A Practical Guide to Bands, Brew and BBQ at SeaWorld, Orlando

The current version of Bands, Brew and BBQ is a summer event, and looking at other parks that host food-based festivals (like Epcot), there's really not much else going on around this time of year.

We keep our main Bands, Brew and BBQ event page updated with days and dates, as soon as we hear about them each year. It's always a good idea  to check with the official SeaWorld Special Event Calendar page to see if the festival is taking place on the day you're going to visit.


Normally, the festival takes place on weekends only (so Saturdays and Sundays) between the festival dates. We've noticed that (most of the time), SeaWorld adds operational days as the festival goes on. So at some point they add Fridays to the mix… and occasionally even Thursdays. The additional bonus festival days aren't really advertised well in advance, so that's why I always recommend checking out the current SeaWorld official site.

The food and beverage kiosks are said to open at 11:00am and remain open until park close. I have noticed however, on some days… they don't open until noon or even later… around 2:00pm. Not sure why really… I suspect it's tied to park attendance or staffing… no matter the cause, I've never known the "hourly" schedule to be posted online anywhere. It's safe to say that by 2pm, most of the booths should be open on festival days.

Pretty much anyone that likes BBQ themed food and/or Country and Southern Rock concerts. You don't have to go to a concert to enjoy the food though — so those two things are not synonymous. SeaWorld's "normal" music tracks are pretty much playing in the background still, so it's not like you're forced into "country" mode if that's not your thing.



SeaWorld does a great job of offering "mocktail" versions of their festival cocktail beverages, and a few of the booths have coolers with bottled water and soda you can purchase — so guests under 21 (the legal drinking age) can still fully enjoy the food… even if they're not able to drink the "brews".



SeaWorld hates it when I type this... but the food at the festival booths does tend to be better than most of the restaurant food at SeaWorld ... so really, it's a great time to be there. Maybe really picky (young or old) visitors might find the selections a little limiting. While there's no "festival chicken nuggets" or "pizza" per say for children ... there are items like Mac & Cheese topped with BBQ meat and a Soft Pretzel item here and there.

Vegetarians ... are probably out of luck with this festival. Sadly, most of the parks have been pulling away from veggie based options, but even with that being said — SeaWorld does always seem to put one or two items on the festival menus for those guests wanting to stick to a vegetarian diet. Something like a Vegan Chili (for example) with Tofu, Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Garlic, Cilantro.

There's a couple different answers to this question. Naturally, you have to get into SeaWorld first — that's outside the scope of this article. While SeaWorld does have a high single day-ticket price, they run sales a couple times a year to make that a little more affordable. They also have a great Fun Card and Annual Pass system that really does save if you're going to visit multiple times in a one year period.

As far as getting to see one of the special festival concerts — those are free for anyone that's in the park that day.  There are a couple levels of additional-cost, reserved seating if you want to get really close to the action. However, the two main concert venues at SeaWorld are really spacious and even the "free" seats, offer great viewing and sound quality.

Food and brew-wise — once you're in SeaWorld, there's a couple different ways to purchase food and beverage samples at the Bands, Brew, and BBQ Festival — some are quite a bit better than others.

À la Carte and Out-of-Pocket Food and Beverages

The first, is "a la carte / out of pocket" pricing — basically this means just walking up to a Bands, Brew, and BBQ Festival kiosk and paying for one or two things based on the menu board prices.



Honestly, if you're only going to get one or two samples, this is a great option — but if you're going to get three or four things, you're probably better off getting a "Sampler Lanyard" (more on those below). The individual menu board prices are pretty high for what you get. The sample prices are a little cheaper than getting an entree at a SeaWorld restaurant, but the portion size is definitely smaller as well. Paying the full retail menu prices for festival food at SeaWorld will add up very quickly.

If you're paying the "a la carte / out of pocket" menu board prices — any annual pass discounts you might have do apply, so make sure to have those annual passes ready when you order food. However, there is sales tax and a SeaWorld "service fee" that's added back onto the final price of each item. Additionally, I've been asked if I want to "tip" at each booth as well, after each transaction.

The Sampler Lanyard

So what's a better way to pay? SeaWorld has this great Sampler Lanyard system which ends up being a pretty great deal if you plan on purchasing at least five (or more) food and beverage items from the Bands, Brew, and BBQ Festival booths.

The Sampler Lanyard is a plastic punch card that has a barcode on the back and comes with a free lanyard so you can wear it around your neck. The whole idea is, you can pre-purchase a number of samples at once — for a discount, when compared to paying the full menu price. The more samples you pre-purchase this way ... the less expensive each food and beverage sample ends up being.

You can just walk up to any of the Bands, Brew, and BBQ Festival booths, order a food or beverage item… and the cast member will scan the barcode on the back of your Sampler Lanyard and "punch out" one of the entitlement numbers on the front. Once all of the numbers are "punched out" — you know there's no more sample entitlements left on that Sampler Lanyard.

There's usually two different Sampler Lanyards available for each festival… maybe a 6-Item or 8-Item Lanyard along with a larger 10 or 12-Item Lanyard. Annual Passholders usually can get the larger Sampler Lanyard with a couple of additional "free" samples on it — so something like "12 samples for the price of 10", for example.

