October provides such a feast of events in Disney World and the International Food and Wine festival is just one of them! Based in Epcot’s World Showcase, the International Food and Wine festival is now larger than ever with around 30 “Market Places” featuring tasting portions from continents and countries like Africa, Australia, Japan, Greece, Russia and Spain, plus daily food and wine seminars and demonstrations. All this runs through October and in fact now, into November and is part of your park admission ticket!
The festival is indeed a feast for the senses, to be sure. Why not begin your adventure with an orientation. Go first to the festival “Welcome Centre”, which you will find located in Innovations Hall, and there decide on your game plan. There you will find the experiences that are available that day, so it will help you plan your “trip”.
There are a number of special events that you can attend too, like after hours signature diners for example, you will however need to make reservations for these, and I believe they are extremely popular, so tickets sell out rather quickly.
What accounts for this festivals popularity? Well, one reason could just be that you can experience a very, very wide variety of food and beverage in a short time frame!! So, if you come out for a day at Epcot , rather than choosing just one country or culture to see from a food perspective, you can try perhaps 8 or 10 of them! The opportunity to sample foods unfamiliar to you without spending a fortune is probably another reason for it's popularity? And what a good idea. As an example, you can go to the Indian “Marketplace” and sample a curry for under $4, and the whole concept definitely adds yet another dimension to your Disney experience.
Whilst the festival absolutely serves to please the very “savvy” in food and wine, it in no way excludes the average Epcot guest. It is also for people who just want to. Enjoy themselves trying all the various offerings made available.
Certainly one desert we tried, merely as we had never heard of this “traditional” English desert, of “Lemon Posset”, is something that, although very pleasant to taste, was equally nothing too spectacular either! But , it serves as a memory of our first Food and Wine festival, that we still joke about today, and as we are about to embark on another Food and Wine festival time of year in Epcot, the comments in our house have already started, “We must go to the festival in Epcot when we are there to try some of that “world famous Lemon Posset!”
Make sure you have an empty tum for this event though!!