In recent years, EPCOT has been the “park of festivals”. Since 2017 it has hosted four seasonal festivals for guests to enjoy:
- International Festival of the Arts: a celebration of the arts in all of its many forms
- International Flower and Garden Festival: a celebration of horticulture – perfect for spring!
- International Food and Wine Festival: a celebration of the culinary arts from around the world
- International Festival of the Holidays: an exploration of the winter holidays and how they are celebrated by different cultures
Each of these festivals gives guests the opportunity to enjoy limited time food & drink offers, special entertainment events, unique displays, and more. It adds some “spice” to the park, making it a more attractive destination for people near and far.
2024 Changes
Recently, Disney announced dates for the 2024 edition of the International Food and Wine Festival (arguably the most popular of the festivals – after all, who doesn’t like to eat). However, with this announcement came a big departure from recent years. Since 2020, Food and Wine had started in mid/late July and ran through mid November. This year is different. For 2024, Disney decided to revert back to starting the festival in late August: August 29th through November 23rd
This change caught many guests by surprise. Many people had scheduled WDW trips in August so that they could catch the start of the festival. Now those plans were dashed. Of course, there is always a risk trying to align your trip with an event whose dates haven’t been announced yet, so I don’t blame Disney in the least for this. Besides, with the previous changes to Flower and Garden’s 2024 dates, the writing was on the wall!
But it did get me thinking that looking at the history of the festival calendar might make for an interesting article!
A Brief History of EPCOT’s Festival Calendar
International Festival of the Arts
Since it debuted in 2017, Festival of the Arts has generally followed a pretty consistent schedule, even during COVID. It starts in January, a few days after the end of Marathon weekend, and runs through President’s Day – a total of about 38 days.
The only deviation from this schedule was in 2021. That year, Disney did not hold the WDW Marathon on-site due to COVID. This allowed them to start Festival of the Arts a week earlier than usual, so it ran for an extra week that year.
International Festival of the Holidays
Festival of the Holidays is another relative newcomer to the game, also debuting in 2017. Like Arts, its schedule has also been relatively consistent since its inception. Also like Arts, it is a very short festival, lasting just over a month. Its timing makes sense, since it is supposed to correspond to the Christmas season.
In 2017 and 2018, Festival of the Holidays started a few days before Thanksgiving, lasting through December 30th. In 2019, Disney slightly modified the schedule to start on the day after Thanksgiving (“Black Friday”), which cut its length down by a few days. Other than that minor change, however, the timing has been very consistent.
International Flower and Garden Festival / International Food and Wine Festival
This is where things get more interesting!
I want to talk about both of these festivals together, because their scheduling journey is intertwined so much.
The Pre-COVID Era (2017 – 2020)
In the pre-COVID era from 2017 to 2020, Flower and Garden was around 90 days long. It would start at the end of February / beginning of March and last through the end of May / beginning of June. [Note that although it was scheduled to end on June 1 in 2020, Disney ended it early that year for obvious reasons]
Meanwhile, Food and Wine generally went from late August to mid-November. In 2017 and 2018, it ended about two weeks before Thanksgiving. This aligned with the pre-Thanksgiving start of Festival of the Holidays. However, in 2019 when Disney moved the start date of Festival of the Holidays to after Thanksgiving, Disney was able to extend Food and Wine by an additional week.
The Post-COVID Era (2021-2023)
Once these festivals returned in 2021, however, they came back supersized! Disney decided to add a month to both of them.
Flower and Garden still started at the beginning of March, but now it was extended by about a month, running through July 4th. Meanwhile, Food and Wine still ended the week before Thanksgiving, but now it started in mid-July!
The combination of the two extensions above meant that there was a festival of some sort for over 320 days of the year… close to 90% of the time! Compare that to pre-COVID when festivals were only present for 250 days out of the year.
The Post-Post-COVID Era (2024-??)
It seems like 2024 is a “reset year” for EPCOT’s festival schedule. The 2024 date pretty much align with those in 2019. EPCOT is no longer going to be the “all festivals, all the time” park like it was the past few years.
Why Change?
Why the change? There are a couple of possibilities.
First, Disney may have extended Flower and Garden and Food and Wine in order to boost attendance. For the last few years, EPCOT has been a bit of a mess with all of the construction going on. By expanding the festivals, it gave people a reason to brave the construction detours and come to EPCOT.
However, presumably extending these festivals came at a cost. Because of the extra food booths, events, and so forth, I’ve got to imagine that putting on these festivals adds to the overall cost of running the park. Keeping all of those flowers alive during the heat of the summer for Flower and Garden alone probably isn’t cheap. Disney probably figured that with attendance starting to normalize and construction winding down that they no longer had a need to extend the length of these festivals.
The other, more interesting, possibility is that perhaps EPCOT is trying to clear a time slot in the park calendar for a FIFTH festival during the summer months!
You can let your imagination run wild on the type of festival the they might introduce. Banshee thought that maybe they would add a Festival of America around the Fourth of July. This might showcase the various diverse regions of the United States, celebrating our different foods, music, and culture. Personally, it is an intriguing idea. I am not sure how that would fit in with the international vibe of the World Showcase, but if Disney wants something to happen, it will happen!
Wrap Up
Whether or not Disney chooses to introduce a new festival in the future, it does seem like guests need to get used to the return of to the old festival schedule. I know I was looking forward to getting some eats at F&W during our August 2024 trip. But now it just means that we will have more room in our stomachs for some of EPCOT’s year round culinary delights.
After all, when life gives you lemons, go get some BBQ at Regal Eagle!
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