Ultimate Guide to Epcot Food & Wine Festival

This ultimate guide to the 2018 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival provides tips, recommendations, and our thoughts about the annual Walt Disney World foodie event! This year, Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival will run August 30 until November 12, 2018, ending right before the start of the popular Christmas season. (Last updated August 1, 2018.)

During the event guests can eat and drink their way around the World Showcase and parts of Future World. It’s one of the largest scale and most popular events at Walt Disney World, and in this post we’ll cover what you need to know before you attend. From marketplace tasting booths to the Back to the Basics series (included with Epcot admission) to hands-on tasting culinary demos with chefs and mixologists ($15/person) to the popular Party for the Senses and a lot more, there’s tons to do at Epcot during F&WF.

Let’s start with the latest info on this year’s event as of August 2018. Yesterday, Walt Disney World quietly updated its event page yesterday, adding full food & beverages menus to the Global Marketplaces page in addition to the previously-added ‘What’s New for 2018‘ page. There’s some eye-catching new stuff, with pretty much all of the Croissant Doughnuts and Pancake Milkshake at the Taste Truck looking interesting, as well as the Beef Brisket Poutine, Charred Chimichurri Skirt Steak, Jerk-spiced Chicken Lollipops, and more.

In addition to all of the new and returning foods, the ‘What’s New’ update includes a slew of random details including the “New Fun for Families” section. While there has been a scavenger hunt for the last several years, Food & Wine Festival has typically been, unsurprisingly, an adult event. This year, there will be much more for families.

Otherwise, over 90% of the details for 2018 should be identical to last year’s event. Accordingly, this info should still be pretty useful if you’re planning for a 2018 Walt Disney World trip, but be sure to check back once we update this again later in the summer when more specific details are released.

There’s something for every budget; while you can enjoy some events without spending anything, it’s very easy to spend a lot of money, particularly as you graze around the marketplace booths. Once you start looking at the special events and celebrity meals, well, the sky is the limit on how much you can spend during the Epcot Food & Wine Festival!

For now, here’s an overview of the Epcot Food & Wine Festival (with some 2018 details that we don’t yet know still pertaining to last year’s event), and tips for making the most of it based upon our experiences last year…and every year before that for the last decade of the event…

Our Impressions of Last Year’s Event

We’ve been to Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival many times, spending more money on snacks than we care to think about. During our fall trip to Walt Disney World last year, we spent 5 days in Epcot, grazing the marketplaces and partaking in the Food & Wine festivities. All in all, we had a good time. We covered our favorite items in our new Top 10 Food & Wine Snacks and our Worst 7 Dishes posts, so if you’re looking for what you should (or should not) try, check out those.

Beyond that, a few things stuck out that are worth noting. First, and I say this every year, but it’s true once again: by and large, your money doesn’t go as far. Of the (many) returning items we tried, either portions were smaller or prices were higher…or both! Take the Spicy Hummus Fries, which we praised in last year’s Top 10 Epcot Food & Wine Snacks post, for example. These were literally half the size they were last year (2 “fries” this year versus 4 last year) for the same price. This was hardly an isolated occurrence.

Second, crowds were bad on the weekends, but lines, inexplicably, were not. In the past we’ve cautioned about long lines on the weekends for the more popular booths, but aside from France, I don’t think we ever waited more than 60 seconds (to order) at any booth. We went on the weekend out of necessity because we didn’t think we’d have enough time during the week to try everything. Thanks to Hurricane Irma stranding us, we had plenty of time at the end of the trip, and those weekday visits with cooler weather were comparatively amazing.

Third, some of the best booths are in Future World. To be fair, there are great items scattered around all of the booths, but the best pound for pound options are those found in the “Next Eats” section of Future World. This included the best booth of Food & Wine, Flavors from Fire, along with stand-outs like Coastal Eats, Earth Eats, and Active Eats.

Fourth, the Odyssey Center is another gem of the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. This also houses the Craft Beers booth–and the glorious return of the Handwich to Epcot!–as well as an EPCOT Center tribute exhibit, short film, and merchandise stands. Oh yeah, and air conditioning. It’s a nice place to just decompress after being out in the heat for a while. (Another great option for that is Seasons of the Vine in the Festival Center.)

Finally, and most importantly, food quality remains high. After last year’s event, I commented that this was the best lineup of food in recent memory. I would say that last year’s Epcot International Food & Wine Festival surpassed the previous year’s event in terms of quality. From the quality of the snacks to the booths themselves (some, like India, are gorgeous!), everything is incredibly well done. It almost makes the higher prices and smaller portions a bit more palatable. Almost.

