what happens at the food & wine festival?

[jojo]

so Im curious now what exactly is the food and wine festival?

its just some food samples at epcot or something but does it cost more than park entrance?

[Slowhand]

The Epcot park entrance fee remains the same.
In World Showcase there are small booths that are set up by several countries not represented by the 11 permanent countries located around the lake.
Each of these booths are manned by represented by folk from their particular country and they offer small titbits of food and drink from their domain.
You could eat your way around the World if you sampled food from these outlets although it would cost a darn site more than having a normal sit down meal at a restaurant!
It`s nice to sample some of the food on offer though.

There are also several demonstrations and wine tastings etc. however these items do invariably incur an additional charge.

[Tink]

The representation of people from the country that the booth represents isn't so much the case anymore, Slowhand.

Most often the workers are Disney CMs who have little knowledge of the country, but that's not a huge factor.

There are merchandise booths too that allow you the opportunity to purchase a limited array of household items, paintings, t-shirts, things of that nature. This year the merchandise booths are severely limited in scope and restricted only to what appears to be Disney merchandise (with one booth for paintings). There is the wine cellar, but that's up in the Festival Welcoming Center (the old body wars building).

The Food and Wine Festival is quite expensive after all is said and done. Each sample ranges from $1.50 (the tiny dessert sample) to nearly $8.00 (the tiny lobster roll) with most being in the $3.50-$4.50 range. You can easily spend more than the cost of a full service meal going from booth to booth.

[Slowhand]

The representation of people from the country that the booth represents isn't so much the case anymore, Slowhand.

Most often the workers are Disney CMs who have little knowledge of the country, but that's not a huge factor.

That`s a surprise Tink. It somehow doesn`t feel "right" if that`s the case.

A agree that the cost of sampling food tasters from the various outlets can cost a small fortune.