How many seafood festivals did John's Pass hold in 2025? The answer is two, and that tells you most of what you need to know about the past two years in Madeira Beach.
The 2024 festival was postponed after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The City of Madeira Beach moved that edition, billed as the 43rd annual, to March 28–30, 2025. Seven months later the festival was back in its usual late-October slot, with dates of October 24–26, 2025. Reporting on that October weekend, FOX 13 described more than 100 vendors and five music stages. It also said city officials put the share of reopened John's Pass businesses at 98 percent.
This year's festival, the 45th, runs October 23–25, 2026. That makes it the second October edition in a row, so the calendar is back where it was before the storms. The next changes at John's Pass are aimed at the ground the festival stands on. The city has approved a hotel for the parking areas beside the Village. It is also preparing a grant application to repair the boardwalk, which was built in the 1970s. The festival happens to show both clearly, because for three days the parking runs differently and the boardwalk carries the crowd.
A Festival Weekend That Already Runs on Shuttles
The basics come from the city's event page. There is no entry fee. The city lists seafood vendors, arts and crafts, beer and beverage stations, and live music on two stages. The Halloween events are back too, with trick-or-treating for kids on Friday night and a costume contest and block party on Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. The contest pays cash prizes.
| Friday, Oct. 23 | Saturday, Oct. 24 | Sunday, Oct. 25 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Festival hours | Noon to 9 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. |
| Halloween event | Kids' trick-or-treating | Costume contest and block party, 6 to 9 p.m. | None listed |
| City Hall shuttle | Running | Running | Running |
| School shuttle stop | Not listed | Running | Running |
Parking is the detail that connects this weekend to the years ahead. According to the city, the Village lot closes during the festival and is used only as the shuttle drop-off point. The City Hall shuttle runs all three days, and the school stop adds service on Saturday and Sunday. The festival's Eventeny page names the free parking and shuttle sites as City Hall, the Recreation Center and Fundamental School. It lists city lots at $4 an hour and says private lots charge their posted rates.
The Eventeny schedule lists acts on three named stages, while the city page says two. Either way, the lineup is long.
- Friday: Mia Marlene, Carlos and Joe, Miguel Lantigua, King Pin, Sticks and Stones, Spy vs Spy, Matt Knabe Band, and Homegrown: The Zac Brown Band Tribute Experience
- Saturday: Danny Bub Combo, Najibo Music, Urban Gypsies, Shawn Brown, Saltwater Crush, John Frenzi, and The Higher Standards
- Sunday: Sarasota Slim, Motel Funk, Alex Whalen, Mixed Signal, Swipe Right, Uptown Funk, and Joey Young
The Parking Areas Now Have a Hotel Approved on Them
The Village lot closes to cars for three days, and the land around it is now approved for a building. On July 8, 2026, the Madeira Beach City Commission voted 4-0 to approve a six-floor, $150 million hotel. WFLA reported that the project, from JPV Hotel Property LLC, will have nearly 100 rooms, a rooftop pool and bar, a restaurant, a cafe and event space. It will be built on top of existing parking areas and will overlook the Intracoastal Waterway. The Gabber places the site at Boardwalk Place East and 129th Avenue East. The developers are aiming to break ground by the end of 2026 and finish in 2028.
Those dates matter for the festival calendar. If the groundbreaking stays on schedule, this month's festival is the last one held before construction begins next to the Village. The 2027 and 2028 festivals would take place while the hotel is going up. The approval sets the timeline, but the published sources don't yet say how festival-day parking and shuttle routes would change during construction.
The Boardwalk Has Been Over the Water Since the 1970s
The second project concerns the boardwalk where the festival crowd walks between seafood vendors and the stages. In late September the city said it was asking for public comment on John's Pass Boardwalk resiliency improvements. The boardwalk was built in the 1970s and rests on about 192 pilings that have sat in salt water for decades. The proposed work includes:
- Wrapping the pilings that are still unprotected to slow damage from salt water.
- Repairing or replacing damaged or missing cross bracing and hardware.
- Replacing the existing electric lights with solar-powered lighting built to hold up better in storms and wet conditions.
- Repairing handrails that have come loose or separated.
- Making other repairs identified in city inspections and engineering reviews.
The money would come from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program. The city plans to request up to $200,000 in the FY 2027–2028 cycle, and applications are due October 15, 2026. The program requires public participation, so comments from residents and business owners at an early-October meeting at Madeira Beach City Hall, 300 Municipal Drive, will go into the application. Paradise News summarized the plan the same way in its October roundup.
At this point the project is an application. The grant has not been awarded. The city's filing deadline falls eight days before the festival opens, so the crowd on the boardwalk on October 23 will be walking on a structure whose repair funding has been requested but not yet decided.
After Dark on Festival Friday
Most of the businesses that will line the festival are familiar names. In January 2025, The Gabber published a list of Madeira Beach businesses open after the storms. Its John's Pass entries included Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Kilwins, Friendly Fisherman, Hubbard's Marina, Mad Beach Cantina, Daiquiri Shak, DeLosa's Pizza, Bamboo Beach Bar & Grill, Lori's Soap & Sponge Market, Smugglers Cove Adventure Golf and Rick's Custom Rods.
The newest addition is a Friday-night option that fits the Halloween weekend. On June 27, 2026, Hubbard's Marina started Pirate Ghost Tours, a one-hour guided walk at night along the waterfront. The tour covers Gulf Coast pirate lore, shipwrecks and local legends tied to John's Pass. Tours run Fridays and Saturdays at 9 p.m., right after Hubbard's Sunset Pirate Cruise. Tickets are $24.95 per person, the tour is designed for ages 13 and up, and group sizes are limited, so reservations are recommended. The tours leave from 140 Boardwalk Place.
On festival Friday, the 9 p.m. tour starts the same hour the festival closes. On Saturday it overlaps the final stretch of the costume contest. Families with younger children could go to Friday's trick-or-treating, and older teens could take the ghost tour afterward, without moving the car. That helps on a weekend when the Village lot is used only for shuttle drop-off.
The Dates That Bracket the Festival
The festival weekend falls between the next steps for both projects. The boardwalk grant application goes to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection by October 15, eight days before the festival opens. After the festival closes on October 25, the hotel developers plan to break ground by the end of 2026, with completion targeted for 2028.
Plans like the John's Pass hotel and the boardwalk repairs shape daily life and long-term value in the beach towns, and I follow them closely for the clients I serve along the Gulf. If you'd like to talk about what these projects could mean for your property in Madeira Beach or nearby, Julie Kelsey is happy to walk through it with you. Let's Connect.