Now, on with the rest of our Ultimate Guide to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival…

For those looking to splurge on special events during Food & Wine, the slate of celebrity chefs might be of interest. These visiting chefs host a variety of daily demonstrations, Party for the Senses grand tasting experiences, beverage and cheese seminars, and other events, all of which are a big part of the 75-day festival. For 2018, celebrity chefs include Cooking Channel host Tiffani Thiessen and Richard Blais, along with returning favorites like Alex Guarnaschelli, Robert Irvine, Masaharu Morimoto, Buddy Valastro, Art Smith, and Carla Hall, plus many others.

On the other (cheaper) end of the spectrum, there’s the Back to Basics series, special book signings, Eat to the Beat concerts, cultural adventures, culinary scavenger hunt with Remy, and Festival Passport, all of which are included with Epcot park admission. Suffice to say, F&WF doesn’t have to be expensive if you have the right approach.

Although this article will provide tips for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, there are a lot of things we recommend doing in the fall. Read our Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and our When to Visit Walt Disney World posts to get an idea of what else to do this time of year. Fall is the perfect time to visit Walt Disney World! Well, my personal “perfect” time of year is Christmas (nothing beats Christmas at Walt Disney World for me!), but fall is a close second.

If you’re looking for what’s new for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival or what our recommend plan of attack is for the festival? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s our look at what’s new, what we recommend doing, and strategy for keeping your sanity at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival!

World Showcase Snack Marketplaces

For most Walt Disney World guests, the Epcot Food & Wine Festival is the Global Marketplaces. They are the little snack kiosks added throughout World Showcase with snack size portions available for purchase. While this is just one element of Food & Wine Festival, it’s the only element that most guests experience.

Food & Wine Festival Events

In addition to the booths at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, there are a lot of events. Some of these are regular things like seminars that are offered in the Festival Welcome Center on a daily basis, and are easily accessible to the average guest.

Other offerings are premium special events (the use of both ‘premium’ and ‘special’ is basically Disneyspeak for ‘super-duper expensive.’) that are relatively unknown to the average guest and often sell out far in advance. We aren’t really fans of super-duper expensive stuff, but we are fans of words like free and low-cost.

Here’s a look at what Food & Wine Festival has in store for these events…

No-Cost Seminars – Although most Epcot Food & Wine Festival seminars became upcharge events out of necessity a few years ago (thanks to locals who camped out for hours before them!), there still are a few free seminars during the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. More seminars are held on weekends; check the daily schedule for more info.

Other events include tastings and various sponsor-driven events throughout World Showcase and in the old Wonders of Life pavilion (the “Festival Welcome Center”).

Low-Cost Culinary Demonstrations – The low-cost culinary demonstrations are our favorite aspect of the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. At $15 each, they offer a lot more than the free seminars, and a lot of times the samples you receive at these seminars are a better value than what you’d receive if you simply went around to booths and ordered items. In addition to the samples, you receive some basic background information and some entertaining presentations.

These seminars, in general, definitely are not geared to the same level of foodie audience as the special event meals, nor are the samples of the same caliber, but you get what you pay for. We have done several of these, and they generally offer the best value at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. These low-cost seminars offer a good primer to the topic covered, plus pretty good samples. We plan on reviewing more of these seminars this year, but for now check out our older seminar review to get an idea of what to expect.

Disney has a schedule of the culinary demos, and advance booking info on its Food & Wine Festival Culinary Demos page.

Premium Special Events

The Epcot Food & Wine Festival features a number of special events, many of which are quite pricey. Like, over $100 per person in price as the starting price. Reviews for these events are often prefaced with “despite the cost, we enjoyed it…” (or something along those lines), so if there’s one that strikes you as being interesting and you have disposable income, consider giving it a try. Not all of them cost quite that much, but they aren’t cheap.

Here are just a handful of the many premium special events:

• Interactive culinary adventures in the Disney resorts encourage guests to ask the experts, taste and cook alongside our chefs at select Deluxe Walt Disney World Resorts.
• “Sunday Brunch with the Chef” is a 2-hour event featuring a breakfast buffet hosted by a culinary TV personality, and includes a sparkling wine toast as well as a meet-and-greet photo opportunity with the celebrity chef.
• The “Mix It, Make It, Celebrate It” hands-on workshop gives guests the opportunity to learn from professional chefs in cake decorating, garnishing, cocktail mixing, and other culinary activities.
• Party for the Senses returns September 22, October 6, 13 and 20, plus November 10, 2018.
• “What’s Cookin’ With…” features some of the country’s top celebrity chefs, beginning in the morning with a delightful plated brunch and sparkling wine toast. This starts with a demo, followed by the chefs answering questions from the audience and sharing their anecdotes.

For a comprehensive list of the Premium Special Events along with reviews and additional information, check out Walt Disney World’s list of different special events or call 407/WDW-FEST (939-3378). You can also find pricing, dates, and booking details there.

