We Were NOT Expecting These Crowds at Disney World on the First Day of the EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

The day has finally come to join the annual celebration of global cuisine in Disney World — EPCOT Food & Wine Festival!

The fan-favorite EPCOT festival has begun and will be here for a while, going from August 28th through November 22nd. Find out what day one was like below!

This year, the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival is featuring over 35 Global Marketplace Food Booths and locations. These spots will be serving specialty Festival items, and they all looked delicious! We’re the Disney Food Blog, of course, we were going to be there on day one. We got to try a whole bunch of new eats and treats.

2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

We were prepared for full bellies and satisfied taste buds, but maybe we should have been more prepared for the crowds that would be coming. We knew it would be busy, and entered the park to a pretty big crowd of people.

Yep, it’s crowded

We made our way to Creations Shop, which wasn’t as busy as we expected. But we still bet a lot of this merchandise is going to sell out quickly today. Be prepared for a bustling atmosphere in the gift shop!

2025 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival merch inside Creations Shop

We also saw some pretty long lines at some of the food booths. Here’s what things looked like at the always-popular Mexico booth.

Line at Mexico booth

The Forest & Field line was pretty long, too.

Forest & Field line

Is this the most crowded we’ve ever seen EPCOT? Surprisingly, no! In fact, we were expecting larger crowds around the park. Who knows — maybe the park will fill up later in the day as people hit the park after work. We’ll have to wait and see! As a rule, EPCOT tends to be more crowded on evenings and weekends, so if you want a more relaxing experience, try to avoid a Saturday night in the World Showcase.

Trying to plan the PERFECT trip to the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival? We’ll be keeping you updated on all of the latest. Click our links below for the information you need to know:

And don’t forget to pick up our 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival e-book! See more details about the book below.

NEW Food Booth Revealed for the 2025 EPCOT Food & Wine Festival

IT'S WINE & DINE TIME!

Food & Wine Festival can be a bummer. You stand in line waiting for what looks like the perfect treat, and it's a bust. But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE EPCOT Food & Wine Festival experience.

If you're planning a day or a week at the festival, we've got every performance, activity, and tasty nosh detailed out so you can make the most of your time and money. Listen, it's a tough job eating and documenting the nearly 200 bites and sips, but we do it all for YOU!