Walt Disney World announced details & dates for the 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, which is the park’s flagship foodie event of the year. This shares all of the news and our commentary about certain interesting changes for this year’s popular celebration of the culinary arts.
The EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival started as a 30-day global celebration of flavors and culture around World Showcase. Since its inception, this festival has evolved into one of the most highly anticipated events each year at Walt Disney World, spanning across the entire park and delighting guests throughout the summer and fall months.
It’s time to mark your calendar with this year’s festival dates, learn about returning festival activities, and get a sneak peek at a few menu items to whet your appetite. The 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will begin on August 28, 2025 and run through November 22, 2025 for a grand total of 90 days.
Despite this, the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival is not expected to be smaller scale. According to Walt Disney World, there will be 35 Global Marketplaces throughout EPCOT, including returning favorites such as Belgium, Hawaii, and Germany. A full list has yet to be announced, but Disney teased a few fan-favorite dishes from those booths.
At the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, the fun doesn’t stop with the food. It extends to exciting activities for the whole family to enjoy! Walt Disney World has also announced some of the entertainment and other offerings that’ll return for the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.
Emile’s Fromage Montage also returns in 2025. This fun food stroll encourages guests to sample a variety of delicious cheeses served in inventive ways. Purchase any five cheese dishes from the official Global Marketplaces list in your Festival Passport and make sure to collect a stamp for each dish purchased. Once you’ve collected all five stamps, bring the passport to the specified location for a specialty unique item to enjoy!
And if a day of cheese makes your heart melt like mozzarella, here is a sneak peek at your oh-so-gouda mission:
- Milled & Mulled: Fall Fruit Cheesecake featuring Boursin® Fig & Balsamic Cheesecake with Pomegranates and Candied Pecans
- Brazil: Pão de Queijo: Brazilian Cheese Bread
- Greece: Griddled Cheese with Pistachios and Honey
Families can embark on Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak – a “Ratatouille”-inspired adventure that’s très magnifique! Guests of all ages can search for Remy throughout World Showcase and the Global Marketplaces.
This scavenger hunt is perfect for littles who are learning about different foods, and the challenge of finding Remy and scoring the hunt prize remains a festival must-do for adults.
A map and stickers will be available for purchase at the park to keep track of your discoveries. As you explore the park, you’ll search for Remy in different World Showcase pavilions, where he has collected specific ingredients. Once you’ve found all of Remy’s hiding spots and completed the scavenger hunt, a special prize awaits.
Foodie lovers already know that the Living with the Land boat ride features an inside look at innovative agricultural techniques and learn about sustainable food practices.
And for the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival each year, seasonal themed displays showcase ingredients along the journey and offer a deeper understanding of EPCOT’s focus on global cuisine and sustainability.
Living with the Land’s seasonal overlays have been getting more and more ambitious with each EPCOT festival, culminating in the Glimmering Greenhouses display at Christmas-time. This makes Living with the Land one of the longest lines in all of EPCOT, and it seems like Disney is seeing that success and wanting to extent it to other EPCOT festivals.
The Eat to the Beat Concert Series will also be back for the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival.
At the America Gardens Theatre in the American Adventure Pavilion, live music and delectable cuisine come together to create an unforgettable experience. Stay tuned for the full Eat to the Beat schedule, which is known to include some returning fan favorites as well as new local sounds.
This series showcases a diverse lineup of artists spanning various genres and eras, with something for everyone to enjoy. The concerts typically take place a few times daily, providing ample opportunities for guests to catch their favorite acts.
Admission to see your favorite act is included with EPCOT park entry, and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis. For those seeking guaranteed seating, dining packages are offered, allowing guests to enjoy a meal at select EPCOT restaurants before the show.
The Eat to the Beat Concert Series Dining Package combines a meal at one of EPCOT’s participating table-service restaurants with guaranteed seating at a concert in the America Gardens Theatre later that evening.
When you purchase the Eat to the Beat Dining Package, you can enjoy the following:
- Choose from breakfast, lunch, or dinner
- Appetizer, Entrée, and Dessert or a buffet
- Non-Alcoholic Beverage or an Alcoholic Beverage (for guests aged 21 and older)
Note: The specific offerings may vary by restaurant. For example, at Spice Road Table, the meal includes two small plates, a shared tagine, a shared dessert platter, and a beverage. Prices for the dining package vary by restaurant and mealtime.
After your meal, you’ll receive a reserved seating badge for one of the Festival Concert Series performances that same day. The reserved seating is in the second section in the middle of the America Gardens Theatre. While seating is guaranteed, it’s on a first-come, first-served basis within that section, so arriving early is recommended for the best view.
In terms of commentary, the most interesting angle of this news is that the start of the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival is once again at the end of August rather than starting in July. This is consistent with last year, and a return to pre-closure normal, as the 2019 event also began on August 29 and that was the longest (at the time) festival ever.
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 a full decade, the event ran from September 27 until November 11, 2013.
