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The Marketplaces, the little food serving cottages and the
longtime standard the International Food & Wine Festival, crept into this
year’s incarnation of the International Flower and Garden Festival. Flower and
Garden’s kiosks focused on items grown in gardens, which put fruits and
vegetables at the forefront of every dish. Food and Wine’s venues always focus
on the freshest ingredients, but there generally isn’t a theme that runs
through all of the Marketplaces as there was with Flower and Garden in 2013.
Also, the number of Marketplaces needs to be considered. Flower and Garden
weighed in with only about a dozen venues while Food and Wine typically boasts
an assortment of kiosks just under thirty.
Switching main components, what about topiaries at the
International Food and Wine Festival? They are there, but like the Marketplaces
at Flower and Garden, there are nowhere near a comparable number in the fall.
The garden areas of World Showcase are well manicured all year round, but
during Food and Wine they do tend to take a slant towards ingredients in
dishes. Cabbage in Morocco, pineapples and peppers in the promenade entrance, and
the list goes on and on. So, while there aren’t as many topiary figures, the
gardens are still an attraction unto themselves during Food and Wine.
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Then there are the intangibles. Where Food and Wine has
extra Marketplaces, Flower and Garden has water wise, butterfly, and creative
gardens. Both have playgrounds for children to climb on when they get bored
with their parents’ fawning over the food or flowers, and these play areas are
generally tied into an upcoming or recent film release children would be
interested in.
So, are the festivals becoming mirror images of each other?
No. Are they utilizing the best aspects of both during either festival? Yes.
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If all guests are doing is walking casually around World
Showcase, noshing here and there and taking note of the beautiful gardens, then
I don’t suppose it truly matters during which festival time they visit.
However, for those who truly take time to get under the surface of an event and
want to take some tips home, even just those printed on placards in the
gardens, it absolutely matters. Cooking aficionados aren’t going to gleam as
much from a horticulturist as the gardening enthusiast is, and vice versa with
chefs. Allowing the events to slightly bleed over into one another doesn’t
detract from Flower and Garden or Food and Wine, it simply makes them a more
accurate representation of the park in which they are housed and gives each a
wider group of guests to appeal to.
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