We still don’t have a lot of details about this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, but one thing we do know: We expect it to be VERY different this year.

For starters, Disney has moved the first date of the festival back to August 29th, which was around the time the festival started BEFORE 2020. However, we think this year’s festival is going to bring three BIG changes and we want to prepare you for those ahead of time because they will matter.

CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza

The biggest change coming to this year’s festival is CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza, two new areas in EPCOT that have been constructed to act as additional venues for festivals. These venues will serve as a new “home base” for EPCOT’s festivals and live events. So what does that mean?

CommuniCore Plaza is an outdoor space with a stage, so we could see some festival entertainment here!

However, it’s the addition of CommuniCore Hall that could change things the most. It was built just FOR festival programming, meaning we might see the return of food demonstrations and seminars, including those with celebrity chefs. That could affect your pocketbook because some of those experiences do cost an additional fee.

We also believe both of these spaces will act as a more centralized area for festival merchandise, including celebrity chef cookbooks. We still expect to see merchandise kiosks throughout World Showcase, but we expect there will be even more merchandise to spend money on this year.

13 Essentials for the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival

A Bigger Festival

With these new additions, we expect this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival to be bigger than ever, with more locations and many more events. That means you might need to adjust your trip plans to stay longer in Disney World to spend several days just at the festival because there will be a lot to see and do.

Of course, needing a longer trip could also mean spending more money on a trip or ditching visiting other parks and focusing your trip more on EPCOT.

How Much Will a Day at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival REALLY Cost in 2024?

More crowds

Because this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival is shorter than in previous years AND bigger, well, we expect to see each day of the festival be more crowded. That’s because there will be less time for you to do everything you want, especially when there will probably be more stuff TO DO this year.

With the longer festival, we’ll admit we enjoyed days when EPCOT wasn’t too busy, but we think every day of the festival this year could bring in a lot of people. So prepare for crowds if you’ll be visiting the festival.

Disney Drastically SHORTENED the 2024 Food & Wine Festival, and We Think We Know Why

So if you will be attending this year’s EPCOT Food & Wine Festival, you’ll have to keep in mind that it’s probably changing quite a bit this year. Of course, we’ll be giving you all our best tips and tricks on how best to navigate the festival, so stay tuned to DFB for more.

The ONLY EPCOT Food & Wine Festival Guide You Need To Read in 2024

So will you be attending the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival this year? What do you think of these big changes? Let us know in the comments!

The post We Expect 3 Major Changes at the 2024 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, and They Matter More Than You Think first appeared on the disney food blog.