Things To Do for Free at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival

POSTED: Mon, 09/26/2011 - 05:05 | POSTED BY: Kristen Kirk

Epcot's 16th Annual Food & Wine Festival is about to start! From September 30th until November 13th, 2011, Walt Disney World Resort's Epcot Theme Park becomes the center of the culinary world. The cost of festival entry is included in your ticket to Epcot, but adding on special events at can get expensive. Never fear, we're here to show you how to enjoy the delights while staying on budget.

The Festival Welcome Center is your key to finding foodie fun for free! Be sure to stop in during the morning to find out what's on the schedule that day for their Authentic Taste Seminars. These free, 30-minute culinary seminars will be held on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Are you all about the vino? 'Seasons of the Vine' is a free cinematic feature that will be playing non-stop throughout the day at the Welcome Center. Formerly an attraction at Disney's California Adventure, this film showcases what it takes to make a great glass of wine. Next you might want to stop by 'The Cellar' to purchase a bottle. If you're lucky, you may even run into the vintner for an autograph.

Authentic Taste Seminars
We all know that Disney knows how to throw a party, but now you can learn how you can do it too! HGTV is offering free Home Entertaining Seminars on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the Festival Welcome Center. Some of HGTV's most popular hosts will be on hand to teach you how to throw a party like a pro.

This is also your place during the weekends to meet the latest authors and experts that are at the festival. 'Authors Without Borders' will present some of the hottest culinary writers around; Meet them and learn all about their passion for food.

Before you head out to tour the booths, make sure you pick up your free Marketplace Discovery Passport. This cute little book helps you keep track of what you ate and what you loved as you taste and sip your way around World Showcase Lagoon. If you're using the Disney Dining Plan you can save money by using snack credits for many of the booths' plates.

Eat to the Beat Concerts
New this year, Ocean Spray is presenting the Cranberry Bog! Cranberry growers will be bringing over 2,000 pounds of fresh cranberries to Epcot in order to share them with you and show off the wonders of the cranberry harvest.

The Eat to the Beat Concert Series is free! Included with your park admission during the festival, you can catch fantastic nightly performances by some of the most popular groups from decades past. So sip, stroll and bop your way to the America Gardens Theater with shows at 5:45, 7:00, and 8:15pm every night.

Are you going to the 16th Annual Epcot International Food & Wine Festival? What are tips and tricks you use to stay in budget while still having a fantastic time? Leave us a message and let us know!

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Sara wrote on Tue, 10/04/2011 - 19:36:

I go to Disney World every year with my best friend and Food and Wine Fest is one of our favorite events! The one piece of advice I can offer is for those who only have one day to spend in Epcot: Do whatever it takes to get to the park right when it opens, and do all of the rides first before beginning your Food and Wine quest. That way, you will have plenty of time to sample and digest without worrying about seeing everything in the other half of the park! This year, we are going on a day that Epcot is open until 10p, and I am looking forward to riding my favorite rides in the morning AND at night since we have an extra hour to do so!