There’s a lot more to EPCOT’s Food & Wine Festival than walking around World Showcase eating and drinking — although, to be fair, that’s a pretty good reason to go. 😂
The 2026 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival runs August 27 through November 21, bringing Global Marketplaces, live music, scavenger hunts, festival merchandise and plenty of reasons to slow down and explore EPCOT a little differently.
And this year has a little extra history behind it: Food & Wine is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Disney brought back or reimagined 30 items from festivals past as part of the celebration.
Whether Food & Wine is the reason you’re visiting EPCOT or you simply happen to be there while the festival is going on, here’s what we’d want to know before heading into the park.
Start With the Festival Passport
Before you start circling World Showcase wondering where everybody got that food you just saw, grab a Festival Passport.
It’s one of the easiest ways to see what’s happening throughout the festival and keep track of the Global Marketplaces and festival activities.
And don’t feel like you need to try everything.
You don’t.
Food & Wine is much more enjoyable when you pick a few things that genuinely sound good instead of trying to conquer the entire festival in one afternoon.
The Global Marketplaces Are the Main Event
Festival marketplaces are spread throughout EPCOT, with dishes and drinks inspired by countries and cultures around the world.
Some marketplaces are familiar festival favorites, while others bring new or returning dishes each year. For the 30th anniversary, Disney has also marked dishes that have returned or been reimagined from previous festivals.
One thing that’s easy to miss when you’re planning ahead: not every marketplace necessarily begins operating on the festival’s opening day.
Four additional marketplaces joined the 2026 festival on October 2 — Coastal Eats, Earth Eats, India and The Alps — giving October and November visitors even more choices than guests had at the beginning of the festival.
Our Food & Wine Strategy: Don’t Start Hungry
This sounds completely backward at a food festival, but hear us out.
Walking into EPCOT starving and deciding you’re going to stand in the first long line you see isn’t always the best strategy.
We’d rather look through the Festival Passport first, choose a handful of things we actually want to try, and share dishes when it makes sense.
Those little festival purchases can add up surprisingly quickly — and sharing lets everyone taste more without turning the afternoon into one enormous meal.
It’s also worth remembering that you don’t have to eat your way around the entire world in one trip. If you’re an Annual Passholder or you’ll be visiting EPCOT more than once during your vacation, spread it out.
Your stomach and your wallet may both thank you.
Timing Can Make a Big Difference
As local Annual Passholders, we’ve learned that when we visit Food & Wine can change the experience quite a bit.
Friday and Saturday evenings can become especially lively, particularly once Florida’s weather starts cooling down. Add a popular Eat to the Beat performer into the mix and World Showcase can feel very different than it did earlier in the day.
If tasting festival food is one of our main goals, we prefer getting started around the time the marketplaces begin serving or coming back during that mid-afternoon stretch after the lunch rush and before dinner.
That gives us more time to enjoy what we’re eating instead of spending the afternoon watching the back of the person in front of us in line.
And if you’re traveling with someone who isn’t nearly as excited about Food & Wine as you are? Build the festival around your EPCOT day instead of making the festival your entire EPCOT day.
Ride something. Explore a pavilion. Sit down somewhere. Go find Remy. Then get another snack.
Food & Wine doesn’t have to be a marathon.
Eat to the Beat Adds a Whole Different Energy
Food isn’t the only reason people head to EPCOT during the festival.
The Eat to the Beat Concert Series brings live music to the America Gardens Theatre, with performances scheduled nightly through November 16.
Shows are currently scheduled for 5:30 PM, 6:45 PM and 8:00 PM.
The concerts are included with EPCOT admission, although seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis for guests without a dining package.
And this is one area where checking the schedule before your EPCOT day really matters.
A performer with a strong following can bring additional people into the World Showcase area well before showtime. If there’s someone you really want to see, plan for that. If concerts aren’t important to you, knowing who’s performing can still help you understand why one part of EPCOT suddenly feels much busier than expected.
Disney also offers Eat to the Beat Concert Series Dining Packages on select dates. These pair a meal at a participating EPCOT restaurant with a guaranteed seat at a concert later that day.
You don’t need a dining package to see a show, but for a must-see performer, it can remove some of the uncertainty around getting a seat.
