Central Florida's Best Festivals

I'm sure you can find almost any type of festival in Central Florida to appease your cultural, music, food, and entertainment interests but the following happen to be my favorite annual festivals and events in and around the Orlando area.

Disney's Flower & Garden Festival

I've been to Epcot twice for the International Flower & Garden Festival which usually takes place from March to May every year. Gorgeous topiary displays of Disney characters are scattered throughout the park along with several flower and garden displays, a butterfly garden and a few extra outdoor kitchens with seasonal food. This is a really pretty time of year to visit Epcot and there's no additional fee during the Flower & Garden Festival apart from the regular entrance fee to enter the park.

Florida Music Festival

Taking place annually in April and lasting for 3 nights from 7pm to 2am, more than 50 bands perform at over a dozen bars and stages in downtown Orlando. The music ranges from rock, pop, country, hip hop and bluegrass and the best part is that admission is free! This is a great local event for the music lovers out there and supposedly many undiscovered artists (like Taylor Swift back in 2002) have performed at the FMF in the past.


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Crawfish Festival

This was probably my favorite event of the year and unfortunately it has been put on hold (possibly cancelled?) due to location issues. The original location was a huge lakefront party with live music, draft beer flowing and thousands of pounds of boiled crawfish for sale. Live music played throughout the day and it was fun to be on the water. The most recent event was at Heritage Square which wasn't on the water so less appealing location but nevertheless still a great line up of bands and overall fun time. I'm hoping they can bring the Crawfish Festival back soon!

Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival

This is a fun family-friendly day event with lots of great food stands and beautiful art from local artists in Central Florida. The festival takes place in March and is very close to my office so I love walking over with coworkers every year to grab some lunch and then walk around to browse all the different arts and craft exhibits.

Orlando Chili Cookoff

Orlando Chili Cookoff takes place annually at Festival Park which is located downtown Orlando. Presale tickets are $10 and guests can enjoy free chili samples from over 75 different chili booths, live music all day, cold drinks for purchase, and The World Chili Eating Challenge. Unfortunately the year I attended got rained out but we didn't let that stop us. We showed up equipped with umbrellas and went from booth to booth tasting all the yummy chili, including deer chili,which was the most interesting sample I tried.

Florida Strawberry Festival

Strawberry festival takes place annually for a couple weeks in March in Plant City, Florida which is about an hour outside of Orlando. Ticket prices range from $50-10 and guests can enjoy a variety of entertainment, rides, art exhibits, music, and food stands.

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Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

Disney's Food & Wine festival takes place in the Fall usually from late September to mid November. This is probably one of the most popular festivals that people attend every year in Orlando. Funny enough, I've never actually been before but not that I'm a season passholder I plan to go this year and will do a full review of my experience.

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