We are eagerly anticipating the announcement of the dates for this year’s Food and Wine Festival in EPCOT. This is EPCOT’s largest festival, and this year, some new developments could make it extra exciting. 

We’re going to do some speculating today about what those dates could look like in 2024. 

We’ll be taking a look at the dates the festival was held in past years, as well as the new factors that could influence the festival dates for 2024. Let’s go!

UPDATE: Disney has announced the 2024 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival dates, and our speculation in this post was correct! This year’s festival will run from August 29th through November 23rd.

Dates From Past Years 

The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival was traditionally a fall festival in EPCOT. Prior to the pandemic-related closures, it generally started in late August and ended in November just before Thanksgiving. 

For example, in 2019, the festival ran from August 29th to November 23rd. But when the festival returned in 2021, it started mid-summer and ran from July 15th to November 20th. The festival has stuck to this July to November schedule ever since, as in 2022, the festival ran from July 14th to November 19th. Last year, in 2023, the festival did get slightly shorter — running from July 27th to November 18th. There has been a clear trend here ever since the festival made its return in 2021.

Now, to understand what could happen with dates this year, we need to know why Disney World (and many other theme parks) hold festivals. Festivals exist to draw crowds – and that’s why you saw Disney introduce its first festivals – The EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival and the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival — during times of the year that were typically slower (the spring and fall when school is in session). 

In 2021, when many people were still not traveling to Disney World because of the pandemic, Disney lengthened the festival to try to draw more crowds to the park. Disney also extended the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival dates in 2021. In 2019, it ran from March 6th to June 3rd. In 2021, it was one month longer – from March 3rd to July 5th. This year, we saw Disney shorten the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival by about a month. 

The shortening of the Flower and Garden Festival this year could be a clue that Disney is planning to start the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival even earlier than July. Or it could be a sign that Disney is going back to its pre-pandemic schedule of not having a festival run during the summer months. If that’s the case, the Food and Wine Festival might also get dramatically shorter and go back to a late-August start. 

Or there could be another reason for the date to change — Disney could introduce a new summertime festival in EPCOT. Now, this is purely speculation — we have no hints that this could be happening. BUT, Disney did just introduce a new summertime festival in Disneyland! Pixar Fest starts next week and runs through August 4th.

How Festivals Are Disney’s Secret Weapon in EPCOT

New Venues

What we DO know is that EPCOT’s new festival center – CommuniCore Hall and Plaza – is opening on June 10th. We are SUPER hopeful that this means some of the things missing from the Food and Wine Festival since 2021 – the celebrity chef appearances, cooking demonstrations, Party for the Senses, and more – will return to the festival this year. 

That’s right — if you had not visited the Food and Wine Festival before the 2021 edition, you might not know that Disney offered months of special programming as a major component of the celebration. In 2019, you could have brunch and a meet-and-greet with celebrity chefs like Cat Cora, Carla Hall, Buddy Valastro, or Andrew Zimmern. EPCOT offered tons of seminars on wine, cheese, or beer, as well as seminars on food and wine pairings. And then there was the Party for the Senses — a special ticketed event that offered dozens of dishes and drinks from Master Chefs.

We believe CommuniCore Hall could be the new home of some of these festival offerings. But does the summertime opening of the new festival venue mean Disney will move UP the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival, or could it be pushed back to allow some time to work out the kinks in the new venue before it’s used for a festival?

Potential Festival Dates

So, if we take those factors into account, we think we’re looking at three potential opening date ranges. First, the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival could run from mid-July to mid-November, as it has the last few years. In that instance, we would predict that the festival will either start on July 11th, July 18th, or July 25th, (because it usually starts on a Thursday) and run through November 23rd (because it typically ends the Saturday before Thanksgiving).

Second, the festival could start EARLY to coincide with the opening of CommuniCore Hall, meaning that the festival could start as early as June 13th — the Thursday after CommuniCore Hall opens, and run through November 23rd.

The third option is that Disney could be going back to the pre-pandemic date range. As we mentioned, Disney did something similar by shortening the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival by a month. If Disney did this, the potential EPCOT International Food and Wine dates could be August 29th (the last Thursday of August) through November 23rd (the Saturday before Thanksgiving).

Regardless of the dates that Disney chooses, we’re excited to see how CommuniCore Hall and Plaza fit into the festival events and whether those seminars and demonstrations will return! We’ll keep watching for the festival dates and other details, so keep following us for the latest news!

Click Here for the latest information on the 2024 EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival!

Are you excited for the EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival? Let us know down below!