Emile’s Fromage Montage Gives You a Food Challenge
If cheese is your love language, Disney has apparently planned accordingly.
Emile’s Fromage Montage is a festival food stroll built around select cheese dishes.
Pick up a Festival Passport and look for the qualifying Emile’s Fromage Montage items. Purchase five featured dishes, collect a stamp for each one, and then take your completed passport to Shimmering Sips for a festival treat.
And here’s an important detail if you don’t want to consume five cheese dishes in one heroic afternoon:
You don’t have to complete it in one day.
Disney allows guests to continue their Fromage Montage on another visit during the festival.
That’s especially nice for Annual Passholders, locals or anyone with more than one EPCOT day planned.
Remy’s Hide & Squeak Isn’t Just for Little Kids
Food & Wine has something for the person in your group who would rather hunt for a tiny rat than another plate of food. 😉
Remy’s Ratatouille Hide & Squeak sends guests around EPCOT looking for Remy figures hidden throughout World Showcase and the festival marketplaces.
The scavenger-hunt map and stickers are $11.99 plus tax, while supplies last.
As you find Remy, place the corresponding sticker on your map. When you’re finished, you can turn the map in for a festival keepsake.
And Disney includes one very helpful rule:
You can redeem the map for the keepsake even if you don’t finish the hunt.
So this doesn’t have to become a three-hour family mission because somebody cannot find one last Remy. 😂
While this is an easy activity to recommend for families, we’ve seen plenty of Disney Adults enjoying EPCOT scavenger hunts too. It’s simply another way to explore World Showcase — especially if someone in your group isn’t interested in making food and drinks the entire focus of the day.
There Are More Festival Extras Than Food
Take a little time to look beyond the marketplaces.
Food & Wine includes festival merchandise, entertainment and seasonal activities throughout EPCOT. In 2026, the festival is also celebrating its 30-year history, so longtime Food & Wine fans may recognize returning flavors and ideas from previous festivals.
There are plenty of nonalcoholic festival drinks as well, so you certainly don’t need to drink alcohol to participate in the “Wine” part of Food & Wine.
And if you’re visiting with people who have very different tastes, that’s actually one of the festival’s strengths. One person can grab something adventurous, somebody else can stick with something familiar, and everyone can meet back up and compare.
A Few TPPF Tips Before You Go
Consider a Mini Festival Gift Card
Those little food and drink purchases can add up quickly because you’re usually buying them one at a time. Disney’s Mini Festival Gift Cards can be loaded with as little as $15 and scanned at the festival kiosks for food, merchandise and more.
We especially like the idea as a simple way to set a Food & Wine budget before you start. Load what you’re comfortable spending for the festival and use that card as you make your way around EPCOT. It also means you’re not pulling out a wallet or another payment method at every marketplace.
Stop for the Festival PhotoPass Shots
Food & Wine has festival-specific PhotoPass opportunities around EPCOT, including props and Magic Shots you won’t normally find in the park. We did the Swedish Chef Magic Shot in World Celebration, and it’s a fun way to come home with something from the festival that isn’t another snack or souvenir.
Florida Weather Still Matters
Food & Wine may feel like fall, but October can still be hot. Take breaks, stay hydrated and don’t underestimate how much walking you’ll do around World Showcase.
Give Yourself Somewhere to Sit
Finding a table can sometimes be harder than finding your next snack. If you see a good place to stop, take advantage of it — especially when everyone is juggling food and drinks.
Is EPCOT Food & Wine Worth Making Time For?
We think Food & Wine works best when you don’t treat it like another attraction you have to complete.
You can build an entire EPCOT day around the festival, spend an evening trying food and listening to live music, tackle Emile’s Fromage Montage, hunt for Remy, or simply grab one interesting dish while you’re walking to your next attraction.
That’s part of what makes this festival work for so many different kinds of Disney visitors.
Families can make a game out of exploring World Showcase. Couples can turn it into a date night. Disney Adults can spend an afternoon tasting their way around EPCOT. Annual Passholders can come back several times and barely repeat the same experience.
Food & Wine can be as much — or as little — of your EPCOT day as you want it to be.
And that’s probably our biggest tip of all:
Don’t worry about doing Food & Wine “right.”
Grab the Festival Passport, find something that sounds delicious, and enjoy where the day takes you.
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