Epcot will offer a record 35 marketplaces in celebration of the park’s 1982 opening at its longest ever International Food & Wine Festival.
The 22nd annual festival is starting earlier and adding 13 additional days to its calendar, which runs Aug. 31-Nov. 14 for a total of 75 days.
Epcot fills nearly 60 percent of its calendar with 210 days of festivals throughout the year. The current International Flower & Garden Festival runs through May 29. The theme park also celebrates Holidays Around the World Nov. 24 – Dec. 30 and the International Festival of the Arts, which begins in January but the dates for 2018 have yet to be set.
The International Food & Wine Festival’s 35 marketplaces, one for each year the park has been open, will stretch around World Showcase into Future World.
The Marketplace chefs are working on new dishes like crispy chicken with griddled cornbread and red-eye gravy for the Farm Fresh Marketplace and a spicy Korma Chicken with cucumber-tomato salad, almonds, cashews and warm naan bread from the India Marketplace. Festival goers can also taste a charcuterie in a cone at the Spain Marketplace and a pistachio cardamom cake with chocolate coconut mousse in India.
The festival includes celebrity chefs, hands-on culinary workshops, and cooking demonstrations.
The Ratatouille-inspired scavenger hunt will return along with culinary demos and dishes geared toward kids’ palates.