2024 Disney Epcot Festivals Schedule

This EPCOT Festivals  2024 guide will help you not only nail down those wdw festival dates, but also make the most of your Disney Festival vacation. We are sharing the Disney World Festivals 2024 schedule and also the best places to stay and how to plan your days. Here is the Disney Festival Calendar for 2024, to help you get a handle on what is happening when at EPCOT. 

If you’re visiting Walt Disney World during an Epcot Festival, there is a lot to consider! From the Best Days to visit Disney World, to the Disney World Calendar of Events 2024. With so much happening at EPCOT, we’ll dive in to the Disney world festivals 2024 calendar for all four Epcot Festivals . As well as share  recommendations on Epcot Hotels, Epcot Restaurants, and Epcot Planning Tips. All to help make your Disney Festival Vacation easier. 

2024 Epcot Festivals Calendar

Get to know your EPCOT festival. Once you nail down your vacation dates you can figure out which of the Disney World Festival are you visiting? You can find EPCOT festivals throughout the year, and each provides a unique experience. The Epcot Festivals 2024 dates for each event are as follows. 

• Festival of the Arts at Epcot : January 12–February 19, 2024 (confirmed dates)
• Flower and Garden Festival  : February 28–May 27, 2024 (confirmed dates)
• Food and Wine Festival: August 29–November 23, 2024 (confirmed dates)
• Festival of the Holidays: November 29–December 30, 2024 (confirmed dates)

EPCOT Festival Hours

If you’re visiting EPCOT park for the festivals, know that in general the hours for the park and festival differ. Be sure to check EPCOT Park Hours to help you plan your festival days. 

• Epcot Park Hours: 9:00 AM- 9:00 PM
• Epcot Festival Hours: 11:00 AM- 9:00 PM

What are the EPCOT Festivals and how many are there?

Offering four different festivals a year, each festival has its own theme; The Arts, Flowers & Gardening, Food & Wine and the Holidays. With the exception of a couple months in the summer, there is almost always a Disney festival at EPCOT going on. That said, if you have your heart set on a certain theme take note of what time of year each annual festival at EPCOT happens. As a bonus, since these happen annually, you can always count on new foods, merchandise, and performances every year, if you want to revisit and test out all the new things. 

Do Disney EPCOT Festivals Cost Extra?

The good news is that every Festival at EPCOT is included with your park ticket. While you will have to pay for the foods you buy, and the merchandise, No Special Tickets are Required. Which is such a nice perk, given that so many other things will need your Disney dollars during a trip.

Festival of the Arts | Mid-January- Late-February

This art festival features artists displaying Disney-inspired artwork across the park. Festival of the Arts also includes beautiful foods,  a community mural that you can help paint, chalk artwork on the sidewalks, and photo ops with great masterpieces across the park. 

• Visit the Food Studios: Festival of the Arts Menus
• Meet the Artists and Purchase Art Work
• Chalk Artists
• Be sure to help out at the Paint By Number Mural
• Snap a Photo at the Artwork Photo Ops across the park
• Learn to Draw at the Animation Academy
• Disney on Broadway: Festival of the Arts includes the Disney on Broadway Series, which showcases performers from Disney Broadway shows.
• Colorful Cuisine: At this art festival you can tackle the Wonderful World of Colorful Cuisine featuring dishes at select outdoor kitchens, aligned to a color on the paint palette. 
• Figment’s Brush with the Masters: Featuring works of art, this game has you on the hunt for Figment hiding in each important painting around the park. The Figment’s Brush with the Master’s Game includes stickers and a prize once you complete the game. 
• Festival of the Arts Exclusive Merchandise

Flower and Garden Festival | March- May

This garden-focused festival gives you the chance to see your favorite Disney characters sculpted in topiaries. Everything from Bambi to the Beast is included. You can also visit the learning gardens, the Butterfly House, and try tons of foods featuring fresh flavors. 

• Visit the Outdoor Kitchens: Flower and Garden Festival Menus
• See all the Topiaries and Gardens
• Visit the Butterfly House
• Garden Rocks Series: The Flower and Garden Festival hosts the Garden Rocks Series, featuring performers of old-school bands.
• Garden Graze:  This spring festival at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Park features fresh foods in the Garden Graze foodie challenge.  With farm-to-table options, veggies galore, and fruit-filled treats, this challenge serves up a specialty dole whip as a prize. 
• Find Eggs in each World Showcase Country. Egg Stravaganza Scavenger Hunt ( if you’re visiting close to Easter time)
• Spike’s Pollen-Nation Exploration: Honoring the honeybee, the Spike the Bee’s Pollen-Nation Exploration Game highlights pollinator flowers in each country, and area in Epcot. Find each one, add a sticker to the board and collect your prize. 
• Flower and Garden Festival Merchandise

Food and Wine Festival | Late August-Mid November

This festival is all about food and wine. Specialty foods and beverages show up at each booth across the park and are meant to be savored. With more food booths than any other festival, this one gives you plenty to choose from. 

