Sebastian Events and Festivals Guide

The next large Sebastian event is the 23rd annual Sebastian Clambake at Riverview Park on November 7 and 8, 2026, after a run of smaller October gatherings on the riverfront.

Gates for the 2026 Sebastian Clambake open Saturday from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.; entry costs nothing, and food and Clambake shirts are bought with tickets inside (Clambake Foundation).

Four shorter riverfront dates come first on the Sebastian city calendar for October 2026, from the police Community Night Out to the Junior Blue Water Open and a Halloween costume contest, all set in Riverview Park as listed in the table below (city calendar).

The Sebastian Halloween and fall family events guide covers the costume contest and the rest of the October riverfront calendar, and the Sebastian Clambake guide covers the festival's food, history and beneficiaries.

Nonprofit groups run the Clambake, the riverfront art festival and ShrimpFest at Riverview Park, with the City of Sebastian co-hosting ShrimpFest, and each one sends its proceeds to local causes.

Formed in 2002, the Clambake Foundation pitches its November weekend as a Lagoon Festival about life on the Indian River Lagoon and counts over one million dollars in grants to area charities so far (Clambake site). The menu runs from steamed clams, shrimp and conch fritters to clam pizza.

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit stages the riverfront art and music show, which comes back for its 2027 run on Saturday, January 16 (10 to 5) and Sunday, January 17 (10 to 4) (art festival site). Its donations and scholarships have gone to Sebastian Elementary School, the Sebastian River High School drama troupe, Treasure Coast Elementary School plus the Sebastian River Art Club, and it paid for a Highwayman painting displayed at Sebastian City Hall. The Sebastian fine art and music festival guide follows the show year by year.

The Sebastian Rotary club's recreational foundation co-hosts ShrimpFest with the city, and its 2027 weekend is set for March 20 and 21 (ShrimpFest site). Every dollar of profit goes to nonprofit youth athletics in the local Indian River area, over $350,000 to date. The 2026 beneficiaries included Sebastian River High School boys lacrosse, the Lady Sharks basketball program and the youth football and cheer club known as the Sebastian Sharks. The Sunday program adds a car show and a farmers market. The Sebastian ShrimpFest and Craft Brew Hullabaloo guide covers both the March festival and the December beer event.

The local chamber of commerce for the Sebastian River Area keeps its own calendar: free riverfront concerts at Riverview Park each winter and spring (January to May), Grill Out Night (first Friday of August), a June charity surf contest named Longest Day, Longest Ride, Light Up Night (first Friday of December) and a December craft beer event, the Hullabaloo (Chamber events page). The chamber office is at 700 Main Street in Sebastian, phone 772.589.5969. The Sebastian Concerts in the Park guide lists past seasons and performers.

The City of Sebastian runs a short list of Signature Events through Parks and Recreation, led by the Christmas Parade, Earth Day and the July 4 Freedom Fest parade and fireworks on the Sebastian waterfront.

The most recent city list covers fiscal 2025 to 2026 and holds ten entries (Signature Events page). Fall brought Kids Fest (October 4, 2025) and a costume contest (October 24, 2025). Winter brought holiday lights across the city from mid November into early January and the Christmas Parade, held Saturday, December 6, 2025, along the waterfront. Spring had an egg hunt paired with a movie (April 3) and Earth Day (April 18), and summer opened with a concert on June 5. On Independence Day 2026 the parade used the waterfront and the fireworks went up from Riverview Park, and the year closed with Touch and Tour on the Sebastian City Hall grounds, September 12, 2026.

Earth Day is organized through the city's Natural Resources Board. On April 18, 2026 it filled Riverview Park from 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon, while Waste Management took shredding and old electronics in the overflow lot on the park's south edge and bulky household items at the Barber Street Sports Complex from 9 a.m. to noon (Natural Resources Board event page). The Sebastian guide to Earth Day and Arbor Day traces earlier years.

Sebastian Parks and Recreation also lists Star Gaze, Summer Concerts in the Park and Kids Fest among its special events and gives 772-255-4568 as the number for event questions (Parks and Recreation page). The Sebastian Christmas parade guide, the Sebastian Fourth of July guide and the Sebastian holiday season guide each follow one of the city's dates in detail.

Riverview Park is the designated event ground: the City of Sebastian calls it the primary event and gathering point for the city, on the Indian River at U.S. 1 and County Road 512.

Its street address is 600 U.S. Highway 1, where U.S. 1 meets C.R. 512 (Sebastian Boulevard), and its open space and oak-covered walkways look out over the Indian River (Riverview Park page). Beyond the event grounds the park holds a splash pad, the Veterans War Memorial, sand volleyball, pavilions and two piers built for river watching and fishing. The park also hosts the seasonal Rhythm on the River concert series and Craft Club and Art Club shows.

Rentals of Riverview Park, the Sebastian Yacht Club, the Community Center and the park pavilions all run through Sebastian Parks and Recreation; for Riverview Park bookings the line is (772) 228-7054 (department page). The Veterans War Memorial and the observances held beside it are covered in the Sebastian veterans ceremonies guide.

The Pelican Island Wildlife Festival grew out of the refuge's 90th birthday party in 1993, and the friends group formed that same year, then called the Pelican Island Preservation Society, kept the birthday events going; it now works under the Conservation Society name (refuge friends group). The Sebastian guide to the Pelican Island Wildlife Festival traces where the festival has been held since 1993.

As of October 14, 2026, the City of Sebastian had not posted a 2026 to 2027 Signature Events list or a date for the December 2026 Christmas Parade.

The Sebastian Signature Events page still shows the fiscal year that ended September 30, 2026 (Signature Events page). The city calendar for November 2026 lists council and board meetings plus City Hall closures for Veterans Day on November 11 and Thanksgiving on November 26 and 27 (November listings). The December 2026 view lists meetings and the City Hall Christmas closure on December 24 and 25, but no parade (December listings).

The recent pattern in Sebastian points to the first weekend of December. The 2025 Christmas Parade ran on Saturday, December 6, and the Chamber schedules Light Up Night for the opening Friday of December (Chamber events page). That pattern would put the 2026 pair on Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5, but neither date appeared on an official Sebastian page on October 14, 2026.

Organizer sites in Sebastian can lag too. The Sebastian Riverfront Fine Art and Music Festival home page lists its January 2027 dates but still carries a call for emerging artists for its 2023 festival next to a 2027 application notice with an October 3, 2025 deadline (art festival site), so artists seeking a 2027 booth are better served by writing to [email protected] than by trusting either link.

Each Sebastian events guide answers one question in depth, from the Christmas Parade on the Sebastian waterfront to the beneficiaries of the Riverview Park festivals.

The Sebastian festivals and events guide arranges the same Riverview Park dates month by month, and the individual guides carry the history and organizer detail behind each one.