About this site

The Festival Nerd is an independent research project documenting the history of the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival — from its earliest iteration in 1982 (did you know it went back that far?), to its official debut in 1996, to the present day.

This project started on a random Sunday morning with a cup of coffee, my favorite Disney message forum, and what I thought were some easy questions. How did the festival start?  Whose idea was it?  What was it like in the early days and how has it evolved? What happened to all the special events? The answers were harder to find than I expected.  I found clues scattered across fan forums (love fan forums – so great to find fellow obsessed fans to talk Disney with), newspaper archives, and tales and trip reports by people who had attended. This project is a quest for more answers and details, with the goal of creating a comprehensive archive of the festival. 

I've been attending the Food & Wine Festival annually since 2008.  I’ve logged an unreasonable number of turns (I couldn’t even begin to calculate, but if I did it would be in the hundreds of laps) around World Showcase Lagoon - shout out to restrooms in Morocco, America, Norway, the Odyssey building, and the UK - , dined on many a trash can, met and tasted food from chefs of my food TV dreams, discovered I enjoyed foods I could have sworn I hated, and chatted and shared tables with so many amazing fellow guests.   I LOVE this festival.  And I also hate what it has become.  More on that, I suppose, in future posts.

The goal with this project is to build something that doesn't exist anywhere else: a comprehensive, well-sourced historical archive, woven with personal experiences, covering the festival's timelines, booth histories, menus, special events, and major milestones. Eventually I'd love to expand coverage to other EPCOT festivals as well. But, for now, Food & Wine is the focus, and my metaphorical plate is full.

If you were there — as a guest, a cast member, a chef, or anyone else connected to the festival — I want to hear from you. Old guides, maps, passports, photographs, menus, recipes from demos, tickets/wristbands, stories, and memories: I want to see and hear it all. The history of this festival will be best told by the people who were there.

This site is an independent project and is not affiliated with The Walt Disney Company.

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