2021 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Guide
Our ultimate guide to the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival provides tips, dining reviews, and info about Walt Disney World’s foodie event, which will run July 15 to November 20, 2021. (Updated March 31, 2021.)
Although it’s still only spring, Walt Disney World has released an “appetizer” for the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival. This year’s event will kick off with Global Marketplaces, including the return of Canada, Greece, Germany, Hops & Barley, Appleseed Orchard, and many others. Even more food booths will join as the event accelerates in the fall, before wrapping up the weekend before Thanksgiving 2021.
In addition to cuisine, the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will offer lots of other fun, including two things tied into the opening of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in the France pavilion. These offerings will include “Emile’s Fromage Montage” (if you collect a stamp from five different Global Marketplaces, you’ll earn a prize) and the return of Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak scavenger hunt in search of Remy statuettes hidden all over the park. There will also be concerts by Voices of Liberty, Mariachi Cobre and the Jammin’ Chefs.
There’s not a lot of meat to this news, but our immediate reaction is that Walt Disney World wants to buoy attendance at a time of year that’s normally slow for EPCOT. Starting the event in mid-July, which is consistent with last year but over a month earlier than normal, will help with that.
This also suggests that Walt Disney World won’t have anything else to help bolster attendance over the summer, like Harmonious or Space 220 Restaurant. We already knew Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure wouldn’t open until the start of the next fiscal year (and Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary), so that wouldn’t be a huge surprise.
However, we were–and still are–holding out a sliver of hope that fireworks would return. Even though it’s far from our favorite show, we’d welcome back EPCOT Forever. That nighttime spectacular could easily return right now while allowing for adequate physical distancing around World Showcase Lagoon.
The good news is that things are starting to get back to normal at Walt Disney World, and this announcement further reflects that. Aside from the expanded dates, the biggest change here is that Disney drops the “Taste of” naming convention that had been used since last year to indicate a scaled back version of the normal event.
While the announcement suggests that things will start in reduced form and scale up into the fall, it’s good to see that the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will be the full event once fall arrives. More announcements will come soon, but hopefully this means more culinary seminars, demonstrations, and other special events during the festival! Here’s what else you need to know about the 2021 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival…
EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival is one of Walt Disney World’s most popular events of the year; we typically spend a couple full weeks in EPCOT over the course of the event, eating our way around the park. Last year, we bought and ate over 100 snacks (literally), covering every dish at the event in our comprehensive Global Marketplace Food Photos, Reviews & Booth Menus: Epcot Food & Wine Festival index.
There’s a reason EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival is beloved among many Walt Disney World visitors. It is the busiest time of the year at EPCOT, and is popular primarily because it allows guests the opportunity to eat and drink their way around the World Showcase and parts of Future World, trying new and inventive cuisine along the way.
Although it can be an expensive event, we’ve found ways to get more bang for our buck, and have fun dining at EPCOT before the fireworks. In this post, we’ll share some of those tips for the 2021 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.
At the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, 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!
We’ve done the Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival many times every year for the past decade-plus, spending more money on snacks than we care to think about. We spend several days in Epcot every year during July, August, September, October, and November, grazing the marketplaces and partaking in the Food & Wine festivities.
All in all, we have had a good time. Weather-wise, July and August are definitely the least pleasant months for the event and November is the best experience, but after grazing the booths the first three months, we’re usually a bit “over it” by the end. (However, if we were planning only one trip, it’d be in November.)
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 very far. Portions don’t seem smaller than last year, nor do prices seem higher, but both were already pretty bad last year, so it’s not like this should be construed as a positive thing. You’ll definitely want to seek out a few sizable dishes.
Second, crowds are far worse on the weekends and after work and not nearly as bad on weekdays between 11 am and 5 pm. When Epcot is more crowded, don’t be surprised if you wait in line 10 or more minutes at the cash registers and another 10 minutes at food pick-up.
In the past we’ve cautioned about long lines on the weekends for the more popular booths, which is especially true during peak times in October and November. This compounds the effect of being out in the sweltering heat and humidity. By contrast, on a weekday in September (or even later in the year), you might encounter no lines whatsoever.
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 “Culinary Corridor” and “Next Eats” sections of Future World. This includes the best booth of Food & Wine, Flavors from Fire, along with stand-outs like Coastal Eats, Earth Eats, and Active Eats.
Finally, and most importantly, food quality remains high. The last couple of years the food lineups have been really strong, and 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.
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 festival.
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.
