With the 2016 Food and Wine festival barely in EPCOT’s rear-view mirror, it’s time to start making reservations to attend the 2017 edition. The good news is you’ll have a record 75 days of culinary creations, celebrity chefs, musical acts, and special events to enjoy as the Festival expands to run August 31 through November 13.
The extra 13 days means the festival start moves into the end of Summer season, before even Labor Day, is a good move as most schools have now started again by mid-August. The end threatens to push back the beginning of Christmas season at EPCOT. Which I don’t like.
With the new January Arts festival, that means EPCOT will be hosting one festival or another for around 225 days of the year in 2017. All we need now is a Summer Festival to complete the circle.
Is there a point at which the assorted festivals no longer are a draw, but just part of the standard guest expectations for EPCOT? Maybe. But I’m happy that they’re offering more days of food and wine, as long as it means more celebrities, more seminars, and more country’s food to sample.
Finally, I’d like to see EPCOT come up with a new permanent location for the festival center that’s closer to the World Showcase. Perhaps, in a temporary building behind the UK pavilion? This would allow the festival to grow into the EPCOT resort area as well. Another idea is to build a new location for the special event dinners and put the festival center in the World Show Place, perhaps adding a few additional marketplaces in there as well. They had 60 countries in there during the millennial celebration.
With a rumored Guardians of the Galaxy attraction coming to Future World, perhaps taking over both the Universe of Energy and Wonders of Life pavilions, a new home for the festival center will become a necessity at some point.
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Not sure why you think they need a new Festival Center. We were in it about 10 times this year for demos (or free chocolates) and it was never crowded. Given that Disney has virtually abandoned Innoventions East and West, one of those would seem the logical choice if the current pavilion is torn down. And why has Disney shuttered Innoventions any way?
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