If you’re a little overwhelmed by the festival scene at Epcot, you’re not alone. Whether you’re just starting to plan a trip for years down the road or you just discovered there’s a festival starting during your trip next week, this post is here to help you navigate the numerous festival seasons at Epcot. Read on to learn about Epcot’s Festivals!
What Are Epcots Festivals?
As you can see from the below calendar, Epcot’s year can basically be divided into eight parts—four festivals occurring for one to four months at a time and four breaks between the festivals when the park is just in its “normal” state. Of course, since festivals make up more than 50% of the year, it’s really the festival-free time that’s abnormal, but whatever.
The festivals themselves are pretty straightforward. Each has a theme—Arts, Flower and Garden, Food and Wine, and Holidays—and the park transformed with decorations, entertainment, activities, and food and beverage to match the theme. The festivals are not separate ticketed events, they occur throughout the park during regular park hours.
Epcot Festival Guides
Here are the links to our posts covering each of the Epcot festivals in detail:
2024 Epcot Festival Calendar
February 28, 2024 through May 27, 2024 - Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
May 28 through August 28, 2024 - No Festival
August 29 through November 23, 2024 - Epcot International Food & Wine Festival
(2024 TBD) November 19 through November 23, 2023 - No Festival
(2024 TBD) November 24 through December 30, 2023 - Epcot International Festival of the Holidays
(2024-2025 TBD) December 31, 2023 through January 11, 2024 - No Festival
(2025 TBD) January 12, 2024 to February 19, 2024 - Epcot International Festival of the Arts
(2025 TBD) February 20, 2024 through February 27, 2024 - No Festival
What You’ll Find at Every Epcot Festival
Food and Beverage Booths. Epcot has a set of temporary / semi-permanent / permanent booths around the park that are used exclusively for added food and beverage during the festival. These booths sell (mostly) unique items that aren’t available the rest of the year.
A Feature Show at America Gardens Theatre. Each of the festivals has a feature show at the America Gardens Theatre. Access to these shows is limited and can involve multi-hour waits. They all have associated dining packages that guarantee admission, but you might still have to arrive early for a great seat. These concert series are:
Festival of the Arts — Disney on Broadway
Flower and Garden — Garden Rocks
Food and Wine — Eat to the Beat
Festival of the Holidays — Candlelight Processional
Unique Decorations throughout the Park. Each festival comes with unique banners and other decorations throughout the park. For the most part these aren’t attractions in themselves, but the Flower and Garden Festival’s beautiful character topiaries are on a different level, for example.
Other Entertainment & Activities. These vary greatly by festival, but from free drawing classes to $300+ dinner shows, each festival has unique offerings throughout the park.
Merchandise. Each festival debuts new merchandise each year. Some, like Food & Wine, have several lines with a ton of items, while others might have only a few items.
A paid scavenger hunt. Each festival has a paid scavenger hunt where you purchase a map (usually around $10), search the park for items, and then present your completed map for a small treat or item.
Should I Visit Epcot During a Festival?
Well, if you’re already going to be in Disney World then you definitely should visit Epcot regardless of whether there’s a festival or not. But if you’re deciding whether to plan around a festival…
It’s really a mix of pros and cons. The unique offerings of each festival are pretty cool, but how much they appeal to you will be personal. I, for example, don’t like Food & Wine, which is the most popular festival.
Some people will go to Epcot without visiting a single festival booth. Some people obsess over every menu item (not a subject for this blog) and plan multiple visits to a single festival to be sure they try everything that interests them.
I would never reschedule a trip to avoid a Festival, but I’m also thrilled every time I plan a trip and realize there’s no festival ongoing because I love taking the time to appreciate the heart of Epcot, particularly with lower crowds.
Keep in mind that Epcot’s World Showcase is a festival unto itself. There are always snack stands at each pavilion. You can always drink around the world. And you’ll always find cultural entertainment at most pavilions.
General Epcot Festival Tips
When To Visit
Avoid evenings and weekends. Festivals bring high local crowds, and most locals are free in the evenings and weekends. This leads to the park have disproportionate crowds at those times. And sometimes—like at the Food & Wine Festival—guests coming for the festival might engage in a bit more alcohol consumption than on an average day.
Avoid the first and last days. The first day of a festival will have lots of bloggers and vloggers, and the first and last weekends will have even more locals than usual.
Planning
Begin planning now. Festival activities and shows might fly under your radar. Several activities are required to be booked ahead of time, and the dining packages that guarantee seating at the featured shows often sell out ahead of time.
If it matters to you, research food ahead of time. We don’t cover much food here, but there are several sites that review every food item at the festivals. Check out places like Disney Food Blog and WDW Prep School.
Grab a Festival Passport. In the past, the map, times guide, and festival passport all combined to provide you information about the festival. Nowadays, the park map usually doesn’t change for festivals, and times guide has been entirely replaced by the My Disney Experience app. You’ll still want a festival passport, which collects all the important information—including booth menus—into a single small booklet.
Don’t fixate on the booths. If you’re a frequent Disney World guest…well you probably aren’t reading this post. If you’re traveling to Disney World once a year or less, then what does it matter to you if a food item is only available for a few weeks? Plenty of full-time items, like pretzels in Germany or shave ice in Japan, are worth getting even during the festivals.
Odds and Ends
Stay at Crescent Lake or on the Skyliner. If you’re a die-hard for a particular festival, consider booking a hotel with convenient access to Epcot. All of Disney’s hotels have free transportation to the park, but those on the Disney Skyliner have easy access, and those on Crescent Lake are only a short walk from the park.
We cover this topic in more detail in our post on the Best Hotels for Visiting Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
Budget for merchandise. The festivals all have unique merchandise, some of which can be quite appealing. Keep this in mind when setting your merchandise budget for the trip.
Best Festival For…
A lot of people ask “What Epcot festival is the best?” and the answer is just that it depends on what you’re looking for. All of the festivals have strengths and weaknesses, and our opinion of a given festival might not be how you wind up feeling.
Each has all the elements—food, activities, ambiance, and entertainment—but we find that each of the four excels in one of these areas.
Best Food & Beverage — Food & Wine
No one should be surprised, but the Food and Wine Festival, held in the late summer / fall has the best selection of food and beverage, with over 30 booths compared to under 20 for the other festivals.
That said…were you really going to get through 20, or even ten booths worth food anyways? Each of the festivals has some unique options.
Best Activities — Festival of the Arts
With animation classes, the paint by number mural, and unique photo ops, Festival of the Arts shines with its activities.
Best For a Stroll — Flower and Garden
With its topiaries and gardens, Flower and Garden Festival is meant to be enjoyed with a leisurely stroll around the park. If you’re looking for a festival where you won’t feel much pressure to do anything except soak it in, this is a good one.
Best for Entertainment — Festival of the Holidays
Festival of the Holidays offers unique holiday entertainment (and cultural edu-tainment) throughout the World Showcase and the famed, celebrity-hosted Candlelight Processional.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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