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 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.

Busch Gardens Willamsburg- Food and Wine Festival

Busch Gardens Williamsburg
Food and Wine Festival

  We here at InSanity lurks Inside completely LOVE festivals that mix two of our favorite things, Drinking Adult-type beverages and Tasty Food! So when we heard that Busch Gardens Williamsburg was opening their very first "Food and Wine Festival" we got excited! Needless to say our excitement was doubled when Busch Gardens responded to our inquiry about reviewing this event, we packed up and high-tailed it south!


Event Dates: Friday thru Sunday May 31-June23
Dates of our Review: May 31-June-2
Event Rating: Great but prices are a bit high.


 To start we made a stop at guest services right at the beginning. Busch Gardens offers a wonderful wrist band program which you can link to your credit card. Thus allowing you to go cash free (or in my case, purse free) for your day by allowing you to charge to a general account! With this account you can either go limited (say $100) or unlimited depending on your spending ability. This is a splendid little tool for their Food and Wine Festival but is offered all year.
 However, a word of warning! I'd suggest using a credit card only for this, not your debt/bank card as it takes $50 authorizations as your original $50 runs low. This really isn't much of an issue but depending on your bank, those authorizations may hang around for a few days tying up your money. So think about that in advance!

Carrie, Shut Up and get to the FOOD AND DRINKS!

Okay, here we go! 

Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2012

Disney Parks Blog has released new, updated information about the 2012 Epcot Food and Wine festival. New additions are abound this year! Running September 28th threw November 12th, 46 days of fun at Epcot! Also note that there is almost always a preview day for Food and Wine, probably on September 27th.. but you didn't hear that from me.

Two New Market Places: Terra Market Place offering up vegan and vegetarian plates like "Trick'n Chik'n Curry" and "Cashew Cheese" for the non-meatitarians. Florida Market Place is offering local favorites for the tourist trying to get in touch with the real Florida.

VIP Market Place Chief Tours:  Every Wednesday, feel like a star as a Food and Wine chief takes your group around to five various locations for food and wine tastings.. perhaps even a secret or two.

 Kid-Friendly Tastes: New recipes for kid-friendly juice drinks and food, such as beef empanadas and cheese fondue.

Back for an Encore: HGTV designers will be present randomly, Celeberity chefs will also be popping in and out. Culinary demonstrations and special Wine seminars are always on the offering table at the Events Center (Former Wonders of Life Pavilion).  Party for the Senses is also returning again this year, the dates are:  October 6, 13, 20, 27 as well as November 3.

Eat to the Beat: Returning again this year, Eat while enjoying music from top bands all included with your admission! Bands and Dates are below.

2012 Eat to the Beat Concert Line Up

9/28-9/30: Night Ranger
10/1-10/3: Sugar Ray
10/4- 10/7: STARSHIP starring Mickey Thomas
10/8-10/10: Boyz II Men
10/11-10/12: Smash Mouth (NEW)
10/13-10/14: Javier Colon, winner of “The Voice” (NEW)
10/15-10/17: Air Supply
10/18-10/19: Gin Blossoms
10/20-10/21: Survivor
10/22-10/23: Hanson
10/24-10/25: The Pointer Sisters
10/26-10/28: Sister Hazel
10/29-10/31: Billy Ocean
11/1-11/2: 38 Special
11/3-11/4: Howard Jones LIVE
11/5-11/6: Blues Traveler (NEW)
11/7-11/8: Dennis DeYoung, original member of the group STYX (NEW)
11/9-11/11: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Personally, the Food and Wine festival is one of my favorite times at Epcot. Lucky me it also falls during my Anniversary so I can almost always count on a trip to Disney! You can eat (and drink) your complete way around the world! For those that aren't familiar with Food and Wine,  Epcot sets up dozens upon dozens of additional countries to sample in the form of kiosks.  From the Caribbean islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico all the way to Korea, Australia and Taiwan. Never think your just sampling the Pavilion Counties, Epcot goes all out for the foodie (and Drinker) extravaganza!