Festivals and Events List

There are several festivals and events that take place at theme park and resort locations. Below is a list of the various events that we've posted information for over the years. The list below contains links to our main information page for each festival or event. If the item has a gray background – that particular event or festival may be on hiatus or retired.

Epcot is a great location for festivals because of it's sprawling layout and internationally themed pavilions. While the Epcot festivals all follow a similar format — food booths, seasonal environment and decoration elements, and unique entertainment offerings. It's a format that works really well. Visiting a festival at Epcot is not cheap, but I do still consider the Epcot festivals to the "gold standard" of theme park festivals.

There's two big seasonal events that take place at the Magic Kingdom — both are called "hard ticket" events because you have to purchase a ticket to get in and experience everything the events have to offer — only a small fraction of the special seasonal activities are available to "day-guests" (even an annual pass won't get you into these events). I've posted them here, because in recent years, there have been more and more special food offerings that are also only available to event guests.

SeaWorld has really kicked things up a notch when it comes to food festivals, especially at their park here in Orlando. Not even their sister park, Busch Gardens has quite managed to match the number of food booths that SeaWorld, Orlando is making available during their festivals. They're not quite as diverse as the food booths at Epcot festivals... but they're not supposed to be. Most of the items fall into the "street food" category... and that's fine with me. Together with the actual discounts and perks that SeaWorld gives their annual passholders, these festivals are a great addition or alternative for guests that feel Epcot is getting a little too pricey to visit each year.

Make no mistake, the people that live in Tampa love great food, beer, and craft cocktails — and since a larger than normal number of annual passholders are locals — Busch Gardens, Tampa usually has some great food and beverage options for the various festivals they host each year. If you're looking for a food quality and uniqueness score, I'd say.... under Epcot, but above SeaWorld, Orlando. What's the trade off? There's not quite as many food booths here, than at the other parks — the exception to that observation is the Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival... which is a full-on, large scale food festival.

When they have them — they're usually pretty great. Harbor Nights has long been one of my go-to comparison events that managed to strike a great balance between cost and what was being offered. Sadly, they've been hosting fewer of these throughout the year than they used to.

Once each year, the Swan and Dolphin host the last remaining, big-time food stroll around these parts — the Swan and Dolphin Food and Wine Classic. It's (arguably) an all-inclusive, outdoor event where you can stroll around to multiple food and beverage booths over the course of the evening, and enjoy as many of the food and beverage offerings as you want — right up until the event ends. Similar to what Epcot's Party for the Senses used to be — if you haven't experienced it once, and you like trying out different foods and beverages — it's worth looking into.