EPCOT Festival Quick Guide For Brits
Does EPCOT ever really feel right when there isn’t a festival on? It’s the home of Disney festival magic, a magic that brings the park to life. If you have ever visited EPCOT without a festival happening, you’ll know what I mean, it lacks something, like it’s lost its pixie dust. Did you know that during the festivals, EPCOT will host nearly 30,000 guests a day? They’re a popular experience and you can expect to see higher crowds during festival days.
EPCOT festivals blend culture, food, and entertainment in a unique way that offer guests so much to enjoy, and all part of your entry ticket too. Four times a year, EPCOT celebrates with a festival. Each event is beautiful and unique, from celebrating art and imagination to floral fantasy, to culinary delights and cultural festive celebrations, EPCOT festivals are interactive and inclusive. Let’s take a look at what you can expect from an EPCOT festival.
What’s an EPCOT Festival?
If you’re a Disney World first timer, you might be asking your self what an EPCOT festival is and why all the excitement? A festival at EPCOT is the best kind of Disney magic for adults and children alike. With interactive experiences, special events, music, unique foods, beautiful decorations, and something for everyone to enjoy, an EPCOT festival adds so much to your day in the parks.
Each festival offers something different, and the dates vary slightly every year. You’ll find festival food exclusives during each different festival, and you’ll be able to enjoy different experiences unique to each festival. If you head to EPCOT during a festival, you’ll be in for a treat.
Will it cost me more to experience the festivals?
No, EPCOT festivals are included in the cost of your park ticket. There are some extra bits that you can pay more to experience, such as concerts with dining, and occasional festival specific activities, such as paint to paint the mural during the Festival of the Arts.
Festival food is not included in your ticket price either, but if you have a dining plan, some of the snacks are included in this and are a great way to spend snack credits if you are looking for value for money.
EPCOT Festival Calendar 2024
Here’s the line-up of EPCOT’S 4 festivals for 2024:
Festival of the Arts: 12th January – 19th February 2024
Flower and Garden Festival: 28th February – 27th May 2024
Food and Wine Festival: 29th August – 23rd November 2024
Festival of the Holidays: 29th November – 30th December 2024
During the rest of the year EPCOT does not have a festival on. (That’s only about 3 months and 3 weeks when there isn’t a festival on). The dates when EPCOT is not celebrating a festival in 2024 are:
1st January – 11th January 2024
20th February – 27th February 2024
28th May – 28th August
24th November – 28th November 2024
Should I visit during a festival?
Yes. If you can, we would definitely recommend that you visit during an EPCOT festival. EPCOT comes to life during a festival, but I warn you, once you have been to EPCOT during a festival, you will only want to visit when there are festivals on.
One of the best things about visiting during a festival is that it offers you extra unique experiences for free. It’s like extra toppings on an ice cream. EPCOT is a unique park, with lots to offer, but the festivals add another layer of magic. There are extra events, Photo Pass interactive shots to mark the festivities, snacks to fit the theme, and interactive displays around each theme.
Can you experience the festival in a day?
You will experience the festival from the moment you set foot in the park. EPCOT goes all out for every festival occasion. If you are looking to experience all that an EPCOT festival has to offer in a day, that is tricky. No matter which festival you are visiting for.
When the park is celebrating a festival, you will find so many festival exclusive events. The food and drink options alone, are vast, with so much to try. They usually have a passport for each festival and you can eat your way around EPCOT collecting stamps to get a treat at the end. It’s lots of fun, but we have yet to complete it in a day without it being a group effort.
Additional decorations and interactive events can be done in a day, but when you combine that with all the attractions you want to do it can be a very overwhelming and full-on day trying to take everything in. Setting aside extra time to enjoy all the festival has to offer, if you are lucky enough to be visiting during a festival, or two, is by far the best way to experience it. Trust me, it’s worth setting aside the extra time, EPCOT festivals are a hidden gem of an experience.
Which Festival at EPCOT is the best?
That’s a personal choice; we love all of them and wouldn’t recommend one over the other, simply because they offer such unique and different experiences. Our best recommendation is to visit for each one! The Festival of the Arts is all about artwork, painting, and inspiring you to get creative. The Flower and Garden Festival celebrates nature through character topiaries, butterflies, and Spring gardening excite the senses.
The Food and Wine Festival is a culinary adventure from 6 different continents, savour the taste of food and drink. While the Festival of the holidays is an inclusive celebration of the holiday period, sharing festive traditions from around the world, including delicious festive foods. Picking a best one out of that line up is too hard. Why don’t you share your favourite with us in the comments?
The 4 EPCOT Festivals
If you are looking for some more information on each of the 4 EPCOT festivals why not check out our festival guides for an in depth look at what you can expect from each event.
Festival of the Arts 2024
Flower and Garden Festival 2024
Food and Drink Festival 2024
Festival of the Holidays 2024
With a unique vibe and special events exclusive to that festival, our guides provide you with an insight into exploring each festival and making the most out of your day.
