Can you believe it? We’re only a few months away from the start of the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival!
2023 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival
In case you missed it, the festival will begin on August 29th and conclude on November 23rd. We couldn’t be more excited for all the food booths, the music, all the merch, and so much more! But looking back at those dates really has us scratching our heads and wondering. Is Disney trying to prepare the way for a new festival coming to EPCOT? Let’s sleuth this out together!
All right, listen up. Here’s the scoop: We’ve seen some pretty interesting moves from Disney happening lately when it comes to the festival dates at EPCOT.
It’s festival time!
We’ve seen them bounce back to basically their pre-COVID schedules, which creates quite a noticeable gap — a “summer void” — between the conclusion of the Flower and Garden Festival in May and the Food and Wine Festival in August.
Welcome to the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival!
Here’s what we mean. In 2023, the Flower and Garden Festival ended on July 5th, and the Food and Wine Festival started on July 27th. So there was a 3-week gap between festivals. But in 2024, the Flower and Garden Festival ends on May 27th, and the Food and Wine Festival starts on August 29th. That’s 13.5 weeks!
Now that’s got us thinking. Could this be the perfect opportunity for Disney to introduce a brand new fifth EPCOT festival to fill the new Summer void? If the current schedule is any indication, there is a clear window for a new summer event. In recent years, the overlapping festivals ensured that there was always some festival being celebrated at EPCOT, so this year’s gap definitely presents a unique opportunity for Disney to introduce a new festival.
EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival
We know that before the pandemic-related closure in 2020, Disney World left the summer months open without a festival because it’s a busier time, and the history of the festivals in EPCOT is that they were started to bring crowds in during slower periods (like when school is in session in the spring and the fall). But for the past few years, Disney has put more and more emphasis on festivals — including building an entire “Festival Center” in the middle of EPCOT. That venue — CommuniCore Hall and Plaza — opens on June 10th!
CommuniCore Hall is opening soon!
So do we really think that Disney would leave those food booths empty backstage, and forgo the money they bring in for the whole summer? We’re just not sure. It seems as if it’s a bit too late to announce a summer festival for this year, but Disney has surprised us before. And even if it doesn’t happen this year — because they are still working out the kinks at CommuniCore Hall, and they wanted to get their audience used to a change in the Flower and Garden and Food and Wine Festivals — we’re just not going to be surprised if we start hearing about a summertime festival at Disney World in the next year or so.
Not to mention the fact that Disneyland already added a summer festival of its own for 2024, which may or may not indicate that Disney World could do the same.
©Disney
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Now, don’t get me wrong. EPCOT already has four pretty awesome festivals, but who says we can’t have some more fun during summer with a new festival, right? Obviously, this is all just speculation for now, but the possibility of a 5th festival is undeniably exciting. Until we know more, we’ve still got PLENTY to be stoked about with the 2024 Food and Wine Festival approaching fast.
Emile’s Fromage Montage Completer Prize!
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Click here to learn all about the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.
IT'S WINE & DINE TIME!
Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.
If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU!
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Will you be at the Food and Wine Festival in 2024? Let us know in the comments.
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I’m the opposite and am happy to see some breaks in the festival schedule for a change. It is getting to be a bit of overkill.
Especially once the Food & Wine Festival no longer had cooking demos, wine tastings, seminars, etc.
It used to be that the festivals were during the school year, to attract older individuals without kids, during WDW slow times. Thats why also so alcohol forward.
But to each their own. I think a lot of people complained about the timing and not getting a chance to go. Also way more kids that aren’t “foodies” at the F&W these last few years. Which is tough to watch.
We got a free meal plan with chase but we have to go in July. The first thing my adult kids noticed was that Epcot was not having a festival. It would be nice for them to have a festival, but the gardens should still be beautiful that time of year. They could invent a summer festival. The United States has picnic foods in the summer, perhaps other countries do as well. Might be worth exploring.
I’m happy for the 13.5 week break between the two Festivals. There are too many festivals in Epcot, in my opinion. I live in Florida and I don’t go to Epcot as often as I used to because of the Festival crowds. Most people are happy to be there, but the few who drink too much ruin the fun for everyone else. And it’s not the too much drinking that’s the real problem, it’s the mid-twenty to mid-thirty age people who don’t know how to behave. They are obnoxious , rude, oblivious to other people and their language is horrific. I would not bring any young children between the ages of 2-13 to Epcot during a Festival because of that. Epcot was my favorite park but not any more, and that is a shame. A lot of people have said the same thing. And the saddest thing of all is that Disney doesn’t have a clue!
I agree with some of the above comments about having a break. The festivals have become non stop drinking events. If I want to be around obnoxious, drunk people it is a lot cheaper to do that at a local bar than pay to walk around Epcot.
I’m totally excited about the prospect of a 5th festival especially because I’ll be there from a June 12, 2024 through June 18, 2024!!!!!
Disney sure does know how to do things and a 5th festival would be another fantastic addition!!