All of the Sampler Lanyards cost less than what you would pay individually for 6, 8, 10, or 12 food or beverage samples at the festival. The larger 10, 12, or 15 Sampler Lanyards end up costing around 40-45% less than paying for each item, one at a time.



The Sampler Lanyard can be shared between your party … so that person number one, two, and three, can get three different things at any particular booth, and three "punches" will taken out of your Sampler Lanyard.

Each Sampler Lanyard is also good for the duration of the festival (but it's not still valid for next year's festival) — so you don't even have to use all your sampler entitlements on a single day visit. This is great news for Annual Passholders and honestly — it's one of the best perks. It's really fun getting to visit the festival on multiple occasions and getting a couple beers and a couple food items… each time you visit!

A Note About Drink Samples with the Sampler Lanyard

It's worth a quick note, that most full-price beer and cocktail beverages (unless otherwise noted) purchased at the full festival menu board prices — are generally served in a 20oz cup (give or take)… while those same beverages, purchased with the Sampler Lanyard are served in a 7oz cup.

Wine and hard liquor cups, (like the tequila samples), are completely different sizes... and are generally smaller. It's a good idea to ask, and see the cup size first ... if you're interested in one of those beverages.

Personally, I find the 7oz samples nice, because I can try a couple different beers for relatively the same price as one large beer. If you drink a lot of beer though — money-wise, you're probably better off purchasing the 20oz beer at full menu price and not using the Sampler Lanyard.

Well, 90% of SeaWorld is outdoors... so it's mostly outdoors and the summers in Orlando can get hot. There aren't quite as many food and beverage kiosks compared to the Seven Seas Food Festival, but the booths are spread out in the same locations — mostly around the lagoon on the south side of the park.

There's a nice canvas canopy covered area between Sesame Street Land and the Wild Arctic attraction called the "Beer Garden" that has a good number of bench style seats. This is a free seating area (you don't need to buy a beer to get in), and most of the time, there's a slight breeze blowing through.

Many of the other food booth locations around the lagoon however — don't have this kind of dedicated seating. A couple of the festival booths near Voyager's Smokehouse and the Lakeside Grill Cantina have some umbrella covered tables, there are a couple of high-boy, standing style tables near the booths around the Nautilus Theater ... and there's concrete ledges and benches sparsely located around the rest of the "food and beverage trail".



There's a larger stage near the Sharks complex where I've seen some DJ and line dancing activities. That same stage location has had smaller bands performing on it for other festivals, so I can imagine there could be a cover band here that plays as well.



Near the Flamecraft Bar, there's a special stage set up for live music as well. I've only seen one or two person groups here, and the live music on this stage can be enjoyed by everyone sitting at Flamecraft, in addition to those just getting started on the Bands, Brew and BBQ food trail.



The large, weekend-only concerts mostly take place in the air-conditioned Nautilus Theater (between the Sharks complex and the Infinity Falls ride). On most days, there will be a line to get in, forming as early as 90 minutes before the concert begins. As I mentioned earlier though, the Nautilus Theater is large and can usually hold everyone that wants to get in. The sound quality is pretty decent no matter where you sit, but because it is a big theater, it can be challenging making out faces of performers on the stage, when you're sitting anywhere from the middle to the very back of the building.

The whole festival is really designed to be more of an "overlay" than something you have to prepare for, so anything you happen to be walking by at the moment, that looks, sounds, or smells interesting to you — try it out!

Basically, there's food and beverage kiosks located all around SeaWorld lagoon on the south end of the park. All the booths have menu board signs somewhere near them. For the Bands, Brew and BBQ festival, I've noticed that most menu board signs are attached to the kiosk itself or near the payment register.



Once you figure out what you want, you can place the order at the payment register stand (a small podium next to the kiosk).

If there's nobody at the payment podium, it usually means the "order taking cast member" has moved to a register inside the booth. They sometimes do this because there's not much shade over the payment podium.

Either way, if you're paying out of pocket, make sure you have your annual pass handy (if you have one) … the food and beverage booths DO honor all annual pass discounts. Once everything is totaled up, you can tap to pay or slide your card through the card reader (SeaWorld no longer accepts cash as a form of payment)… and they'll give you a receipt that has what you ordered printed on it.

If you're using a Sampler Lanyard instead, the cast member will take your order on the register in the same way, but instead of you needing to pay with a credit or gift card, simply hand them the Sampler Lanyard. They will scan the barcode on the back and "punch" out sample numbers on the front. If you ordered three things, they will punch out three of the numbers on the Sampler Lanyard, so you can easily see how many samples you have left.

In both cases, you can then take your printed receipt a couple of steps sideways where you'll hand the receipt to another cast member. That person will tell the culinary team what you've ordered and they'll start preparing your order. Most of the time, they'll ask you if you want your receipt back… if you do, they'll put a little folded tear in it… signifying that the order is being filled.

