2015 Busch Gardens Williamsburg Food & Wine Festival Preview and Menu Details!

Well, not too long after announcing the new countries for this year's Food & Wine Festival, Busch Gardens Williamsburg released the menus for this year's event that runs on weekends (Friday-Sunday) from May 22nd thru June 28th. However, we don't quite have everything, as East Asia and The French Quarter haven't been updated with their offerings as of this writing, so stay tuned for those.

As said before, pretty much the same line up is returning from last year, with the exception of Belgium, since that's been axed. From what I can gather, the menu really hasn't changed up that much from the returning countries either. Not that it's a bad thing, you can check out what we thought of things from last year, and if feeling frisky, our 2013 review. Now there are some differences and some things that look really interesting to try, but so far it's looking par for the course.

We've had nearly everything that they've offered since we've been attending the event since it's innagural year back in 2013. Some of the things surprised and some met our expectations perfectly. It's always an interesting experience no matter how you slice it. So, again, since not much has changed, we can give a little more insight to the offerings and hope that you find them helpful if you go before our official review is out later this year. 

So, that all said, let's get on with looking at what the park will be offering for the 2015 Food & Wine Festival. This year has a total of 14 countries, but two still a mystery, here's the 12 that we do know of! First up? The American Southwest.

Busch Gardens Tampa Announces Menu for their Inaugural Food & Wine Festival

With just a little over a month to go, the folks at Busch Gardens Tampa have announced not only the menu for their first ever Food & Wine Festival, but also a few more details about the event as a whole.

Interestingly enough, from what I can tell anyway, this isn't like the event that takes place at their sister park in Virginia and is set up very differently. While I thought they would've gone with dishes from Africa, they've chosen to keep things relatively safe and made this more of a local affair it would seem.

The food cabins will not be spread out throughout the park either, instead located with Gwazi Park and feature 9 cabins, and over 50 wines and 50 craft brews.

In addition to the food, there will be the concerts, which we've already talked about and tons of other events going on too. Like what, you ask? Well, here's a little rundown of a few other things you can expect to see:

Wine Glass performers (music with wine glasses!), Wine and Beer experts on hand to help educate on the libations on hand, Professional Foodies to help talk about flavors of the food and other good stuff, Harp and Cellists providing music throughout the day, up close time with various animals in the park at the Conservation Cabin and of course some Festival games like wine cork tossing, corn-hole and others.

It's an interesting departure from things, that we're used to at least, and our whole crew is looking forward to experiencing just what they'll bring to the table. So, what can you expect in the way of food from this year's inaugural event? Look no further, we've got the full menu right here for you to look over and see what's what and where to find it.

First stop? The Gourmet Lodge.

Gourmet Lodge:

Deconstructed Duck Confit
with Crispy Fried Wontons, Orange Salsa & Microgreens

Smoked Beef Brisket
with Cheddar & Smoked Gouda Potato Au Gratin

Venison Chili
with Roasted Corn, Black Beans & Lime Sour Cream

Wine
Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Alexander Valley Zinfandel

Beer
Sierra Nevada Torpedo
Cigar City Cubano Style Espresso

March Concert Lineup Announced for Busch Gardens Tampa's First Food & Wine Festival

It looks like more and more things are getting in order for Busch Gardens Tampa's first Food & Wine Festival that's coming to the park starting on March 7th and runs through April 26th.

While we don't have any details on the menu that will be featured, they have just released the list of musical performances that will be held on weekend nights during the run of the event.

Right now we only know of who will be performing during the month of March, but stay tuned as I'm sure more will be announced in the next few weeks. So, who's going to be there? Look no further!

• Saturday, March 7 - Gavin DeGraw
• Sunday, March 8 - Fifth Harmony
• Saturday, March 14 - Kool & The Gang
• Sunday, March 15 - Boys Like Girls
• Saturday, March 21 - Kenny Rogers
• Sunday, March 22 - Pentatonix
• Saturday, March 28 - Steven Curtis Chapman
• Sunday, March 29 - El Gran Combo

Definitely an interesting and eclectic mix of great performers and gives a little something for everyone at the same time. Going to have to keep an eye out to see who they add for the April dates of the events. As soon as we know we'll give you all the details!