Insider Tips for Making the Most of EPCOT Festivals
Here are out top tips to help you get the most from your EPCOT festival experience, no matter which festival you visit.
Weekday festival visits
The festivals are really popular, and the activities can get very busy, not to mention the queues to try festival foods get really long. Visiting on a weekday is the best way to experience lower crowds and queues for festival exclusive experiences.
You’ll normally have a much better experience on a weekday, and you’ll be able to snap much better pictures of the decorations. This is especially true during the Flower and Garden Festival if you want pictures with the character topiaries. We ended up queueing to take a picture with Woody and Bo Peep with her sheep during a weekend visit.
Eating at the festival
The food at every festival is unique and delicious. If you’re anything like us, you’ll probably want to try everything. Our top tips for trying festival food, no matter the festival, include having festival food for lunch and dinner at EPCOT.
Don’t plan lunch or dinner in a sit-down restaurant. Explore the options the food booths have to offer and eat your way around EPCOT with the light bites and meals on offer. It’s a great way to snack the day away. If you check your My Disney App you will be able to see what is available first and you can plan your route around EPCOT based on the treats you fancy eating.
We love planning an itinerary based on the treats and snacks available during festivals, especially during the Food and Wine Festival. It’s the perfect time to go from booth to booth trying exciting new foods. If you enjoy Drinking Around the World, this Festival also adds some great drinks for you to try that aren’t available at other times of the year. It’s festival edition, drinking around the world!
Budgeting snacks and treats
Festival treats can run away with the cash if you aren’t careful, so we recommend planning the treats you want and doing your best to stay in line with the budget that you have set yourself for food. If you have a dining plan, you can use snack credits to enjoy some of the snacks around the world and this will save you some cash.
One of our top tips is to grab a Disney gift card in Walmart before starting your day of festival eating. Load it with the money you are happy to spend on festival treats and when it runs out, the festival treats do too. This is a great way to budget snacks and drinks on a festival day, particularly if you normally use a Magic Band or keycard to pay for items around Disney. It saves you from getting an unwanted surprise when you get your credit card bill. You can even use the gift card trick for other budgets at Disney.
Shoes and containers
Although EPCOT is not a big park to get around in comparison to the other parks, comfortable shoes are still a must. You’ll be exploring all the pavilions and doing lots of walking at the festivals, so make sure you can do it in comfort.
A top tip for a treat day is to bring a lunch box container in your bag. Some of the treats are quite big and if you have children joining in who enjoy nibbling as you go, you can pop festival foods in a container so they can dip in and out of the food. It works for adults too! We found taking a container, especially when we did the Cookie Stroll at Christmas really helpful. We stood eating cookies watching Luminous, after the food stands had closed for the day as we had kept some in a container.
Battery Pack
During festival time, you tend to take a lot more photos than usual because the decorations are just so beautiful. Spending your day snapping away and recording videos means your battery runs out fast. Especially as you need to check your My Disney App for any reservations you have, queue times, and virtual queues. Having a battery pack with you means you don’t miss any of the night time entertainment EPCOT has to offer because your phone died earlier in the day.
Concerts
EPCOT holds concerts as part of each of the festivals and they are free to watch. With guest musicians playing on different nights, remember to check out the schedule before you visit.
If you see someone you like playing, you can opt to pay more for a dining package to eat and get a great seat to watch the concert. Or you can join the queue early, we recommend at least 90 minutes, before concert time to get a free seat and party on.
Have a break
Being on your feet all day is hard work and you’ll struggle if you don’t take breaks. Use your snack stops as a time to sit down and have a rest, take in the beautiful views across World Showcase and enjoy the atmosphere of a festival in EPCOT. There are plenty of seating areas around EPCOT. If you’re looking for somewhere quiet World Celebration Gardens is a nice escape, and so is the seating near American Adventure which looks down towards Spaceship Earth. Depending on the time of day, near American Adventure you will be able to catch the sounds of the concert series playing.
Get interactive
Lastly, remember to join in with the interactive displays and approach the festivals with curiosity. The butterfly tent during the Flower and Garden Festival was a truly fascinating, but hot, experience. You could see the cocoons of butterflies about to hatch shaking and butterflies were free flying in the area. It was a beautiful and enchanting experience that felt far removed from a theme park experience.
Learning about the different butterflies, their feeding habits, and where they lived was lots of fun for all ages. Don’t be afraid to enter the festival exhibits and interact with everything that is on offer.
Conclusion
EPCOT festivals are an absolute blast, but they’re even better when you go in with a plan. Now you know what to expect, you’ll be ready to make the most of your visit, whether you’re there for the food, the entertainment, or just to soak in the atmosphere. Pack your comfy shoes, and get ready for an unforgettable festival experience in EPCOT whatever festival you visit this year.