Tybee Seafood Fest 2026: Dates, Main Day and Where to Stay

Tybee already has a food calendar, but it has been missing one thing: a week where the whole island leans the same direction. This November it gets one. The first Tybee Seafood Fest runs November 8–15, 2026, and it ends the way a food festival should, with a long Saturday on the pier.

The festival is new, so there's no past year to lean on. Here's what's planned, where the details live, and how to build a trip around it. For admission, schedule and vendors, check the official site.

The dates, in order

Three dates matter.

November 8–15. This is the full run. Restaurants and businesses across the island are putting on specials for the whole week, which means the festival isn't one place on one day. It's a week in which eating seafood on Tybee has a bit of extra occasion attached.

Friday, November 13. An Oyster Roast & Lowcountry Boil is the Friday event. It's ticketed, sold separately from everything else, and the "Buy Tickets" link is on the official festival site. If you want it, don't wait for the weekend to decide.

Saturday, November 14, 11 AM–9 PM. The main festival day, held at the Tybee Island Pier & Pavilion. This is the one with live bands, local vendors, a Kids' Zone, a shrimp-peeling contest and games. Ten hours is long enough to come twice: once for lunch, once after dark.

Official source for all of it: tybeeseafoodfest.com.

What to expect on the main day

The Saturday program lists live bands, local vendors, a Kids' Zone, a shrimp-peeling contest and games, all at the pier and pavilion between 11 AM and 9 PM.

For bands, vendors and admission, check the official site. This is a first-year festival, so plan as though the pier will be busy.

Where to stand, and when to go

The pier and pavilion area is the public heart of the island, and it's the venue, so there isn't a hidden vantage point to recommend. A few practical ways to approach a ten-hour festival day:

• Go early for the first plates. Vendor events tend to be at their most comfortable right after opening. If you want room to look around before you commit to a line, 11 AM is the calmest time to be there.
• Treat the middle of the day as a break. Ten hours on your feet at a festival is a lot. If you're staying nearby, the gap between lunch and the evening music is when you walk back, sit down, and come out again fresh.
• Come back for the evening. The festival runs until 9 PM, and a pier after dark with a band playing is a different thing from the same pier at noon.
• If you have kids, do the Kids' Zone early. Small children and a crowded afternoon don't always mix.
• Shrimp-peeling contest. It's on the program. Check the schedule on the official site for the time if you want to watch or enter.

Parking and getting around

Tybee parking is paid in general. The City runs it through the Park TYB app, and the rules and rates are on the City's beach rules and parking page. Read the City page before you drive out, and download the app ahead of time so you aren't doing it on your phone at a meter with a line behind you.

The practical argument for staying on the island is that it takes the question off the table for the stretch of the weekend that matters. If you're sleeping at a hotel with parking on site, you park once on arrival and don't have to think about it again. At Admiral's Inn that's free on-site parking, one car per room. If you're coming from Savannah for the day instead, you're making the drive on US-80 and finding a paid spot, and you're doing it on a day that's likely to be busier than a normal November Saturday. On Friday night, with a roast ticket in your pocket, you're also the one deciding who drives home.

Where to stay

We're at 1501 Butler Avenue, mid-island. For the Saturday festival that makes us a base, not a front-row seat: you'll be heading to the pier and pavilion, not looking out at it. No room here has an ocean view or a balcony. What the rooms are: newly renovated, quiet, and set up for coming back to after a day out. Have a look at the rooms.

What we offer that suits a festival weekend:

• Free on-site parking, one car per room. See above.
• A heated saltwater pool. It's heated through the cooler months, which matters in November. After a day outside, a swim and a sit by the pool is a good use of the gap between lunch and the evening. The pergola next to it is where we'd take a coffee.
• A quiet place to land. Festival days are loud by design. A small inn is a useful counterweight.
• Stay-longer savings. Two nights gets you 10% off the nightly rate, and three nights or more gets you 15%. Since the festival is a week long and the main day is a Saturday, a Friday-to-Sunday stay lets you take in the Friday roast and the Saturday festival. The details are on the special offers page.

A note on age policy, because families do ask. The guest who books and checks in must be 21 or older, and anyone younger is welcome to stay as long as a guest 21 or older is in the room with them. With a Kids' Zone on the Saturday program, plenty of families will be in town, and that's fine with us.

Tybee has other places to stay, and for an event weekend the sensible move is to settle lodging early, wherever you land. It's the piece of a trip people most often leave until last.

What else to do that weekend

A festival day is rarely the whole trip. Some ways to fill the rest of it.

If you want the standalone version of a Tybee seafood meal, our write-up of The Crab Shack at Chimney Creek covers a place that's a short drive off US-80 and walk-in only. It's a good fit for the Sunday or the Friday before the roast, when you want a Lowcountry boil without a ticket.

For the rest of the month and the wider island, our Tybee Island in October 2026 roundup is the starting point for the weeks leading up to the festival. And the dining page lists the places we send guests to, for the meals that fall outside the festival schedule.

Beyond food, the usual island things are all still there in November: a walk out on the pier, the beach (dogs are not allowed on Tybee beaches at any time of year, so leave them off the beach plan), and a drive into Savannah, roughly half an hour away, if the weekend runs long.

Planning notes

Book ahead, because the week is a draw and the Saturday will pull in both overnight guests and day-trippers.

Check the official site twice: once when you book, and once the week before. The lineup, vendor list and admission details are the things most likely to change or appear late.

Buy Friday's roast ticket separately if you want it. It isn't part of the Saturday festival.

Download Park TYB before you arrive.

If you'd like to spend a few nights around the festival, take a look at our special offers or see the rooms and check dates.