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 strategy for keeping your sanity at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival…
Food & Wine Festival Strategy
Strategy for snacks? Seems like overkill, right? Not at all. While the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is a fun way to sample (mostly) good foods, it’s also insanely popular and expensive (I would say overpriced, but “popular and overpriced” seems like a bit of a contradiction).
By midday, some Food & Wine Festival booths have lengthy lines for ordering and pickup. By late-afternoon, World Showcase is a sea of sweaty humanity with some booth lines having wait times exceeding those for attractions. Add to this little shade and some slightly inebriated guests, and it can be an unpleasant mix. By evening, some areas of World Showcase feel like a mild frat party, with lines being quite lengthy, especially on weekends.
First, you can find the full menus for these booths for the Epcot Food & Wine Festival here. We highly recommend reading these menus before your trip. Study them, learn them, master then. Knowing what you plan to try before you go is great so you don’t wander aimlessly or end up getting things that aren’t what you want most on impulse.
Below are some tips to make your festival experience more pleasant…
Leave the Shrimp, Take the Salmon & Scallops – With rare exceptions, shrimp at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival is overpriced, rubbery, and just generally unappetizing. In all our years of doing the event, we’ve found it’s one thing that the culinary teams consistently do not get right. By contrast, salmon and scallop dishes are almost always good–better than you’d expect for their price and being prepared in small kitchens.
Avoid the Hot & Heavy – For an event that starts in August and continues in September and October–two months that are still typically quite hot and humid in Florida, there are typically a lot of hot and heavy dishes at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival. While a lot of these are good and worth trying, you’ll want to space them out so they don’t further overheat you. Ideally, have them early in the day or later in the evening once the sun has gone down. (Although that flies in the face of one of our next tips…)
AC Break – During the hottest part of the day, taking a break from the activities in World Showcase and going to the in-door and air-conditioned films and other attractions is a good idea. General tips for surviving a hot day at Walt Disney World also apply here.
You can get free cups of water from any counter service restaurant, you want to hit places with air-conditioning (I’ll put in a plug for the underrated Impressions de France here, which has an especially moving score after a drink or two!), and you want to pace yourself when eating and drinking. We expand upon these tips in our Drinking Around the World Showcase article–the idea is the same here.
Go on a Weekday – We noted this above from a crowds perspective, but you’ll want to go on a weekday to avoid the party atmosphere. Weekends are when local college students descend upon Epcot, and turn the place into a veritable frat party. I love frat parties just as much as the next guy, but there is a time and a place for frat parties. Namely, at a frat house when you’re in college. Not in family-oriented theme parks. Your opinion of Food & Wine Festival could differ dramatically based on whether you go on a weekday or weekend.
Go Early – Slightly before Food and Wine starts, you should be lining up for your first kiosk. Lines are far shorter earlier in the day, but just as important is that it isn’t quite as hot at 11 am as it is at 2 pm. There is very little shade at the booths. If you’ve ever waited in line 30 minutes for some wine and creme brulee in France while sweating through your shirt, you know what I’m talking about.
Stay or Arrive Late – Lines for the Global Marketplaces typically peak during prime meal hours, and drop by around 8 pm as people are finding spots for Epcot’s nighttime spectacular. While we recommend doing likewise and grabbing a viewing location, sending someone to grab a few of the heavier dishes that you skipped earlier to enjoy after the sun has gone down is a great idea, too!
There’s probably more strategy than this, like a scientific approach to which direction around World Showcase you should go, the ideal moment to purchase items for maximum freshness, etc., but this is a solid plan of attack. After your second or third drink from one of the kiosks, you’ll be so oblivious to what’s going on that standing in line for snacks may not even bother you.
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 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…
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.
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 for select dates in September, October, and November.
- “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 Walt Disney World premium here, but also scarcity pricing, in that many of these events are extremely small. 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. The Eat to the Beat Concert Series will run through late November, concluding a few days before the rest of the festival in order to set the stage for the return of the park’s beloved Candlelight Processional during the holiday season.
During these Eat to the Beat 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.
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.
We’ve done Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival multiple times each of the last several years and have generally enjoyed our experiences. In part, this is because we picked weekdays to visit, and had great luck with getting excellent food from the marketplace booths.
The biggest downside to Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival is that it’s almost all outdoors, and in August, September, and sometimes October, the heat and humidity make this tough. Try to balance your day out with plenty of AC breaks, so it isn’t too bad. November is generally much more pleasant.
Epcot’s 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!
Seeing ZZ Top there would be awesome, but not gonna happen. While I’ve seen a few decent folks there, most are nobody I’ve heard of or would ever listen to anyway. But at least they are free!
