This might just be the year of HUGE changes for Disney World.
EPCOT
In January alone, we saw the end of park pass reservations for most theme park visitors, the return of all-day park hopping, AND the return of the Disney Dining Plan. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open in Magic Kingdom in 2024. PLUS Country Bear Jamboree will be reopening with a brand NEW show in the summer. We’re also starting to see a lot of huge changes for EPCOT’s festivals.
The first big festival change we’ve seen this year is that the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival is considerably shorter this year. The 2024 EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival is 36 days (!!!) shorter than it was in 2023. The festival will run from February 28th and May 27th. That’s SO early compared to what we’re used to.
Figment Topiary at the 2023 EPCOT Festival of the Arts
We’re also thinking that this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival might also be shorter. The 2023 Food and Wine Festival was shorter by 10 or more days than the previous three years. That suggests it will be shorter again this year. That could leave a lot of time between Flower and Garden and Food and Wine, which could even suggest that EPCOT might be getting a new summer festival (and we’re totally okay with that). These festivals are a huge draw for EPCOT, so we wouldn’t put it past Disney to add a fifth one to the calendar.
2023 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival Passport
There is another possibility, though. The 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival could be LONGER this year, meaning Disney plans on starting it earlier. Here’s the thing — there are a lot of activities, like the food demonstrations and seminars, that have been missing from the festival since 2019. Once Disney completes CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza, two spaces that are being built specifically for festival use, we could see those activities return in a BIG way.
Communicore Hall Construction
You may not realize it, but before 2020, the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival had a LOT more going on than just food booths and Eat to the Beat Concert Series. Before that, the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival had those things PLUS informative food and beverage demonstrations, hands-on workshops, food and beverage pairing events, a character dance party, AND CELEBRITY CHEFS (like Robert Irvine, Cat Cora, Norman Van Aken, Elizabeth Falkner, Buddy Valastro, and Jamie Deen).
One of many workshops at the 2019 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival
There was also the Party for the Senses, an event where a special host leads guests through food and beverages from multiple tasting stations (in the past, there were more than 50!). There were also Cheese Seminars, brunches with Celebrity Chefs, a special Parisian breakfast at Chefs de France, and much, much, MORE! Yeah, over the past few years, we’ve been getting slighted from the REAL EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.
Party for the Senses
Although Disney has not confirmed when CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza will be completed, we expect it to be done by this year, and it could even be completed before the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. Our hope is that Disney will bring the festival back to its previous glory with all the additional activities that came with it before 2020. The festival just hasn’t been the same without all those additional things to do.
Cheese Seminar at Epcot Food and Wine Festival
We guess we’ll just have to wait and see what Disney has planned for the rest of 2024 with its festivals, but this year things are certainly going to be different, and we hope that means EPCOT festivals will be even BETTER this year.
Stay tuned to DFB for more.
Could Disney Add a FIFTH Festival to EPCOT?
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I am hoping SO HARD that the tastings and seminars and wine pairings meals and events are returning to Food & Wine!!
Because we’ve been going for one six week December/January trip rather than three two week trips for Flower&Garden, Food&Wine, and Festival of the Arts, we haven’t been to a FW or FG since… 2017 or 2018. We didn’t realize the tastings and seminars had gone away.
The wine tastings were some of our favorite events, and we LOVED the Parisian breakfast.
We’re back at Food & Wine this year and I’m really pulling for wine tastings to be back! (Given the uncertainty around festival dates, we’ve hedged our bets and changed our trip from the first two weeks of November to mid-September — hopefully we haven’t screwed up… we’ll see!)
Wonder if the change in dates will signal the return of Star Wars festival? They do needs the return of the demonstrations etc at Food and wine, since there is food and alcohol both at epcot all year long now.