In other words, the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival is still long by historical standards. However, it’s over a month shorter than the 2023 event, and 40+ days shorter than the 2020-2022 festivals. This means that there will once again be nearly 3 full months of Diet EPCOT, which is the quietest time of year in the park.
It’s very rare for Walt Disney World to scale back events, which is why we’re commenting on this. Like prices, usually this type of thing only goes in one direction. When we’ve seen this type of thing occur in the past, it has been due to unpopularity or slower sales.
This is why it’s so surprising to see both the 2024-2025 EPCOT Flower & Garden Festivals and now the 2024-2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festivals have been shortened, and by a month each. Last year, that was precisely why we predicted a summer festival would fill the gap.
We made no such mistake this year. Part of this was because Walt Disney World announced “Cool Kid Summer” and the Goofy takeover of CommuniCore Hall, without mention of a bigger-picture event. But it’s also because of what we’ve heard in the last year.
Based on that, one potential explanation for both the shorter festivals and the lack of a summer festival is high heat. That high numbers of guests and Cast Members pass out each summer, which is attributable to the festivals. In the case of the Cast Members, it’s because of the conditions inside the kiosks. (Years ago, this is the explanation we heard for the lack of a summer event–but we assumed it was wrong when Walt Disney World started extending Food & Wine into summer.)
Beyond that, we’re not sure of the reason for the about-face from Walt Disney World on extending festivals into mid-June and July. It’s possible management received a ‘warning’ from the local health department; maybe city, county, or state leaders admonished Walt Disney World over holding a largely outdoor event during summer.
Maybe it’s a combination of that plus diminishing returns. The thought process might be that EPCOT now has a strong enough ride roster to draw tourists during the summer, so it’s better to delay demand from locals and regulars until the peak tourist season subsides. It wouldn’t be unprecedented to bifurcate demand by targeting different demographics.
But if this was the goal, last year would’ve disabused them of that notion. The park was dead during Diet EPCOT last summer. Honestly, I kind of liked it–it was a pleasant time to visit the park (well, minus the oppressive heat and humidity), enjoying low crowds and no construction walls for the first time in a while.
Again, the Global Marketplaces are incredibly lucrative. The average guest is spending more grazing from these than they are doing a counter service or sit-down meal in World Showcase. More importantly, the margins on alcohol are incredibly high. (During its low points, we heard rumors that festivals and drinkers were EPCOT’s biggest saving grace.)
It’s just difficult to imagine Disney shortening two festivals without a gap-filler for no real reason. But perhaps there’s more there than meets the eye. It’s possible the longer festival spreads out almost the same demand (again, disproportionately among locals and regulars who love these events) leading to lower per day revenue and higher per day operating costs.
Obviously, it’s impossible to crunch the numbers from the outside looking in, but it’s very safe to assume Walt Disney World has done exactly that. Another possibility is that there’s something I’m overlooking entirely. The bottom line is that Disney would not voluntarily leave money on the table. That’s not what they do.
Speaking of leaving money on the table, there’s also the question of culinary seminars, demonstrations, meals with celebrity chefs, and other special events. Walt Disney World still has not announced any of this–or even teased its return. Last year, none of these things returned–which suggests the same for 2025.
With the CommuniCore Hall event space, it seems like a no-brainer, as all of these special events are pricey and generate a lot of revenue. However, CommuniCore Hall wasn’t used for that purpose during last year’s Food & Wine, nor any of the festivals since.
CommuniCore Hall was billed by Disney as a festival center that would be a “dynamic space to anchor” EPCOT Festivals and an event space “limited only by the boundaries of imagination.” Instead, CommuniCore Hall is just indoor seating and a couple of booths. To Disney’s credit, they’ve used the space better during 2025 festivals thus far, but it’s still nothing special.
We’re still holding out hope for a more robust 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. EPCOT has several other unused (or underused) events spaces aside from CommuniCore Hall that could be used. Maybe we’ll finally get the Wonder of Life pavilion or World ShowPlace put back into use for these events?! Probably not gonna happen, but we can dream.
Ultimately, we’re looking forward to the start of the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. Although I’m curious about the rationale for reducing the number of dates, I’m honestly pleased by the decision. The event has been too long the last few years and, like Halloween season, I’ve been ready for it to be over by the time it entered what should’ve been its sweet spot. Personally, I still think this is a couple weeks too long; my perfect EPCOT Food & Wine Festival would run from September through November.
My personal ‘wish list’ for the 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival would include new Global Marketplaces from actual countries or regions and a return of the studio concept booths in the culinary corridor, plus past favorites making a comeback. In any case, here’s hoping this will be the year the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival turns things around. Maybe a shorter and more focused festival is precisely what’s needed!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Looking forward to the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival? Did you attend the event in any of the last few years? Any hopes for Global Marketplace booths or menu items? Think any of the other demonstrations or seminars will return? Optimistic that CommuniCore Hall will actually be put to good use this year? Hoping that the Wonders or World ShowPlace venues make a return? Any tips you want to share to make the most of the experience? 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!
