Epcot International Food and Wine Festival

Epcot International Food and Wine Festival

September 30 - November 13, 2011

Exotic cocktails will pair like a tropical daydream with fresh new tastes from more than one island paradise at the 16th Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Sept. 30-Nov. 13, 2011, at Walt Disney World Resort. The one-of-a-kind 45-day festival serves up international cuisine, culture and entertainment from six continents, with more than 25 international marketplaces featuring tapas-sized portions paired with beer, wine and inventive new cocktails.

Marketplace tasting menus offer variety and adventure for guests on a mission to tantalize their taste buds during a scenic stroll around the 40-acre World Showcase Lagoon. The adventure can take them to the festival’s first Hawaii marketplace, which will cook up Kalua pork sliders and tuna poke with seaweed salad and lotus root chips to team with a refreshing Seven Tiki Mai Tai or a Kona Longboard or Pipeline beer. A new Caribbean Islands marketplace will serve ropa vieja with rice and jerk-spiced chicken with mango salsa. A beverage menu featuring a frozen Dragon Berry Colada and frozen Rock Coconut Mojito is sure to conjure steel-drum fantasies.

With a swing across the Atlantic, guests will be transported to the new Portugal marketplace, where the Portugal Wine Bar will offer best sips to pair with calamari salad with olives and smoked paprika. The Scandinavia marketplace will return after a hiatus with a fresh new Xante Sunshine cocktail made from Xante pear and cognac liquer. And the Canada marketplace will introduce a sweet treat: apple ice wine.

Disney and celebrity chefs will team with winemakers and brew masters from around the world to get the party started Sept. 30. During the six-week festival, guests will discover:

  • Three new tasting marketplaces — Hawaii, Caribbean Islands and Portugal — plus new menu offerings at popular returning marketplaces
  • Celebrity chef appearances starring top culinarians like Jeff Henderson, Cat Cora, Alan Wong, Gale Gand, Suvir Saran, Jamie Deen, Rock Harper, Celina Tio, Robert Irvine, Andrew Zimmern, Buddy Valastro, Warren Brown, Art Smith, Keegan Gerhard and more.
  • First-ever HGTV home entertaining seminars each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
  • The Cranberry Bog display by Craisins telling the story behind the venerable cranberry’s rich agricultural heritage.
  • Daily wine seminars, bottle signings, author events and culinary demonstrations at the Festival Welcome Center.
  • Eat to the Beat! concerts three times nightly at America Gardens Theatre.

New Sips, Fresh Bites

Festival guests can make a day of circumnavigating the World Showcase Promenade, grazing and sipping as they go. Tapas-sized portions of regional specialties run $3 to $8 each, and recommended wines, cocktails and beers make perfect pairings at each marketplace. For quicker marketplace visits, guests can purchase a festival-themed mini-Disney Gift Card that can be worn on a wristband and loaded and reloaded at several park locations.

Live daily entertainment showcases many cultures with music, acrobatics and improv performances along the promenade. Evening Eat to the Beat! concerts at America Gardens Theatre feature acts from many musical genres. Appearing for the first time on the Eat to the Beat! stage are The Pointer Sisters, The Orchestra starring former members of ELO and Gin Blossoms. Fan favorite Taylor Dayne kicks off the festival Sept. 30-Oct. 2, and crowd pleaser Big Bad Voodoo Daddy wraps the event Nov. 11-13.

The festival attracts a diverse audience — from wine connoisseurs and epicures to novices wishing to boost their culinary IQs. Special culinary programs showcase a lineup of renowned winemakers, guest chefs and speakers participating in elegant dinners, luncheons, seminars and wine schools.

Festival highlights include:

  • The Festival Welcome Center, with a Wine Bar, Authentic Taste Seminars, Authors Without Borders weekend conversations and more.
  • More than 270 chefs including Disney chefs and culinary stars from across the country conducting culinary demonstrations and hosting dinners and tasting events.
  • A complimentary Marketplace Discovery Passport to be stamped at each international marketplace visited for the perfect scrapbook souvenir.
  • Popular returning events that include First Bites Opening Reception on Sept. 29; Kitchen Memories (formerly Celebrating Family and Friends in the Kitchen); Mixology Seminar; and “3D” Disney Dessert Discovery.
  • The weekly Party for the Senses grand tasting event beginning Oct. 8 and with a new Saturday evening time of 7:30-10 p.m. featuring tempting bites from eminent chefs, more than 50 wines and beers and live entertainment presented by Cirque du Soleil.

Festival guests can enjoy fresh Epcot experiences including the latest Future World high-tech fun at Innoventions and the celebrated return of “Captain EO,” the classic musical 3-D production starring Michael Jackson in a rare big-screen performance. In World Showcase, new and recently updated restaurants welcome guests at the Italy, Japan, Mexico and China pavilions.

What’s Included with Epcot Admission:

Authentic Taste seminars and Authors Without Borders programs with special book signings at the Festival Center, Eat to the Beat! concerts, cultural adventures, Marketplace Discovery Passport and all attractions and park entertainment are included with regular Epcot admission.

Special Programming by Reservation:

The Party for the Senses grand tasting events and other special culinary and beverage programs require reservations and separate event admission. Beginning August 16 at 7 a.m. guests can call 407/WDW-FEST (939-3378) for information and to make reservations for special events and programs. Festival event updates and details will be posted at the Official Site.

Fun Facts

Walt Disney World guests can sip great wines, savor new tastes and enjoy live entertainment all day long as the 16th Epcot International Food & Wine Festival offers a “Passport to a World of Flavors” Sept. 30-Nov. 13.

The 45-day outdoor festival at Disney’s Epcot theme park serves up authentic cuisine; wine, beer and inventive new cocktails; entertainment; and cultural exhibits of more than 25 international regions.  Exotic marketplaces from Hawaii to Portugal offer exciting taste treats.  The festival is believed to be the largest food and wine event of its kind in the world, beginning at the Festival Welcome Center in Future World and fanning around the promenade encircling World Showcase Lagoon.

Here are some facts about the 16th annual event:

  • More than 300 national and international wines
  • 45 fabulous days long
  • More than 76 kinds of international foods, each appetizer-sized portion priced $3-$8
  • 160 of America’s most celebrated chefs and Walt Disney World chefs
  • Over 300 wine and beer seminars
  • More than 1,200 fireworks rockets exploding each night over World Showcase Lagoon in   “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth”         grand finale to the festival
  • 135 Eat to the Beat! concerts performed
  • 33,000 bottles of wine and champagne
  • 289,000 servings of beer
  • 900,000 sumptuous samplings
  • 338,000 wine glasses
  • 100,000 desserts including freshly baked waffles with berry compote and whipped cream (Belgium marketplace), white chocolate macadamia mousse with dark chocolate pearls (Desserts & Champagne marketplace) and chocolate cannoli (Italy marketplace).
  • 4,000 pounds of lobster for Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine Lobster Rolls and Linda Bean’s Lobster Claw Cuddlers at the Hops & Barley marketplace plus Lobster and Scallop Fisherman’s Pie at the Ireland marketplace.
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