It’s almost time to enjoy one of EPCOT’s most popular festivals!
Food and Wine
The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival will be coming to EPCOT later this year, and with it comes the chance to enjoy all of your favorites that the festival brings. If you have been before, you may be asking yourself if this is a year you should skip it. Let’s talk about it!
With the 2024 Food and Wine Festival coming soon, we’ve got to talk about why you might want to potentially skip this year’s festival. Keep these details in mind when planning on either visiting this year or not!
The Seminars and Demos Might Still Be Missing
Believe it or not, the Food & Wine Festival used to be a smorgasbord of experiences beyond just delicious bites and catchy tunes. Before 2020, the festival teased our taste buds with informative demonstrations and interactive workshops. You could delve deeper into the world of food and drinks through expert-led pairings and hands-on learning. Remember those celebrity chef sightings? Stars like Robert Irvine, Cat Cora, and Buddy Valastro were once regular fixtures, sharing their culinary magic with festival-goers.
One of many workshops at the 2019 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival
Also, remember the Party for the Senses? This culinary adventure took guests on a tasting tour, indulging in over 50 unique bites and beverages! And there was even more! Cheese connoisseurs could refine their palate at dedicated seminars, while brunch enthusiasts could enjoy exclusive experiences with celebrity chefs. Special events like Parisian breakfasts at Chefs de France rounded out a truly immersive foodie experience.
Party for the Senses
Let’s be honest, the past few festivals haven’t quite captured the same magic. Since we haven’t heard if these experiences are making a return this year, you might want to either wait a bit longer until there’s confirmation or hold off entirely until we know about the 2025 festival.
Disney May Need to Work the Kinks Out in Its New Venue
CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza will open on June 10th. The new venue smack in the middle of EPCOT will be used as a “festival center.” And that’s one reason to believe the seminars, tastings, and exclusive parties could return to the festival this year.
CommuniCore Plaza
But whatever comes to CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza, Disney may be testing things and working out the kinks this year. Again — you may want to see what is announced for this new area before you decide to book your trip.
Will There Be a New Festival?
We know that trips to Disney World are expensive and if you’re planning your one and only trip for the year, you may want to consider that we could be in store for a new festival. The reason we think this could be happening is due to the fact that the 2023 Food and Wine Festival was shorter by 10 or more days than the previous three years, which suggests it could be shorter again this year.
2023 Festival Passport
If that’s the case, that leaves a LOT of time between Flower and Garden and Food and Wine, and Disney might want to fill the space with a brand new summer festival. Now obviously, this is total speculation on our part! We don’t have any information from Disney about any new festival, nor do we know the dates for Food and Wine yet. But we did see Disney add the new summertime Pixar Fest in Disneyland this year, so who knows what could be on the horizon for Florida?
These festivals are a huge draw for EPCOT, and Disney isn’t one to let the formula go stagnant, so we wouldn’t put it past them to add a fifth one to the calendar. So, you may want to hold off on booking a trip for Food and Wine until you know a bit more.
EPCOT Food and Wine Festival
In the end, we’re just hoping that Disney brings back the full gamut of activities and experiences that once made the Food & Wine Festival truly unique! There will be a new venue to experience, and that will be exciting, as well. We’re keeping an eye out for any new announcements about the Food & Wine Festival, so keep following DFB for the latest!
Click here for our full Food & Wine Festival page!
IT'S WINE & DINE TIME!
Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.
If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU!
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Get More Updates, Tips, and Tricks to Help You Conquer the Food & Wine Festival
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Will you be visiting the Food & Wine Festival this year? Tell us in the comments.
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Those experiences will never come back. Too much of a cost cutting advantage to disney to not bring them back. It feels they again are doing less and charging more ..how does it benefit their bottom line to bring these back? It doesn’t, therefore we will never see them again
I hope they will have the foods around the countries set the same way.
Otherwise what good is the food and wine? You experience all these different foods and drinks from the countries that most people don’t get to travel to.
How can you say these things the DATES have not even been set.First timer and returns after 3-4 year visitors read and book their vacation by what you tell them.They don’t understand that these are only your options. The dates for the festival ,so no one know what is going to take place.Many of the extra that we had before the C-19 years are coming back.It is not always the bottom line,but more into the availability of the Chef that come.The people are not set up in a last minute booking.It take time. How does it benefit their bottom line there a many of people that come just for the Chef so having them back would only boost the bottom line.