Personally, these don’t interest me at all. Well, they do…but not for those prices. While I would consider myself somewhat of a foodie and I’m sure the dishes prepared at them are excellent, it seems to me that you’re paying a significant premium over what something comparable would cost in the real world. I think there’s not just the standard Disney premium here, but also scarcity pricing, in that many of these events are extremely small, and Disney knows there are enough guests with significant disposable incomes who won’t balk at high prices to fill the events. That’s just my take, and again, it’s an outsider perspective, as I’ve never done any of these.

Special Entertainment & Eat to the Beat! Concerts

The Eat to the Beat concert series is presented nightly at the American Gardens Theater across from the American Adventure in Epcot’s World Showcase. During these concerts, popular bands from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s perform some of their greatest hits for the Food & Wine Festival crowds. These concerts are included with Epcot admission, and take place three times per evening, at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. While free, this year Disney is offering an Eat to the Beat Dining Package that includes reserved seating.

No, you’re not going to find current big-name artists like ZZ Top or whatever the kids are listening to these days, but it’s a free concert in Epcot. You can find the full line-up and performance dates on Disney’s Eat to the Beat schedule page.

In addition to the “Eat to the Beat” Concert Series, there are authentic performers throughout World Showcase, added to help entertain the huge crowds that Food & Wine Festival draws. Note that the full lineup isn’t yet set for 2018, so here are the groups that performed last year…

Suroît (Canada) – New to Epcot, Suroît hails from Canada’s Magdalen Islands in Quebec. For four decades, their Cajun, Celtic, bluegrass, and rock music stylings have entertained audiences. Suroît will perform on the Mill Stage at the Canada pavilion.

Bodh’aktan (Canada) – Making their return to Epcot, Bodh’aktan mixes Quebecois, folk, and polka to create rock/dance music. This kilted band also performs at the Canada pavilion.

Raffy (Canada) – In case you haven’t noticed by all these acts coming to Canada, this area is a popular spot for guests during Food & Wine thanks to popular booths being located in the area. It also absorbs crowds pretty well. Raffy is a quartet that performs with an eclectic style where pop rock meets reggae.

Margret Almer & The Bavarian Band (Germany) – World-famous yodeler Margret Almer makes an encore appearance at Epcot through the holidays. She’ll be performing with the Bavarian Band.

Musique Aramenco (Morocco) – Another returning favorite, Musique Aramenco takes the stage at the Morocco pavilion performing a fusion of traditional and modern Moroccan music.

Summary & Conclusion

If you like food, the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival should be a lot of fun for you. You don’t need to be a foodie to enjoy it, as there’s really something for everyone. I’ll level with you: Food & Wine Festival used to be our favorite event of the year at Walt Disney World, but rising prices, long lines, and being around too many wasted college students have put a bit of a damper on it.

After skipping the event entirely two years ago, we returned last year and had a surprisingly good time at Food & Wine. In part, this is because we picked weekdays to visit, and had great luck with getting excellent food from the marketplace booths. It was a much better experience than we had on our previous visit to Food & Wine. Initially, we only planned on doing one day of Food & Wine, but we ended up doing three. The only downside was the heat and humidity, but we balanced our day out with plenty of AC breaks, so it wasn’t too bad.

In fact, we had such a good time that we are returning to the 2018 Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. Once again, we are likely visiting at the official kickoff of the event at the end of August, which does not bode well in terms of weather, but it should be lighter crowd-wise. We are determined to follow our own advice and strategy from last year, picking weekdays with mild weather forecasts to go, and doing it early in the morning.

Part of our poor experiences in prior years was our own fault, but the point I’m trying to underscore here is just how important it is to have a plan. Food & Wine Festival can be a great event and you don’t have to break the bank doing it, but it can also be expensive, crowded, hot, and unpleasant. Planning makes all the difference in the experience you have.

If you take away nothing else from this post, remember that. Additionally, there’s a ton to do. Even if you went to Epcot every day of Food & Wine Festival, you couldn’t experience it all (but you would go broke trying!). We mention cost here a lot, and for good reason: you can spend a ridiculous amount of money without really trying. Just grazing the various booths for an afternoon can set you back a lot of money.

This isn’t meant to scare you away from the Food & Wine Festival. It can be a tremendous amount of fun if you plan ahead, avoid the hordes of people on the weekend, and get lucky with mild weather. It’s the second best time of the year at Epcot, after the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival, in my opinion. World Showcase feels like an actually living, breathing World Showcase during the festival, with a culinary focus.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? If you’re interested in learning more about hotels, our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page is a good place to start. For where to eat, try out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. If you want to save money on tickets or determine which type you should get, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at unconventional things you should take on your trip. Once you arrive at the parks, our Walt Disney World “Ride Guides” are great for determining what to do and when to do it. For overviews of all of these topics and so much more, the best place to start is our comprehensive Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide to make the most of your experience!

Your Thoughts…

Have you done the Epcot Food & Wine Festival at Walt Disney World? What did you think? Any favorite marketplace booths or culinary demonstrations you’d recommend? Ever had any negative experiences? Have any tips of your own to share? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!