2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Guide

Our ultimate guide to the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival provides event dates & details, tips & info, booth lineup, snack & dessert reviews, entertainment details, things to do for kids, and everything else you need to know about Walt Disney World’s foodie event.

Walt Disney World has not yet released dates for the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, and there are a couple different directions they could go with the event’s start. Food & Wine Festival has had a wide range of starting dates since 2019, beginning as early as mid-July and as late as the end of August (more on that below). We’re more confident about when it’ll end–likely on November 21, 2026.

The other big unanswered question is whether the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival will be entirely back to normal, with its full slate of seminars, special dinners, celebrity chef panels, and various enhancements. These have been absent for the past few years for a variety of different reasons. If you want to be notified about 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival dates, details or anything else, sign up for our FREE Walt Disney World email newsletter.

At this point, you’re most likely concerned about planning around the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, and the likely event dates. In each of the last couple years, the event has gotten shorter and returned to its 2019 normal. This is fairly unprecedented. EPCOT festivals have a history of getting longer, but never shorter.

The two most recent EPCOT Food & Wine Festivals started the Thursday before Labor Day. This made the events significantly shorter than back from 2020 to 2023, but consistent with 2019. There are a number of reasons for the reduction, from high heat making the largely outdoor event unpleasant in the summer to fans getting “festival fatigue.”

None of this was a huge surprise. The EPCOT Food & Wine Festival had been getting longer and longer for several consecutive years, and Walt Disney World likely realized there were diminishing returns and the event was wearing out its welcome.

It wasn’t until 2017 that the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival was first extended into August. Prior to that, it had typically started in mid-to-late September and ended earlier. Going back over a decade, the event ran from September 27 until November 11, 2013. Without a doubt, the 2026 event will start earlier and end later than that!

Cutting to the chase, the 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will likely run from August 27, 2026 until November 21, 2026. That’s an almost identical schedule to each of the previous two years, just adjusted for day of week differences.

To be clear, this is a prediction. Walt Disney World has not announced anything and probably won’t until Spring 2026. However, we’re more confident in forecasting this now that the 2026 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival has had its dates announced. That event is also once again on its 2019 schedule, and there’s zero reason to believe the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival will be any different.

With that out of the way, here’s everything else you need to know about EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival based on our decades of experience attending the annual event…

Last year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival was incredibly underwhelming. (See EPCOT’s Flagship Foodie Festival is Disney World’s Weakest Annual Event for a full review.)

Even though the park was wall-free, the event still was not back to “2019 normal.” The slate of seminars, culinary demonstrations, special dinners, celebrity chef panels, and various enhancements did not return. Not only that, but the park didn’t even utilize its space for a fresh decor package–it was actually scaled back as contrasted with prior years.

Worse still, the new CommuniCore Hall was not even used during the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. At the beginning of the event, the flex space was still being used as GoofyCore Hall as part of “Cool Kid Summer.” After that event wrapped up, CommuniCore Hall was just used as overflow seating–not any real purpose–during Food & Wine.

We had been hopeful that CommuniCore Hall would be used for its promised purpose of other offerings like culinary seminars, demonstrations, meals with celebrity chefs, and other special events. Unfortunately, it was not. As explained in EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival Is Stale. Here’s What We Want Disney to Change, the event really needs a shot in the arm.

On a positive note, the most recent EPCOT Food & Wine Festival had a fantastic lineup of booths, particularly in the Harvest Hollow area between Journey into Imagination and World Showcase. The trio of booths here was the highlight of the entire event for the second year running.

Generally speaking, the booths are quite good. While we’d prefer more innovative and envelope-pushing cuisine, Walt Disney World has done a good job of threading the needle and giving guests crowd-pleasing comfort food as well as adventurous and ambitious options.

See our List of Must-Eat Dishes & Desserts at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival for a rundown of last year’s highlights. Even though menus will differ from 2026, we’d expect most of those items to be available again!

Honestly, despite our negativity about last year’s event, we are still looking forward to the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. We weren’t the only fans who were incredibly underwhelmed by the event, so between that and Epic Universe offering increased competition, it behooves Disney to put more effort into the event. Restoring what was missing and not resting on the event’s laurels or historical legacy would go a long way towards improving the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.

Even if what’s missing is restored, the basics of the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival are unlikely to change. If you’ve visited in the past, you should know more or less what to expect without reading anything else. The 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival will be at least 80% the same as last year. And that’s a lower number, making the aforementioned optimistic assumptions about improvements.

Although the event is never 100% the same from year-to-year, it follows a familiar formula with significant annual overlap. Most of the food booths and menu items are at least 75% the same year-to-year, as is almost everything else about the event. In a regular year, the overall event is 90-95% the same.

This is not to be overly negative about the special event. There’s a reason EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival is beloved among many Walt Disney World visitors. October and November are typically among the busiest times of the year at the park, and this event 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. This comprehensive guide to the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will cover everything you need to know when planning for the event, including how to budget your time and money!