We Love food n Wine. That is y we go In the Fall. We r HOPING that dining plan will Return for us to eat at the Booths.
We have done food n wine 2x in 09 and 17. Loved them BOTH TIMES. We love Canada, Mexico, China and Japan.
Do u think Dining plan will Return????
ZZ Top?
Going to WDW in late August this year – what’s the experience like during the festival if you are trying to see the “other” stuff at Epcot? (I’m thinking of my two little kids and their Frozen obsession – not to mention impatience with waiting in lines for food.) 🙂 I’m thinking with social distancing there may be a lot of congestion from lines everywhere?
Love your blog – such a great resource for us newbies!! Thank you!
Visiting in September and very excited for this festival, have visited Epcot multiple times but never at this time of year. My husband and I have five kiddos under ten, so being able to plan everything out ahead of time is ESSENTIAL to our family, meltdowns happen when mom and dad stop to think…so all the thinking has to happen ahead of time! Once the festival opens, will there be any kind of map with all the food booths placed so we can see where different food is relative to the attractions? Your post has some descriptions and I’m praying I am interpreting them right compared to the Epcot map online, but a “one stop shop” for the booth locations would help me immensely. Gotta stay one step ahead of the three year old’s hangry tummy, especially since not everything at the food and wine festival is meant for a three year old’s palate!:)
Hi, Lorryn. I don’t remember ever seeing a food-booth map on the Disney website, but a blogger friend of Tom’s prints the one I’ve used in the past. Check out The Disney Food Blog at https://www.disneyfoodblog.com. You don’t have to buy the guide they sell. Just scroll past the list of booths until you get to the map, and you can print it out. In planning for the Food & Wine Festival, I use both disneytouristblog and disneyfoodblog. If you’ve never visited EPCOT at this time of year, does that mean you’ve never been to the Food & Wine Festival? With five kids under the age of ten, the most important advice you can follow is to avoid going on a weekend if at all possible! During the week, try to be done before the after-work crowd arrives. And the area at the UK Beer Cart gets very congested, so be sure to keep all your kiddies together. Have fun! I’m going in October and looking forward to it!
Come on Disney, can you give those with late summer (August/September) reservations a sliver of Hope? I’m going to be real ticked if we have like 70 percent of people vaccinated in August and they are still requiring masks and limited entertainment just for the sake of bolstering up the 50th Anniversary. I (and many others I suppose) will just touch out their trip further which further pushes out any future trips. Just doesn’t make sense.
Me too! We are also going in late August and could not agree more.
So, we are now doing “Festival” at Epcot… and mostly the same festival, almost 12 months per year?
It’s kinda hard to see it as a “unique Festival” when it’s basically ongoing permanently. 4 straight months of “Food and Wine” Festival?
This isn’t going to diminish from the popularity of the Food and Wine Festival.
I guess it will accomplish Disney’s likely goal — Spread some of those September/October Epcot attendees into July and August, where Epcot would be totally dead with no festivals, under construction, and no new attractions.
So, will Space 220 be ready for Food and Wine Festival?
“So, will Space 220 be ready for Food and Wine Festival?”
Unless Patina pushes for it and Disney lets them open at full capacity (two things that are entirely plausible), my guess is that gets pushed off until October.
Pretty safe to assume no Harmonious before October at this point, though.
Still hoping for Epcot Forever over the summer.
But feels like this early start to the Festival is a desperate maneuver because they don’t plan to have anything else compelling at Epcot for the summer.
I could still see Space 220 by summer but…. if so, we will see job listings on the Patina jobs board by late April/May.
Tom, do you think this will be the pattern going forward and that the Food and Wine festival start mid July every year?
It’s certainly possible they do this every year. But I suspect, for now, this is a 1 year decision to boost summer attendance. With half the park under construction, none of the new attractions ready, and potentially not even having fireworks, they had to do SOMETHING to draw people to Epcot this summer.
It’s definitely a one-year decision to buoy attendance at a time that otherwise will likely be slow for EPCOT.
The problem is, once Disney gets a taste of another month of that sweet F&B money, it’s going to be hard to scale back in the future.
Is the food and drink festival on every day? Not really interested in it but do want to visit Epcot for the world showcase, some rides and the fireworks and hoping it’s not going to be stupidly busy there.
Question, I was told that you may use your snack credits at these kiosks. Is this true? I have the deluxe dining and would like to plan our lunch using our credits for snacks if its possible.
Thank you Tom for all your input–you are like a little blogger angel! And thanks to everyone else who posts reviews and helpful insight–going for the first time to FW and feel so much better after reading this blog and coming up with a plan!