Grant-Valkaria Events Guide: Grant Seafood Festival and Town Dates

The 2027 Grant Seafood Festival fills 4580 1st Street in Grant on March 6 and 7, 2027, opening at 9:00 each morning and closing at 7:00 on the Saturday evening and 5:00 on the Sunday afternoon (Grant Seafood Festival).

The organizer's home page bills the 2027 edition as the 59th Annual Grant Seafood Festival (festival home page), yet the history page talks about the run toward a 60th festival and asks for old festival photos, programs and newspaper clippings for an archive (festival history page). Either way, the Grant count runs back close to six decades, and the times in the table below are the organizer's own.

Getting into the Grant Seafood Festival and parking for it cost nothing; food and drink take festival tickets, which come in books of 10, and the smallest purchase is $10 for one book (festival information).

A typical plate at the Grant Seafood Festival runs from 1 ticket up to 10. Red booths around the Grant grounds sell the books, the booths take cash or cards, cash machines stand on site, and phone payment apps are refused (Grant Seafood Festival). A second sales point works at the Valkaria Airport lot between 10:00 and 3:00 on both festival days (ticket information).

The Grant Seafood Festival menu is the point of the weekend. The organizer lists fish dinners, fried shrimp, fried scallops and clam strips, clam chowder, lobster bisque, raw and steamed oysters, conch fritters, conch salad, smoked fish dip, gator bites and key lime pie among dozens of items, all cooked in house by volunteers, and no outside vendors sell food or drink at the Grant grounds (festival menu).

Visitors leave their cars at Valkaria Airport and ride a shuttle that circles nonstop between the airport and the Grant festival grounds (festival parking information).

Valkaria Airport belongs to Brevard County, which also runs it (Brevard County), and on festival weekend it is where the organizer sends visitors to park. A second, park and ride lot faces The Habitat Golf Course on Valkaria Road. Northbound U.S. 1 traffic leaves the highway at Shell Pit Road, southbound traffic turns at Valkaria Road, and signs lead from both to the lots (festival directions).

One stale item to watch: on October 15, 2026 the organizer's shuttle schedule still showed hours for Saturday and Sunday, March 7 and 8, 2026, the previous festival, while the 2027 event falls on March 6 and 7. The Grant-Valkaria shuttle times for 2027 had not yet been posted on that date.

Grant Seafood Festival rules are short and firm. Only service dogs, identified by a vest or collar, may enter; pets of any other kind, coolers, pop-up tents or canopies, umbrellas and overnight parking are all barred (festival rules). The organizer also reminds drivers that Brighline trains cross at three points in Grant and that cars must never halt on the rails (festival information).

Volunteers do all the work at the Grant Seafood Festival, and every dollar of proceeds stays in the community of Grant (Grant Seafood Festival).

Four Grant causes share the money: the festival's scholarship fund, the community library, the historical house and the community center, the organizer says. Many booths are family affairs with several generations at the fryers together, and residents handle every job from planning and buying to cooking and serving (festival home page). The history page sums it up as no paid staff and no outside vendors, with families working across three and four generations (festival history).

The festival's scholarship page reports $50,000 awarded to students pursuing higher education from Grant-Valkaria and surrounding communities, through a festival scholarship and a memorial scholarship awarded on a competitive basis (scholarship page).

While the festival is open, the Grant Library holds its annual sale of used books from the porch of the community center; volunteers run that library, the Grant Community Club pays most of its costs, and it sits outside the county library system. The Grant Historical House, by contrast, shuts its doors for the festival weekend (festival information). Questions go to the organizer at (321) 327-8720 or P.O. Box 44, Grant, FL 32949 (festival contact). The Grant Seafood Festival guide covers the crafter counts, rules, directions and festival history in more depth.

The organizer's Grant Seafood Festival directions start from I-95, leaving at exit 173 for Palm Bay and Malabar from the north or exit 156 for Fellsmere and Sebastian from the south (festival directions).

From exit 173, the organizer's route runs 4.2 miles east on SR 514 and then turns right on U.S. 1 for 5.8 miles. From exit 156, it runs 4.7 miles along Roseland Road (CR 505) and then turns left on U.S. 1 for 6.6 miles. Drivers can also enter Grant-Valkaria from Babcock Street, turning in on Valkaria Road from the north or Grant Road from the south (Grant Seafood Festival directions). The organizer places Grant about 12 miles south of Melbourne and 22 miles north of Vero.

Brevard County lists Christenson's Landing, Fisherman's Landing and John Jorgensen's Landing, along with the Grant Historical House (Bensen House) and Valkaria Airport, among the notable named places of County Commission District 3, which contains Grant-Valkaria along with Malabar, Palm Bay and other towns (Brevard County District 3). Because the Grant Historical House closes for the festival weekend, a return trip on another day is the way to see it.

The fall 2026 Grant-Valkaria calendar holds the November 3, 2026 town general election and Town Council meetings on November 10 and December 9, 2026 (Town of Grant-Valkaria elections; Town Council calendar).

Regular Grant-Valkaria council sessions fall on the second Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m., in the Council Chambers at 1449 Valkaria Road. The November 2026 session is listed for Tuesday, November 10, so the town calendar, not the usual pattern, sets that date (Grant-Valkaria Town Council). Agendas and minutes are linked from the same Town Council page.

For the election, Grant-Valkaria voters choose a mayor and four council seats on November 3, 2026. Brevard County runs the voting: early voting is Monday, October 19 through Saturday, October 31, 2026, the last day to request a mail ballot to be sent is Thursday, October 22, 2026 by 5 p.m., and polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election day (Brevard County Supervisor of Elections). The Grant-Valkaria government hub covers the seats and terms.

The Grant Seafood Festival guide is the Grant-Valkaria events section's deep page; civic dates are kept on this hub and on the Grant-Valkaria government pages.