• Visit the Global Marketplace Kitchens Food and Wine Festival Menus
• Eat to the Beat Concert Series: At Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival, there is the Eat to the Beat Concert Series which goes a bit higher level with bands like Boyz to Men and Plain White T’s.
• Fromage Montage: You can collect stamps for Emile’s Fromage Montage featuring cheese dishes across multiple kitchens. 
• Remy’s Hide and Squeak Game:  The game at the Food and Wine Festival is Remy’s Ratatouille Hide and Squeak Game, featuring our favorite rat, Remy! This game gets you familiar with an important culinary ingredient in each country, and includes stickers and usually a food-related prize at the end of the game. 
• Disney’s Wine and Dine Half Marathon
• Food and Wine Festival Merchandise

Festival of Holidays | December

Honoring the holidays around the world, the Festival of Holidays showcases traditions in each culture. Food Kitchens offer holiday foods from each region and festive drinks. Some World Showcase countries even feature a Holiday Storyteller to tell each country’s story. 

• Visit the Holiday Kitchens Festival of Holidays Menus
• See the the World Showcase Storytellers
• Joyful! A Celebration of the Season Performances
• Candlelight Processional: At the Festival of Holidays, you can find the Candlelight Processional which is a Christmas Choral Music concert, highlighting the retelling of the Nativity Story by a celebrity speaker.
• Holiday Cookie Stroll: Finally, if you’re up for Christmas Cookies you can collect them on the Festival of Holidays Cookie Stroll. This challenge includes festive traditional cookies from certain outdoor kitchens. And can sometimes be collected in an exclusive cookie jar when they are offered. 
• Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition: For an extra festive game at EPCOT during the holidays, you can play Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition. This game gives you a glimpse of each culture’s holiday traditions. The gameboard includes stickers and the prize is typically Frozen-themed. 
• Festival of Holidays Merchandise

Is there a summer festival at EPCOT?

In general it feels like Disney World has festivals all year long. As such, the summer months that are free of festivals is sometimes a welcome change for guests. In fact, its often such a welcome change that park goers call the summertime at the park, Epcot Light. And frankly, we couldn’t agree more. While we LOVE the Epcot festivals, we also love just being able to enjoy the rides, and the World Countries, much of which gets lost during festival time. Check out our Guide to Epcot Park for all the things you can do, when there isn’t a festival!

Which Epcot Festival is the Best?

While this question comes up a lot, it really is all about you! What you like, what are your passions, etc. In our case, we like them all. But perhaps you’re looking for a more concrete answer here. If so, here are some things to consider.

Festival of the Arts	Flower & Garden	Food & Wine	Festival of Holidays
Wintertime Jan- Feb 1 month long Culinary Art, Fine Art, and Performance Art	Springtime March- May 3 months long Flowers and Gardening	Fall August- November 3 months long Food and Wine	Holiday Season November- December 1 month long Holidays around the world

How Much Does Epcot Festival Food Cost?

While planning a budget for a Walt Disney World Vacation can get complicated, if you’re just going for an EPCOT Festival then there are a few things to consider. 

• Festival Food: The food at the Festival Kitchens throughout any festival includes single-serve foods that range from $5- $10 apiece. Of course, choosing which foods you want to try is all up to you. 
• Festival Drinks: Non-alcoholic drinks tend to be around $6 but if you’re hunting down cocktails, wines, or beers, you can expect to pay closer to $10-$15 per drink at the festival. 

Other Epcot Festival Budget Things

• Festival Game: Each festival’s scavenger hunt game costs $9.99 plus tax and once completed earns you a “prize.”  
• Festival Merchandise: Exclusive to each festival is a slew of festival-specific merchandise. From apparel, jerseys, mugs, Dooney and Bourke Bags, and home decor, these items are limited and the designs change every year. 

What Can I Expect if I Attend a Festival at EPCOT?

We share a lot of Epcot Festival Tips, because while you can definitely just show up and enjoy yourself, it’s a lot more fun when you know what’s going on ahead of time!

Theme Park Tickets are Required

While the festival itself is free, once you get inside the park, you will still have to pay for a Park Ticket in order to get inside EPCOT. That said, if this day trip to Epcot is part of a multi-day Disney Trip, we highly recommend booking more days as your ticket price per day is less, the longer you stay.

All the Eating

Every event on the Epcot Festival Calendar has Festival Menus. We publish them every year for each festival and they are updated with current menu options as soon as Disney shares the menus. Grabbing these Festival Menus for each festival ahead of time gives you the chance to see how much food you will have to fit into your day. As well as how much to budget. These single serve meals range from $6-$10 per dish.

