Great news! Disney announced that the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival will run from July 15 – November 20, and it’s a sign that the world is starting to return to normal. The Disney World, at least. Since reopening last summer, each of EPCOT’s festivals have been branded with ” Taste of…” at the beginning: Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, Taste of EPCOT International Festival of the Arts, and the Taste of EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival (which is currently running). This “Taste of” moniker showed the limited scope of the events due to COVID restrictions.
However, Disney Parks Blog just referred to the upcoming mega-festival as the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival. What does that mean exactly?
It’s not clear at this moment, but it seems that Disney is optimistic for the state of the pandemic come July due to the widening availability of the vaccine. This may allow for EPCOT to bring back the Eat to the Beat concerts or cooking seminars. However, Disney has not announced full details on what exactly is coming back. I would not expect everything to be exactly as it was pre-pandemic, as Disney’s blog images still show guests in masks, but I think it’s safe to assume this year’s festival will be more fully featured.
Oh, and we have to talk about the festival length. I remember when the Food & Wine festival meant summer was coming to a close and fall was around the corner. This year’s festival is loooooong. It comes in the midst of summer, and you know what? I’m all for it. With so much of the park under construction, it’s great that EPCOT is basically one rolling food festival. Plus, it feels like we’ve all earned having the festival kick off earlier than previous years after 2020.
Until then, I’ll be training so I can really do my best at Emile’s Fromage Montage.
Images copyright Disney.
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