August 27 cannot get here fast enough.
The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival 2026 starts August 27 and runs through November 21, which means nearly three months of the best version of EPCOT that exists. Over 35 food booths. The America Gardens Theater filling up every night. The cheese crawl. Remy hiding in places guests are still discovering. And this year’s Eat to the Beat concert lineup, which has a genuinely solid mix of returning favorites and new acts that are going to have specific guests rearranging their travel dates the moment they see the schedule.
We have been covering this festival for years. It is one of our favorite things Walt Disney World does. And we want to make sure you go in with everything you need to make the most of it, because the guests who have the best Food and Wine experiences are almost always the ones who planned ahead rather than just showing up hungry.
So let us get into it.
What Is Actually New This Year and What Is Coming Back
Emile’s Fromage Montage is back. If you have not done the cheese crawl, here is the concept: you collect stamps at participating cheese-focused booths throughout the festival and when you complete the card, you redeem it for a specialty item. It sounds simple and it is, but it also gives your World Showcase walk structure and purpose in a way that makes the whole day feel more intentional. It is also just a really good excuse to eat a lot of cheese.
Remy’s Ratatouille Hide and Squeak is also returning. The scavenger hunt sends families looking for hidden Remy figurines placed throughout the park. If you have kids or you are the kind of adult who enjoys a scavenger hunt, which is a completely valid way to be, this extends the visit significantly and makes the walk between booths feel like more than just transit.
New performers joining Eat to the Beat this year: Lauren Alaina, Fitz and the Tantrums, Grace Potter, The War and Treaty, Couch, Grupo Manía, Rey Ruiz, Allen Stone, and Big Head Todd and the Monsters. We have some thoughts on a few of these that we will get to in the concert section.
The Complete 2026 Eat to the Beat Schedule With Every Date
Concerts at America Gardens Theater are included with park admission. General seating is first come, first served. Reserved dining package seating requires a booking through a participating EPCOT restaurant and those reservations opened July 16. If you want guaranteed seats for a specific act, check availability now because the popular dates move fast.
Here is the full lineup:
August 27, September 1-3: Evolution: Motown. August 28-31: Hanson.
September 4-5: The War and Treaty. September 6-7: Yellowcard. September 8-10: Fly Guys. September 11-12: Couch. September 13-14: Fitz and the Tantrums. September 15-17: Latin Ambition. September 18-19: MercyMe. September 20-21: Grupo Manía. September 22-24: Metro Latino Band. September 25-27: Element. September 28-29: New Found Glory. September 30, October 1: Smash Mouth.
October 2-4: Champagne Orchestra. October 5-6: Rey Ruiz. October 7-8: Tiffany. October 9-11: Viva Latina. October 12-13: The Fray. October 14-15: STARSHIP featuring Mickey Thomas. October 16-18: Jaclyn Hayden. October 19-20: Ben Rector. October 21-22: Allen Stone. October 23-25: SoundUp. October 26-27: Lauren Alaina. October 28-29: Bowling for Soup. October 30-31, November 1: Southbound.
November 2-3: Boyz II Men. November 4-5: Big Head Todd and the Monsters. November 6-8: M-80’s. November 9-10: Grace Potter. November 11-12: The Beach Boys. November 13-16: The Hooligans.
A few personal highlights from this lineup. Fitz and the Tantrums on September 13 and 14 is the new addition we are most excited about. Grace Potter in November is genuinely special. Boyz II Men in early November is the kind of act that makes people plan a trip specifically around. And if you have never seen STARSHIP featuring Mickey Thomas perform We Built This City in front of the American Adventure pavilion at EPCOT, that experience is difficult to explain to someone who has not had it but is absolutely worth having.
What Makes Food and Wine the Best Time to Visit EPCOT
We cover Disney food specifically, which means we have strong opinions about this, and our strongest opinion is that Food and Wine EPCOT and regular EPCOT are essentially different parks that happen to share a layout.
The booths transform World Showcase into a continuous decision. Every fifty feet there is something to smell, look at, or stop for. The ambient energy of 35-plus food booths running simultaneously changes the atmosphere of the park in a way that is hard to describe until you have experienced it. The smell component alone is worth noting: the concentration of food preparation across that many booths creates a sensory layer that festival veterans describe as one of the things they miss most when November 21 arrives and everything comes down.
First-time festival visitors are almost universally surprised by two things. The first is how long a World Showcase loop takes when booths are involved. A walk that might take forty minutes on a regular park day can easily stretch to three or four hours during Food and Wine if you stop at every booth that interests you. The second is how early the festival crowd arrives on opening day and weekends. August 27 will be one of EPCOT’s highest-attendance days of the year. Weekday visits during the festival window are consistently more relaxed.
The America Gardens Theater area gets particularly busy on concert nights. If you are not attending the show, being in a different part of World Showcase during the performance avoids the congestion that builds up around the American Adventure pavilion.
How to Actually Plan Your Festival Day So You Do Not Leave Wishing You Had Done More
This is the part we care about most as a food-focused publication because we have watched too many guests spend four hours grazing without intention and come out the other side feeling like they missed the things they actually wanted.
Go in with a booth priority list. You will not hit everything in one day and you should not try. Know in advance which booth categories you care about most and hit those first while your appetite is fresh.
Book a dining package now if there is a concert on your visit date that you want to see from the reserved section. Dining packages opened July 16 and the best dates go quickly. Check My Disney Experience for current availability.
Do the Fromage Montage if cheese is anywhere on your list of food interests. It costs nothing extra, takes you to booths you might not have found on your own, and the redemption item at the end is satisfying in the way that completing something specific always is.
Arrive knowing which direction you want to walk World Showcase. Clockwise versus counterclockwise is a real decision that affects how your day flows given where specific booths and the theater are positioned.
Come hungry. Come with a plan. Come ready to linger.
Which Eat to the Beat act is making you consider building a trip around it? Tell us in the comments. And if you have a Food and Wine question about booth strategy, dining packages, or which festival dates have historically been the most manageable crowd-wise, ask below. This is our wheelhouse and we want to help you have the best festival day possible.
