Important Update on Disney’s California Food & Wine Festival

Heather Hust Rivera

by , Vice President, Consumer Products

As many of you know, we are in the midst of a multi-year expansion of Disney California Adventure park. Our first key milestone occurred this past June with the premiere of “World of Color,” and next year, we’ll open The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. As we shared with you last Friday, Cars Land is well on its way to opening in 2012, and we’ll continue to share news and take you behind the scenes throughout the expansion here on the Disney Parks Blog.

While we are extremely excited with all of the progress to date, we have had to make some changes to accommodate our growth, and today we want to let you know we will not be hosting the 2011 and 2012 Disney’s California Food & Wine Festivals in Disney California Adventure park. This was not an easy decision, but expansion work over the next two years in some areas of the park present significant logistical challenges around scheduling the hundreds of festival offerings. This work includes transforming the park’s entry plaza as well as the hub area where the event main stage has been located. When the work is completed, it will be reminiscent of the Los Angeles that Walt found when he arrived in the 1920s, complete with Red Car Trolleys. Below is a rendering that we’ve not yet released on the Blog that shows what the area will look like when completed.

Rendering of Los Angeles in the 1920s

We realize the festival has been a guest favorite but feel it’s most important to ensure our park experience is the best it can be during this exciting time. After the expansion is completed and we open Cars Land in 2012, we will continue to look at opportunities for special events and festivals. Please stay tuned to the Blog for the most up-to-date information.

Comments

  • I am so glad that I went last year and was able to meet Guy Fieri! I will miss the Food and Wine Festival. I understand why but drat! I always looked forward to going when I was single and now that we are a family, I had looked forward to going this year again. Well, here’s to 2013!?

  • Very disappointed that this is being completely cancelled rather than reworked or scaled down. I have enjoyed this event very much. I have made plans to attend it, however guess I’ll plan to visit the one in Epcot next year instead.

  • I agree with Jocelyn they could use the Convention center as well or meeting spaces inside the hotels.

  • Hey Heather, why not they use big thunder ranch and festival arena inside Disneyland?

  • This is bad news since I only bought enough Magicale for one year. I guess have to ration out my supply for THREE years now. Unless the folks at Disney decide to sell it WITHOUT a festival. I think many people would be happy about that, including the winemakers.

  • I am not happy with this decision at all!!! We have been going to the winemakers’ dinners since the start… This is something that our family looks forward to doing every year. You should reconsider and maybe have a scaled-back version.

  • Is there any way that Disney could possibly utilize a different location for the Food & Wine Festival? Like utilizing the Anaheim Convention Center, as they did for the D23 Expo?

Comments are closed.