EPCOT Food & Wine Festival 2024: What’s Returning? What’s New? What Can You Do?

Are you visiting the 2024 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival sometime between August 29 and November 23? We’re taking a look at the Food & Wine version of the typical components of every EPCOT festival: themed entertainment and activities, food, decor, and of course merch! Here’s what to look for and some tips on how to plan for the Festival, especially if you’ll have kids along.

Food & Wine Festival Global Marketplaces (Food Booths)

There are food booths at every EPCOT Festival, but this is the only one that has food literally in the name. So you can expect the kitchens to make a strong showing. There are 31 booths at this year’s Festival, the Emile’s Fromage Montage food stroll, and we’ve got budget advice too. If you’re looking for an app to help you track all the yumminess, we recommend the Food & Wine app by Smallworld Code. See our review: Track Your Eats! An EPCOT Festival App for Your Phone.

The Global Marketplaces open at 11 a.m. daily and tend to be busiest in the evening. This is especially true on weekends when they’re popular with locals, and you’ll often find that crowds grow quickly in the mid-afternoon on Saturday and Sunday. Don’t let a long line put you off immediately, as many of the lines move quite quickly. But if you find heavy crowds while you’re there, then you may prefer to focus on booths where you’d like to sample everything since you’ll need to wait in fewer lines.

Where to find new food at the Food & Wine Festival

There are three all-new booths at this year’s Festival: Bramblewood Bites, Festival Favorites, and Macatizers. And you’ll find new or mostly new menus at China, Earth Eats, Flavors of America, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Milled & Mulled, Refreshment Outpost, and Spain. Click here to see the full menu lineup including our returning favorites.

Emile’s Fromage Montage

Every Festival has a food stroll: eat a few of the marked dishes on the stroll and collect a prize in a souvenir dish. At the Food & Wine Festival the stroll is Emile’s Fromage Montage and as you might guess from the name, cheese-based dishes are the game. This year’s Fromage Montage dishes are

• The Alps Marketplace | Any Warm Swiss Cheese Raclette
• Brazil Marketplace | Pão de Queijo
• Festival Favorites | BBQ Pork Rinds
• Forest & Field |Pumpkin Mascarpone Ravioli
• Greece Marketplace | Griddled Cheese
• Hawaiʻi Marketplace | Passion Fruit Cheesecake
• Macatizers | Any Macaroni & Cheese
• Milled and Mulled | Boursin® Fig & Balsamic Cheesecake
• Spain Marketplace | Spanish Charcuterie

Pick up a Festival Passport at any of the park entrances for free. Then choose any five dishes (hint, you can repeat!) and get a stamp for each. Bring your stamped passport to the Shimmering Sips booth to claim your prize.

Food & Wine Festival Budgeting

Disney Gift Card wristlets can be an easy way to pay as you go without having to dig for a card in your wallet repeatedly, and they make a great souvenir too. How much should you load them with? Here’s a bit of by-the-numbers as a general price range for the snacks, sips, and bites

• Savory items: $5-9, with some eye-poppers at $12-13 (usually these have lobster or some such)
• Desserts: $5-6
• Non-alcoholic drinks: $4-5
• Beer & Cider: $5-6 ($10-11 for flights)
• Cocktails: $12-13

The size of dishes varies wildly, but usually about 2-3 dishes will be a similar amount of food to a standard Quick Service meal. On average the Quick Service meal will be a few dollars cheaper, but if you’re using the Disney Dining Plan most Festival dishes qualify as Disney Snacks. In fact, using Snack Credits on Festival dishes is usually a great bang for the buck.

Food & Wine Festival Entertainment and Activities

This year’s Festival will be the first to use the brand new CommuniCore Hall as a Festival Center. Nobody (except Disney) is 100% sure what that’s going to look like, so we’ll have an update here after the Festival opens. ¡Celebración Encanto! will continue to hold performances on the CommuniCore Plaza Stage, but we’re also hoping to see the return of some of the cooking demonstrations that were a Festival feature in years past. The good news: even without the cooking demonstrations the park is dressed up and there are plenty of activities for both adults and kids.

The Food & Wine Festival Decor is not as immersive as the plantings and topiaries that you’ll find at the spring EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival, but you’ll still see colorful signage throughout the park, well worthy of several selfies. And don’t forget to look for some of our favorite favorite Food & Wine decor – the teeny banners on the lamp posts in the Germany pavilion train display.

Eat to the Beat Concert Series

Every evening at the America Gardens Theatre, featured musical acts take the stage for a 20-30 minute set. Big-name bands headline the weekend shows, with local acts during the week. You can catch one of three performances at 5:30 p.m., 6:45 p.m., or 8 p.m., and an Eat to the Beat dining package will hold a spot for you at the show. Click here to see the full schedule including weekday acts and Eat to the Beat dining package pricing. New headline acts in 2024 include

• Yellowcard (Sept. 8-9)
• The Wanted (Sept. 22-23)
• Mau Y Ricky (Sept. 28-29)
• Jesse & Joy (Sept. 30)
• Aloe Blacc (Oct. 4-5)
• David Archuleta (Oct. 18-19)
• Haley Reinhart featuring Emily Estefan, Casey Abrams and Janel Parrish (Nov. 1-2)
• Magic! (Nov. 8-9)
• Parmalee (Nov. 10-11)

Food & Wine Scavenger Hunts

Two different scavenger hunts are a fun all-family activity at the Food & Wine Festival. Pluto’s Pumpkin Pursuit has you looking for – you guessed it! – pumpkins, and for Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak you’ll be seeking out everyone’s favorite rat. Both hunts are “while supplies last”, but they don’t usually run out.

To participate in the scavenger hunts, pick up a map for $9.99 from Creations Shop, World Traveler, or a few other locations around the park. Sticker your map as you find your targets, and bring it back to a redemption location to claim your prize. Pro tip: it’s not the map you’re paying for, you can turn it in for the prize whether it’s completed or not. Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak is available throughout the Festival, but the Halloween-themed pumpkin search only runs through November 1.

Food and Wine Festival Merchandise

Every Festival releases merch in a few “collections”, this year you can look for the Festival Logo Collection, Chef Mickey Mouse Collection, Chef Figment Collection and the Chef Remy Collection. Expect to find a wide variety of items with variations on these designs, including clothing, toys, and more. And as you may imagine, Food & Wine leans into the kitchenware.

In addition to the Disney-branded merchandise, you’ll find booths along the World Showcase walkways. These booths are run by non-Disney vendors and offer general food-related merchandise such as kitchen tools, glassware, or painted wine bottles.

Are you planning a visit to the Food & Wine Festival this year? What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments!