The Story Behind the Travel Photos: Epcot International Food and Wine Festival
- Oct 15
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 15
A Guide to the
Epcot International Food and Wine Festival:
Eat, Drink, Play (and Learn)
Your Way Around the World
What's Epcot anyway?
Imagine being able to travel around the world experiencing exquisite cuisine, luscious desserts, and carefully crafted beverages in less than 2 miles in one day. Also imagine authentic worldwide entertainment, practicing many languages, a place for children to play, a scavenger hunt for families and even areas for quiet downtime. Welcome to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival in Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival has an interesting history. First of all, did you know that Disney Springs, formerly Downtown Disney, formerly Disney Village Marketplace, formerly Walt Disney World Village, formerly Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village (yes, all of those names!) was the first location to host the festival?
Of course, it wasn't the festival we know today. It started as a wine festival to showcase the local merchants, vendors and most importantly, winemakers, lasting one weekend. There wasn't any food, yet, but it was popular enough to last from 1981-1996 (trying to figure out why I didn't know about this back then? I went to Disney during those years.) Anyway, meanwhile, over at Epcot (which opened in 1982), Disney starts the first Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival in 1994. It was such a success that Disney moved the wine festival from Disney Village Marketplace over to Epcot.
Remember, Epcot started as an edutainment theme park: combining entertainment, technology and education. It was a unique idea and developed some devoted followers but not enough. People wanted the Disney theme park experience, no matter what name you called it. Duplicating Magic Kingdom wasn't going to make sense, so now Epcot had to morph into something that was unique yet entertaining at the same time. (Disney's Hollywood Studios suffered the same experience when it opened in 1989, but I digress).
The festivals were such a big hit that two more followed: The Epcot International Festival of the Holidays and the Epcot Festival of the Arts (which leaves one to wonder why this wasn't the first festival given that Disney started as an animation venture. Oh, but I digress again.)
By the way, Disney's California Adventure has its own festival as well. For some reason, out there in wine country, this festival has been on and off (one hiatus is understandable, due to the Covid-19 pandemic), but it came back in 2022 and one hopes it lasts consecutively for a long time. And I have digressed once more.
Let's come back to Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. Not only did Disney start a great thing, in my opinion, it made Epcot to be known as the adult theme park, birthing cute slogans such as Disney Adulting. Disney may or may not have meant to do that (they can be a master of subtle marketing sometimes, with a sly wink of the eye) but the festival brings in adults of all ages who experience Epcot and then perhaps return for the other three festivals. Not to mention, since the World Showcase is a great half of Epcot, it seems like a year long festival anyway, so there you go.
It seems like an easy assignment: purchase a ticket, enter the park and get going. Well, I have been asked some questions so here's some information. You must have an Epcot theme park ticket to attend. Other than buying your food and beverages, most of the activities are free once you are inside the park. If you are able to attend for more than one day, a good idea is to have a multi-day, park-hopper ticket. That way, you can start or end your day at Epcot (I do the latter) and enjoy the other Disney parks.
The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival is traditionally held the last week of August or the first week of September until the week before or during Thanksgiving. It's sandwiched in between the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival, which traditionally runs March-June and the Epcot International Festival of the Holidays, which usually runs the last week of November until December 30. Please check the Disney World website for exact dates every year. Unfortunately, Disney does not announce the dates all at once in January so that you can plan your trip, but you can safely know that during the months of September and October, the Food and Wine Festival will be in full swing.
There are 11 permanent pavilions in the World Showcase, Canada, the UK, France, Morocco, Japan, the American Adventure, Italy, Germany, China, Norway and Mexico. Some sharp-eyed regular Disney folks will note that I started with Canada. The Showcase forms a semi-circle around the World Showcase lagoon. You can start walking around the world from either direction: Mexico or Canada. Humorous note: some people start in Mexico and never make it any further.
Anyway, these 11 pavilions participate in the festival but then there are many additional kiosks added to enhance the experience. In the past few years, some of the kiosks (really, called kitchens) only operate starting October 1, so The NYC Traveler Tip for Your Trip is that might be the month you want to go. Featured countries, continents and regions have been Spain, Greece, India, Ireland and even Hawaii.
But that's not all. There are themed kitchens scattered throughout the park, including in the World Celebration, World, Discovery and World Nature areas. Some have focused on seafood, donuts and french fries. And that's still not all! Since Epcot has been remodeled, refurbished and rebuilt, there have been even more kitchens introduced with even more themes. Check inside the Odyssey Center and the Communicore Hall.
The World Showcase usually opens up 2 hours after the park opens, frequently at 11AM. But, some of the rides in the showcase are open when the park opens, such as Frozen Ever After or Remy's Ratatouille Adventure. You might want to keep that in mind if you purchase the express passes through Lightning Lane. Get a pass for the 10:00 hour and stay for the festival.
In the midst of all of these kitchens, you would think that the regular park restaurants would be wide open, but ironically, they stay crowded. Disney fine dining is extremely popular, even during a festival. They say reservations are recommended and there is even a walk up virtual queue for some restaurants, but try to make a reservation anyway.
In the past, there have been actual activities like a real festival: demos, workshops, etc. For some reason, some of these activities have faded away, some during the pandemic and some ended before. However, they may return at some point, so check out the website for the special events that may cost extra and/or require a reservation.
The concert series, Eat to the Beat, happens every evening, three times. When the festival dates are announced, check the concert schedule. You will be surprised who performs at Epcot in Disney World. And they're glad to have the gig.
What time of day is best? Even during non-peak times during the year, Epcot gets more crowded in the evening, such as from 6PM to closing (normal closing is at 9PM, but check the app). This is because it is cooler in the evenings, as it might have been very hot earlier; people plan to have dinner at the festival; and to see the nighttime show. Sometimes, from 3PM-6PM seems like an happy medium. Be aware, weekends tend to be even more crowded. But, regardless, go when you're hungry!
Speaking of hungry, the food that is served as what could be considered small plates. You can share with someone so that you can sample more food. If you're by yourself, it's a lot to sample.
Since the the festival is all throughout the park, there is a booklet to guide you. So, read the app or pick up the Passport Guide booklet at the entrances of the park for all of the little hidden gems. The guide, the app and the menu signs at the kitchens all have allergy and ingredient information and you can always ask at the window. They have a list of ingredients for you to check.
There are kid things to do while the adults make their way around the world: activities at each pavilion, a scavenger hunt that comes with a prize when you redeem it, non-alcoholic fun drinks at many of the kiosks and the usual entertainment at each pavilion.
So, whether it's a girls' trip, family vacation, wedding shower or the boys' night out, try Disney adulting at the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.
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All photos and videos created and copyrighted by Marcia Crayton, unless otherwise noted.
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