A Lack of Tables

Another thing to be aware of during your day at a festival at EPCOT, is that with all that food, you will need somewhere to sit, or stand and eat. However, there are often very few available tables around the park. As a result, be prepared to hover around other guests who may be finishing up so that you can take their table. Alternatively, we also recommend sending someone from your travel group to go hunt down a table, while you wait in line to get food.

Avoid the Weekend, and Evenings from Thursday- Sunday

At Walt Disney World, Epcot is the park that the locals most visit after work. And the busiest days at EPCOT tend to be the Thursday- Sunday stretch, with the evenings during the week, generally more crowded.

EPCOT Festivals | Activities and What to Do

If you’re wondering which Disney Festival is best, know that everyone has their favorites! And luckily, each offers up a variety of activities that can appease everyone! From food kitchens to concerts to games, and classes, here is what you can find  at EVERY Disney Festival throughout the year, depending on which you attend. 

EPCOT Festival Kitchens

Visiting any EPCOT Festival means making time to try loads of foods, drinks, and beverages from the Festival Kitchen. These little booths are stationed all over the park and feature themed treats specific to each country or area. Check out the EPCOT festival menus for whichever festival you’re visiting so that you can review options ahead of time. 

• Festival of the Arts Menus
• Flower and Garden Festival Menus
• Food and Wine Festival Menus
• Festival of Holidays Menus

EPCOT Festival Concerts

Each festival at EPCOT has a themed concert series. These events are typically held in the America Gardens Theatre at the World Showcase America Pavilion.

• Festival of the Arts includes the Disney on Broadway Series, which showcases performers from Disney Broadway shows.
• The Flower and Garden Festival hosts the Garden Rocks Series, featuring performers of old-school bands.
• At Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival, there is the Eat to the Beat Concert Series which goes a bit higher level with bands like Boyz to Men and Plain White T’s.
• And finally, at the Festival of Holidays, you can find the Candlelight Processional which is a Christmas Choral Music concert, highlighting the retelling of the Nativity Story by a celebrity speaker. 

Festival Food Challenges

Each EPCOT Festival has a foodie challenge that you can do across the outdoor kitchens. this entails buying, or collecting, 5 dishes on the “list” and then getting a special treat for free at the end of the challenge. Each festival has a special themed challenge to play below. Doing the challenge doesn’t cost you anything, except the price of each dish of course. Collect 5 of the noted special dishes and get a free item when you complete the challenge. 

• Festival of the Arts: At this art festival you can tackle the Wonderful World of Colorful Cuisine featuring dishes at select outdoor kitchens, aligned to a color on the paint palette. 
• Flower and Garden Festival: This spring festival at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Park features fresh foods in the Garden Graze foodie challenge.  With farm-to-table options, veggies galore, and fruit-filled treats, this challenge serves up a specialty dole whip as a prize. 
• Food and Wine Festival: You can collect stamps for Emile’s Fromage Montage featuring cheese dishes across multiple kitchens. 
• Festival of the Holidays: Finally, if you’re up for Christmas Cookies you can collect them on the Festival of Holidays Cookie Stroll. This challenge includes festive traditional cookies from certain outdoor kitchens. And can sometimes be collected in an exclusive cookie jar when they are offered. 

Festival Games

Much like the festival concerts, each festival also features a game that matches the festival theme.  These games offer up the chance to search for a tiny statue, painting, or element in each World Showcase country and around the park. A nice break from walking and eating, these games give you a chance to learn more about each country’s culture and earn a prize once you complete the gameboard. Each game typically costs about $9.99 plus tax. 

• Festival of the Arts: Featuring works of art, this game has you on the hunt for Figment hiding in each important painting around the park. The Figment’s Brush with the Master’s Game includes stickers and a prize once you complete the game. 
• Flower and Garden Festival: Honoring the honeybee, the Spike the Bee’s Pollen-Nation Exploration Game highlights pollinator flowers in each country, and area in Epcot. Find each one, add a sticker to the board and collect your prize. 
• Food and Wine Festival: The game at the Food and Wine Festival is Remy’s Ratatouille Hide and Squeak Game, featuring our favorite rat, Remy! This game gets you familiar with an important culinary ingredient in each country, and includes stickers and usually a food-related prize at the end of the game. 
• Festival of the Holidays: For an extra festive game at EPCOT during the holidays, you can play Olaf’s Holiday Tradition Expedition. This game gives you a glimpse of each culture’s holiday traditions. The gameboard includes stickers and the prize is typically Frozen-themed. 

