Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival 2020 Review
Join us as we take a look at Busch Gardens Food & Wine festival and provide a full review of its food, drink, firework and concert offerings.
On Friday, the 28th February, we were invited down to sample some food at the 2020 version of Busch Gardens Food and Wine Festival. This preview event was available to the Media and to annual pass holders. It featured all the food and drink booths as well as a concert from cover band, Eaglemania. It even ended with fireworks which will be occurring every Saturday and Sunday of the event.
This year the event runs Saturday and Sunday from Feb 29th to April 26th and includes:
- 14 unique food stands.
- 17 beer, wine and liquor stands.
- A concert lineup featuring artists such as: Taking Back Sunday, Third Eye Blind, Collective Soul, KC & the Sunshine Band & more…
- Food lanyards offering discounts to pass members and VIP priority seating for concerts.
- A new coca-cola canopy stage featuring live performances from local bands.
- A strolling, serenading guitarist in the event pathway.
- Artists creating large than life murals in the festival pathway.
- A new Chef’s Corner booth showcasing unique items from the Chef Stuart Morton and 30 year Busch veteran, Chef Richard Shepherd.
2020 Event Review
We arrived at Busch Gardens around 3 pm to give us time to wander around and look at Iron Gwazi Construction before the events festivities began.
The sky ride was unfortunately closed but we did end up doing Cheetah Hunt. A solid consolation.
The festival pathway opened at 4pm allowing access to food booths and drink in the area before the concert park.
As this event was for media and pass members only, the park closed at 6pm with just the food booth areas available for guests. The concert area was available from 7pm on this night.
We were provided a 12 item sampler each to try out the food and drink at the festival. For more information check out the Busch Gardens page on samplers.
The yellow VIP badge also allowed us front of the concert seating and access to a VIP bar.
Armed with our lanyard it was time to head out and see what kind of offerings the event had this year. We started outside the event pathway in the area near the new Coca-Cola stage thinking it would be quieter.
Coca-Cola Stage
This new staging area was still under construction and will be coming soon to the event. It will feature local bands.
Food Thoughts
For a look at the full menu on what is on offer at the Festival check out the link here.
First up for us though was The Butchery. Here we decided to grab all three items. Our plan was to try as much as the food as possible before we were full and test out some specialty drinks as we went.
This booth was popular and it’s easy to see why. The food was very flavorful with the Beef Tenderloin our collective favorite. The Duck Fat Fries were very crispy but equally tasty. The sweet plaintain mash was exactly as you’d expect. Very Sweet.
Next up. The Heartland.
Here, we again decided to grab all three offerings.
Surprisingly the Griddled Cheese Cake was the best of the lot here. Even though it looks like a cheese toasty covered in ketchup, it actually tasted very good, almost like pound cake. It was not too sweet and was very good after all the meat we had just consumed. The Bison Slider was tasty but a little well done for our liking. (Better than the Cricket crusted one at SeaWorld though…) The Bacon Mac & Cheese was as you’d expect, very cheesy with a hint of bacon.
Drinks
Time for a drink after the first round of food, with a stop to the Northern Hops Booth.
Here we tried the Southern Tier Brewing 2XIPA & the Blue Point Brewing Co – The IPA. For the beer we actually bought them as we wanted full sized drinks. With pass member discount all the beers came to around $9.75. Sampler sizes seem to be around 5-6 oz so you can use your lanyard for them. Both IPA’s were excellent.
Heading to the festival pathway we tried a few drinks from the Coaster Cocktails booth.
All the drinks were pre-mixed but tasted good. None of them were too sweet with the Tigris Tea being the most “alcoholic” to taste with good reason.
Moving through to the Festival Field, these food booths had the longest lines. We had some time before the concert started, so headed out to try a couple of booths near Garden Gate Cafe.
West Coast Catch
Next up was probably all of our favorite dishes of the night. From West Coast Catch we grabbed two items. Shrimp Salad Stuffed Avocado and the Sesame Crusted Tuna.
Both great dishes, that we only got as the booth had the shortest lines. The tuna was definitely my favorite of the night.
As we headed back into the concert area there was time to have a look around before Eaglemania started. (And stare alot at Iron Gwazi) The building that is usually home to a Howl O Scream house is emptied for the Hog Heaven food booth, a VIP bar and a general bar, as well as a musician on stage.
Just before the concert started, we hoped to grab a quick bite to eat from the Wave Shack booth. The lines had died down slightly but the wait for food at this booth took longer than expected. The Shrimp Bacon Fritters were so popular that they could not be cooked quick enough. They tasted good but we did miss the start of the concert so just bare that in mind when joining the lines. We also grabbed the Clam Strips from this booth which I had never tried before but enjoyed.
Chef’s Corner
This booth had the longest lines most of the evening. New for this year the booth showcases unique dishes from the Busch Gardens team of inspired chefs. Chef Richard Shepherd has helped create every food & wine menu since the events inception and brings to this booth a new item. This year his offering is a Pork Belly Taco with crunchy kimchi slaw and zesty mango salsa.
Chef Stuart Morton brings a french dish of Pork Tenderloin with Champagne Watercress sauce over a bed of what almost seemed like pasta. What was great about this booth was that Chef Stuart Morton was working in the booth and greeted each guest buying food.
Also available from the booth was Arroz Con Pollo. Sauteed Adobo-Seasoned Chicken with Sofrito, Avocado and Plantains.
We naturally grabbed all three.
Both the Pork dishes here were worth the wait. Great dishes that we almost struggled to finish. (We were incredibly full at this point)
Pretty much all the food we tried was full of flavor and enjoyable. We were lucky we did not wait too long for our food at most of the booths and we were very tactical about when we joined the lines. The offerings this year are the best they have done for quality of food and value. We will definitely be back to try out some things we missed later on in the Festival and to see Taking Back Sunday.
Concert & Fireworks
Eaglemania kicked off the 2020 Food & Wine festival at 8 pm with an enthusiastic sing along. As not the biggest Eagles fan (apart from Hotel California of course) they were a good way to kick things off. Jackie seemed to love it though. Check out her video from the event, featuring Sams views on the food below.
The concert lineup for this year is varied and features a few great bookings. We will be back for some more weekends towards the end of March.
As the band finished up just before 9pm it was time for some Fireworks. This year the fireworks are set to the music of some of the artists playing the event and was a well put together show to close out the night.
The fireworks are let off behind you, if you are facing the concert stage between Shiekra and Iron Gwazi. Fireworks lighting up Iron Gwazi are just what you need after a fun and filling day.
Final Thoughts
This was our second Busch Gardens Food & Wine Festival and definitely our favorite. There is a great selection of food, beer and wine. The layout of the food booths in a circle around the event pathway and concert area makes it feel like a good size with enough space in between each booth. The food areas are themed and musicians scattered throughout offer a relaxing atmosphere.
Some things to note:
On a cold day like it was when we visited, don’t wait too long to eat your food!
Attack the booths tactically and make sure you aren’t waiting in line too long for food. Each booth seems to fluctuate in queue length so don’t stress if a line is too long. Come back to it later (or when the concert is happening).
Thanks very much to Busch Gardens for inviting us down.
If you haven’t been we encourage you to get down to Busch Gardens to try out very well put together Food & Wine festival, which offers an eclectic line up of artists, tasty food and plenty of drink.
If food is not your thing then remember there are also a tonne of coasters at the park and Iron Gwazi could even be open by the end of the festival….
We will see you next time.
