take you through a musical history of Future World and World Showcase. A collector's edition, with 12 discs, includes exclusive interviews with Imagineers who worked on EPCOT throughout the years, along with outtakes, demos and recording sessions from EPCOT's history.

That's enough merchandise for now. You head towards the icon of the park, Spaceship Earth. One of the great things about the festival is the temporary additions to the attractions. You meet the first one the instant you enter your vehicle in Spaceship Earth, as the narrator welcomes you aboard and asks you for what guide do you want. Here, you have the option of choosing Judi Dench or Jeremy Irons, who has recorded the current script.

On the post-show area, a small photo spot has been installed, where you can take a picture with a Figment standing inside the city of the future from the ride's ending video. Outside of Spaceship Earth, you see that the Figment topiary from the Festival of the Arts is still there, except it now rests in a flower bed mimicking EPCOT Center's logo. The big draw of the festival is the idea that every attraction has something to see (or hear).

Universe of Energy has gained a preview center and a small post-show section. Once you exit the theater, instead of the empty hallway, there are kiosks and small stands talking about the history of the pavilion. A model of the original Universe of Energy stands in the middle in a glass case.

A sign outside of Mission SPACE says: "Reach for New Horizons at the Advanced Lab Training". For a limited time, the Mission Control game has been outfitted with a new game called Reach for New Horizons. Scenarios involving the future locations from Horizons have been added, with challenges that'll test the guests knowledge of current/future technologies, along with their team skills. You're not up for a game, so you just settle for a photo with the robot butler, who has also been set up in the Advanced Training Lab. A re-recorded version of the theme from Horizons plays at the gift shop (you can find it in the previously mentioned CD set).

Test Track has received some minor changes to its post-show. The first car you see has been momentarily replaced with a model of the original World of Motion. A Tron-like reworking of "Fun to be Free" has been added to the music loop on the post-show area, and Test Track 1.0 toy cars have been added to the gift shop.

Let's go to the other side of the park, shall we?

Outside of the Seas with Nemo and Friends, a new loop echoing the Living Seas music has been added. Crush also talks more about the aquariums at the Seas, and the line 'try to imagine' has been added to the usual script, albeit in a more comical manner.

You're just in time for a show! Near the Land, you can now catch performances by 'The Future Corps', a reworked version of the original Future Corps. They play songs from throughout EPCOT's history and tell funny little tales about the construction of EPCOT. Their short show culminates in a performance of 'Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit', where guests are selected to play the parts of the vegetables.

The Land itself hasn't seen a lot of changes. The restaurants have added special food and drinks themed to EPCOT. You order a 'Wonders of Life', a smoothie made entirely out of vegetables and served in a coaster with one of the original EPCOT pavilion logos. You payed the extra price, and so the coaster's now yours. Soarin' Around the World has a minor change too: instead of Tinkerbell, Figment appears at the end of the movie, creating pink and purple-colored fireworks of all shapes and sizes.

The last pavilion is Journey into Imagination. You can already see the line, and it's not heading into the attraction... for a limited time only, both Magic Journeys and Dreamfinder have returned to the pavilion, the former in a truncated and cut down version of the original show, and the latter in a meet and greet with a Figment puppet. The original music loop, once restricted to the bathroom only, now plays outside.

World Showcase is joining the celebration too. Throughout select days, you can spot one of the Wayback Shows, where a classic act from World Showcase's past is brought back for a limited time only (usually one or two performances per act). Food and merchandise booths are spread around the area, selling the same specialty drinks and snacks, along with 35th anniversary merchandise.

Whilst Future World focuses on the past, spread around World Showcase are kiosks and models detailing what could have been, showing possible pavilion and attraction ideas that never got off the ground. The model for the Mount Fuji E-ticket, for example, is set up in such a way that if you take a photo from a particular angle, it'll look as if the model is part of the pavilion's skyline.

There's only two things left for the day. You take the boats back to Future World and head into Innoventions for one of the many Future Folk panels. These are live presentations by Imagineer about the past, present or future of EPCOT. On one day, you might catch a talk about the toils of building Horizons. On another, you might catch one about how Test Track operates from day to day.

You're here for the Next 35 Years presentation, one meant to introduce guests to the future of EPCOT. Every week they've been revealing little clues about possible additions to the park. Turns out the Festival of the Future is going to end with an ARG about something called 'Project Future', the apparent codename for the next version of EPCOT.

You watch the presentation and manage to get some more tips, which you promptly share with your friends. This ARG involves both on and off park clue hunting. You've figured out what the final objective of the ARG is: the Lost Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. An actual EPCOT. Where is it? Who knows!

Right now, you want to celebrate. So you head over to your favorite Illuminations watching spot and bask in the glory of Reflections of Earth, a cool 'Living Seas' drink in one hand and a 'Mealstrom' snack in the other.

And as the day ends, the projections on Spaceship Earth wish you a happy night, safe travels and congratulate EPCOT on its 35th anniversary.
Love this! Only thing i'd change is make it run the whole year, but I understand why you didn't do that.

Great ideas!
 

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