EPCOT Festival Vacation Planning

Planning a Disney Vacation requires a few things to start. For a quick list of  planning tips, check out our How to Plan a Disney Trip post for a deeper look at the necessities. And be sure to get the My Disney Experience App, so you can access your account, resort, and reservations. 

Airport Transportation

Transportation To and From Orlando International Airport ( MCO), regardless of what kind of vacation you’re taking is still a necessity. You can grab a rideshare like Lyft or Uber, but we typically book bus transportation with the Mears Connect Driven By Sunshine Disney shuttle service instead. As bus services are sometimes cheaper, allow for loads of luggage and add a little bit of Disney magic to your road trip to the resorts. 

EPCOT Transportation

Once you get to your EPCOT area resort ( The Boardwalk Resorts)  you have a variety of transportation options available depending on which resort you choose. Here’s the breakdown of the Complimentary Disney Transportation you can find near the park, for getting to and from the Festival. 

• Monorail to the TTC ( Ticket and Transportation Center): The EPCOT Monorail is situated at the front of the park, near Spaceship Earth, and brings guests to the TTC, which offers a transfer to Magic Kingdom and the Monorail Resorts. 
• Walking Paths: If looking to skip shared transportation you can depend on an easy walking commute. Staying at a Resort on the Disney BoardWalk means a 10-20 minute walk from any resort there to the International Gateway at the back of EPCOT Park. Additionally, you can also take the Hidden Walking Path from Epcot to Hollywood Studios.
• Water Transportation: There are several resorts that have docks for boat travel to and from Epcot. Swan and Dolphin, and The Yacht Club both offer transportation to and from the International Gateway, and to Hollywood Studios. 
• Disney Skyliner: Accessible from the station at the EPCOT International Gateway, the Disney Skyliner does not transport into EPCOT but instead can transport you from Skyliner Resorts and to Hollywood Studios. 
• Buses: If choosing to stay somewhere other than the Boardwalk Resorts, then you can rely on the Disney buses to get you to and from EPCOT for the festival.

Epcot Resorts | Where to Stay

There are several Disney Resorts Near EPCOT. The Disney BoardWalk Resorts are closest. These include Disney’s Beach Club, Yacht Club and BoardWalk Inn. If you’re visiting primarily to attend an EPCOT festival, then choosing a Disney Resort near EPCOT Park is key. These Disney Resorts are Within Walking Distance of EPCOT and Hollywood Studios. As such you don’t have to wait around for Disney transportation to get you to the park, you can just walk there. This means you can tackle long days at the festival or take mid-day breaks as needed with ease. 

The entrance to the Disney BoardWalk is located just outside the back entrance of EPCOT Park called the International Gateway, situated between France and the U.K. in the World Showcase. For the purposes of Disney Festival Vacation planning, the below hotels are your TOP PICKS for resorts that get within walking distance of the park, so you can make the most of your festival days. 

• Beach Club
• Boardwalk Inn
• Dolphin Hotel
• Yacht Club
• Swan Hotel
• Swan Reserve Hotel

If you find that these Disney Deluxe Resorts are too pricey, never fear. There are several Disney Skyliner Resorts to consider.  And while you won’t be within walking distance of the Festival, the Skyliner provides easier transportation than the buses and brings you right to the International Gateway Entrance of EPCOT Park. 

EPCOT Restaurants | Where to Eat

EPCOT Park is home to many Walt Disney World restaurants, featuring cultural cuisine, futuristic cuisine, and American classics. Whether you’re looking for a table-service meal, quick-service counter, or something easy like pizza, you can find it here. Epcot is home to some of Walt Disney World’s most expensive restaurants, including Monsieur Paul and Shiki Sai. As well as budget-friendly favorites like Biergarten in Germany, Rose and Crown in the UK and Via Napoli in Italy. Check out the Best EPCOT Restaurants to try and what to skip. Know that since EVERY Epcot festival offers up loads of foods to try at each booth, you could save some money by just choosing a few small dishes from the booths for each meal.

Planning a Disney EPCOT Festival Vacation

There you have it. A Festival Vacation at Walt Disney World doesn’t have to be complicated. Let’s review the big things to remember. Here’s the lineup of decisions you get to make!  

• Where to Stay: Book one of the resorts on the Disney BoardWalk, for a hotel that is close, and within walking distance of EPCOT. 
• Where to Eat: A variety of restaurants at EPCOT are available. Plus you also have access to a slew of outdoor kitchen foods. 
• What to Do: Eating at Festival Kitchens, Listening to the Concert Series performers, Playing the Scavenger Hunt Games, and taking the Foodie Challenges are all things that you can do throughout each festival. This is in addition to the Festival-specific events like looking at the topiaries, listening to the holiday storytellers, browsing the art tents, or trying new foods you never had before.