What to Expect & Festival Overview

At the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, there’s something for every budget. While it’s easy to overspend, dropping hundreds of dollars during a loop around World Showcase and paying more than you would for a good sit-down meal, it’s also possible to snack strategically and spend about the same amount at the booths as you would at a regular counter service restaurant. Sharing the pricier dishes while going for filling and dense dishes is key.

We’ve done the 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 Walt Disney World every year during August, September, October, and November, grazing the marketplaces and partaking in the Food & Wine festivities.

All in all, we usually have a good time. Weather-wise, August and September 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. For starters, there’s the above point about overspending that cannot be overemphasized. If you go for the pricier light bites and drinks, you could easily drop $100+ and still not be full. That doesn’t have to be the case, though. Although menu prices have gone up, there are still good values to be found. (We’ll have a list of them in early September 2026, so stay tuned!)

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 often those found closer to the front of the park. This includes the best booth of Food & Wine, Flavors from Fire.

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.

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 Guide and our When to Visit Walt Disney World in 2026 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 event…

EPCOT 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 the summer 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 the event. 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, which is now only shown in evenings for some stupid reason), 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.

Fun for Kids at the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

Those of you with families and kids might be thinking that the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival sounds very adult. In some ways–many ways–it definitely is. However, as you can see in perusing the menus, there’s cuisine that’s appropriate for all ages, and many of the dishes aren’t strictly high-brow “foodie” cuisine–they’re fun and universally approachable. So there’s plenty for kids to eat.

Beyond that, there’s entertainment and fun for all ages. The big thing, beyond the fact that this all occurs in a theme park with attractions like Frozen Ever After, princesses, and other characters, is the scavenger hunts and culinary challenges.

First, there’s Emile’s Fromage Montage–you sample a variety of delicious cheeses served in inventive ways, and collect a stamp for each on your “cheese crawl.” Collect all 5 stamps and bring the stamped Festival Passport to Shimmering Sips for a specialty prize unique to the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Finally, there’s Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak Scavenger Hunt. Embark on an adventure inspired by the Pixar film as you search for Remy on a savory scavenger hunt during the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.

Simply purchase your map and stickers from select Festival merchandise locations, then locate statuettes of Remy hidden all around World Showcase and match the ingredient stickers to your map. Once you’ve found them all, take your completed map to select gift shops and choose a surprise, compliments of Chef Remy!

Our pro tip here is to look at the prizes before purchasing the map. If they’re something you or your kids want, then buy the map. If not, do the scavenger hunt on your own without the map. It’s a fun activity either way, and the map is absolutely unnecessary to searching out the statues and having an enjoyable experience. We buy the map about half the time–the prizes are often good, and the price is usually fair by Walt Disney World merchandise standards.

Eat to the Beat! Concerts

America Gardens Bandstand – Local Central Florida bands to take the stage at America Gardens Theatre in World Showcase Tuesdays through Thursdays most weeks, when crowds are typically lower at EPCOT.

Eat to the Beat Concert Series – 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 park admission, and take place three times per evening on Fridays through Mondays at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., and 8:00 p.m.

As an elder millennial, it’s been fun watching the Eat to the Beat and other EPCOT concerts “evolve” over the last few years. There’s been a noticeable shift from oldies aimed at baby boomers to hits from my youth. While this has alienated some older Walt Disney World fans, it’s refreshing to today’s parents. At the same time, now I feel old!

Guests can secure a spot in advance for the shows by reserving an Eat to the Beat Concert Series Dining Package. This is expected to be available at even more restaurants in 2026, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Check out the full music lineup, dates & details in our Guide to the Eat to the Beat Concert Series.

Food & Wine Festival Seminars & Events

In addition to the booths at the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, there are normally 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. (Again, nothing in this section has been confirmed for the 2026 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.)

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.

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.

Past celebrity chefs have included Cooking Channel host Tiffani Thiessen and Richard Blais, Alex Guarnaschelli, Robert Irvine, Masaharu Morimoto, Buddy Valastro, Art Smith, and Carla Hall, plus many others.

Low-Cost Culinary Demonstrations (Unavailable) – The low-cost culinary demonstrations are our favorite aspect of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. At $15 to $20 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.

Walt Disney World 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 (Unavailable) – Held at select Walt Disney World Deluxe Resorts, these special events encourage guests to ask the experts, taste and cook alongside chefs.
• Sunday Brunch with the Chef (Unavailable) – 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.
• Mix It, Make It, Celebrate It (Unavailable) – This 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(Unavailable) – The most popular special event of the Food & Wine Festival, this typically occurs on select dates in September, October, and November.
• What’s Cookin’ With (Unavailable) – This 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.

Personally, 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, though. Other Walt Disney World fans love these premium events!

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. 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. Good planning and strategy makes all the difference in the experience you have. If you take away nothing else from this post, remember that.

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.

Additionally, there’s a ton to do. Even if you went to the park 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 EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival. To the contrary, in fact. The event 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. World Showcase feels like an actually living, breathing World Showcase during the festival, with a culinary focus.

Food & Wine is one of Walt Disney World’s most popular events of the year–for good reason. 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.

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!