Stay tuned for more info out of Busch Gardens Tampa, right here or follow us on Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and Facebook for all the latest and be sure to keep an eye out for our live coverage and review of the event when we visit in March!

2014 Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival Review

Two weeks ago we were invited back to Busch Gardens Williamsburg for their second annual Food & Wine Festival. It really wasn't much of a decision since we enjoyed last year's so much and we were very curious to see how the new additions we'd heard about would go over for us this year as well.

This year's event runs until June 29th, Friday-Sunday, so there's still a couple of weekends left to get out there and try what they've got on the menu for this year.

Like last year, the event was packed with 14 food pavilions, 4 wine tasting pavilions, food carving demonstrations and live shows all centered around food and drink. There's so much to see and do that you should probably plan just a day to experience it all without rushing to get to rides and waiting in lines there as well.

Visit Date: 6/6/14
Day: Friday
Weather: Sunny and Warm
Overall Rating: Excellent
Food Rating: Very Good
Show Rating: Good
Sample Prices: Good
Recommendation: If you haven't gone, you need to!
Website:
Review Team: Myself, +Carrie H.C. and +Alexandra F

**Disclaimer: Despite being invited down by the park, we still bought our tickets for the event and we were not comped for any of the food. This is because we like to visit more than one day and the Fun Card option is too good to pass up!

As I said, we really enjoyed the first year of this event that took place in 2013 and we were eager to see just how they would corrupt our tastebuds this time around. Not only is the park beautiful, but the atmosphere and theme of Europe lends itself perfectly for an event of this type to take place. That said, not everything we tried went over that great with us. That's just how food is, but I'm getting a head of myself. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Busch Gardens Williamsburg Food & Wine Preview

Well, this is something that I do over on my own site, but I figured that this year's Food & Wine Festival at Busch Gardens Williamsburg was deserving of one as well! Not only does this year's event feature a couple of new areas of the world to sample food from, but the folks at Busch Gardens have decided to make it last a couple of weekends longer too. This year's event starts May 23rd and runs every Friday-Sunday through June 29th. That's a win for everyone right there.

The event features some amazing food and drinks from around the world, but also things like the Art of Food, Wine on the Rhine cruises and other special events throughout the run that make it truly something that nearly everyone that enjoys food can have fun with. If you can't, then there's probably something wrong with you. There's even insider tours that take you behind the scenes to show off how it's all put together and even more intimate wine tasting sessions as well.

Now, last year we attended the first annual Food & Wine Festival at Busch Gardens and have to say that we were extremely surprised and loved everything that we got a chance to try over the course of a weekend. Check out our review from last year if you want some suggestions for this year too, but the fact that they've added even more for this year is really great to see and definitely hoping this one sticks around for a long time.

So, without further ado, here's the list of everything that's new and everything that's coming for 2014. First up? Let's see what the new areas have in store for everyone.

Disney World- "Eat with the Beat" Food and Wine Concerts

 Well Folks,
It's that time of the year again, when preparations for the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival announcements begin!

 While this is one of our favorite events to happen at Disney World over the year, it also happens to be one of the largest and most popular. Drawing in hundreds of thousands, between the established pavilions, the 'country' stands and the concerts, Food and Wine Festival has a winning combination.

 Disney has announced the "Eat with the Beat" concert series artists, which is another one of the large draws to the Food and Wine Festival. Needless to say, we've got the complete list for all your possible planning needs!

2013 Epcot Food and Wine Festival Menus

2013 Epcot Food and Wine Menus

Image from Travel with Rick

 Disney has released the menu's for the 2013 Epcot Food and Wine Festival which begins on September 27th and runs through November 11th at World Showcase. Epcot hosts one of the largest Food and Wine festivals out of any of the theme parks and each year adds in something new. This year they have added Scotland, which looks to have some tasty treats!

 Epcot also is one of our favorite theme parks and we try to time our visit's so that the Food and Wine Festival is going on during our visit. We will be in attendance this year during the preview day as well as opening weekend.