Once everything is ready, they'll hand you the little plates and beverages you ordered. Keep in mind when ordering, there's no plastic trays around to help with large orders. So if you ordered multiple things for multiple people — make sure everyone is around so you have enough hands to hold everything.

As the festival name suggests, the beverage part of the menu is a little beer heavy — but actually, there's quite a number of cocktails and mocktails around too. In fact, there's usually a booth or two dedicated to cocktails and/or tequila tasting.

The Waterway Bar location has the most craft beers on tap. I'd say, if you were to average up the beers at all the other booths… it's probably an equal split between IPA style beers and everything else — and maybe a 50/50 split between local and large breweries. Most of the booths have one or two of the beers that they're offering on tap… while others are poured from a can. You can usually see the tap pulls at the front of the booth to figure out which is which.

It's worth mentioning again that the menu-board prices are (generally) for 16oz or 20oz pours. When you use a Sampler Lanyard punch, you'll get a 7oz Sampler portion. This is true for beer and cocktails as well. Things like tequila, whiskey and wine are served smaller glasses though — if it's important to you, ask to see the glass size before ordering.

Food-wise, the portion sized are tapas style — so "small plates" that are designed to allow guests to try multiple things from multiple booths as you walk around the park. The concept of the menu tends to be regional BBQ — there's booths that feature Texas BBQ and Kansas City BBQ for example.


While I really like the concept... from a true culinary standpoint — I have to point out that the execution is really all more like "theme park bbq" — and not authentic regional bbq. That's not a bad thing per say — I mean, Mac and Cheese with saucy BBQ Brisket is still really good — but if you're hoping to taste the difference between Carolina BBQ and Memphis BBQ — it's probably not going to happen here.



There is approximately one vegetarian item available (some years, there's two items). While I would like to see more vegetarian items (I mean... real, well thought out and executed vegetarian items) at the other festivals, I really wasn't expecting to see too many here at a BBQ themed festival.

The Bands, Brew and BBQ Festival is a really nice "overlay" type of event that doesn't get in the way of all the normal park offerings — it only adds more stuff — which is a good thing. Naturally, it's value and worth is something that's going to be different for everyone.

Casual Vacationers

I would generally say — the Bands, Brew and BBQ Festival is not one of the "main" reasons to go to SeaWorld — but if you were planing on going anyway, it's a great extra bonus. The food at SeaWorld's festival food booths does tend to be better, made fresh, and offers a greater selection — than most of the restaurants in the park. A festival Sampler Lanyard (which can be used for your entire group, and is not assigned to one person) is a great (probably less extensive) way to eat in-park, especially if you can get by with small plate snacking all day.

Experienced BBQ Connoisseurs

Hummmm… for this group, the Bands, Brew and BBQ Festival is probably a pass. If you spend time going to different BBQ Festivals to try the best BBQ and taste authentic flavors — you're not going to find those things here. I would describe the BBQ here as being "general" and designed to appeal to the masses. They also seem to be limited by budgetary issues ... for example, I've found the same exact "pink pickled onions" on about half the dishes here at the festival. That doesn't mean the food is bland or lackluster — I like all BBQ and the food here is good. It's just that regardless of how the menu boards read — the execution is what I would call "theme park bbq" and not "authentic regional bbq".

Children (Pre-Teen)

I guess it depends on how food-picky they are. There's probably more familiar foods at the booths for this group, than there are at other festivals. There are Mac & Cheese dishes and sliders, a couple of pretzels, etc. That being said, there's not really any chicken nugget or pizza based items around. If you're child is an adventurous eater though — it's a pretty great way to introduce them to walk-around, festival food type dining. BBQ is a universally enjoyed cuisine and there's nothing at any of the booths that strays too far from the "meat + sauce" format.

Annual Passholders and Weekend Park Stroll-Around

Honestly, this is the group that benefits the most from all of the festivals that SeaWorld hosts over the course of each year. I would say for me, it's the whole reason I have an annual pass. It's fun getting a Sampler Lanyard (especially since passholders get the biggest discount) and strolling around the park, over multiple days, trying out different foods.

Eventually, passholders will find all the best sit-down spots and traffic patterns that work for them and it's great having some free, in-door concerts to go to. If you add up everything you do over the course of the year — the SeaWorld annual pass is a pretty great value.

Plus, if passholders really have a keen eye and watch the passholder calendar page — SeaWorld occasionally offers a "free sample" or two at some point during the festival (usually more toward the middle and end). Passholders can print out a bar code at home (or load it onto your phone), and get a totally free food or beverage sample at any of the festival booths.

While they do usually limit that to one specific weekend — it is more than most of the other theme parks around here do for their passholders.

The Bands, Brew and BBQ Festival is an "overlay" style festival — nothing is shut down or moved out of the way for the festival to take place — so all the normal stuff you would go to SeaWorld — for is still taking place.

We have an on-going list of menus, prices, maps, entertainment, reviews and photos from Bands, Brew and BBQ on our main event information page for the festival.

That Event Information page is also where any new info about next year's festival will be posted as soon as we see that it's available. Click here to visit our SeaWorld, Bands, Brew and BBQ Festival page… or scroll back to the top of this article where links to all the important info from the most recent festivals are located.