Virginia Beach Events & Festivals
The annual events that anchor Virginia Beach's calendar — from the Neptune Festival on the Oceanfront to the Pungo Strawberry Festival — with dates verified before they're published.
Neptune Festival Boardwalk Weekend
September 25, 2026 – September 27, 2026 · annual
Virginia Beach's signature festival closes out September with its 52nd Boardwalk Weekend, spreading across the Oceanfront between 1st and 35th Streets. The headline draw is Neptune's International Sandsculpting Championship — 22 large-scale works by sculptors from around the world — alongside an art and craft show with more than 200 artisans, twenty-plus musical acts across festival stages, the Grand Parade, Neptune's 8K, and a surfing competition at the jetty. Most of it is free to attend, and it reliably fills the resort area for one last big weekend of the season.
Coastal Edge East Coast Surfing Championships
August 23, 2026 – August 30, 2026 · annual
The world's oldest continuously running surfing competition returns for its 64th year, turning the south end of the Oceanfront — from the 1st Street Jetty up to 10th Street — into a week-long surf carnival. More than 850 competitors surf pro and amateur divisions, including a WSL qualifying event, while the beach fills out with skate and BMX demos, live music, and tournament games. It's the anchor event of late summer at the beach and the best week of the year to watch serious surfing at the 1st Street break.
Virginia MOCA Boardwalk Art Show
October 9, 2026 – October 11, 2026 · annual
One of the longest-running outdoor art shows on the East Coast marks its 70th year along the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. Produced by the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the juried show brings artists from across the country to sell painting, sculpture, photography, glass, and fine craft directly to visitors with the Atlantic as the backdrop. Hours run 10am–6pm Friday, 10am–5pm Saturday, and 10am–4pm Sunday, and October's thinner crowds make it an easy, walkable browse.
Neptune's Fall Wine Festival
September 11, 2026 – September 12, 2026 · annual
The Neptune Festival's 29th annual wine weekend pours more than 60 wines from Virginia's premier wineries at 31st Street Park, right beside the King Neptune statue. Admission includes a commemorative glass and unlimited tastings, with live music and local food trucks on site. Hours are 4–8pm Friday and noon–5pm Saturday, and the event is strictly 21-and-over — no children, including in strollers or carriers.
Neptune's Coastal Craft Beer Festival
August 15, 2026 · annual
The Neptune Festival's 11th annual beer afternoon takes over 31st Street Park with more than 60 beers from around 30 breweries, heavy on the coastal Virginia scene. Two bands play through the 3–8pm session and local food trucks handle the eating. It's a compact, single-day festival — an easy add-on to a mid-August beach day, a block off the boardwalk at Neptune's Park.
BayPort Holiday Lights at the Beach
November 20, 2026 – December 31, 2026 · annual
Virginia Beach's holiday tradition turns the boardwalk itself into a drive-through light show: cars enter at 2nd Street and roll north to 33rd along the oceanfront, passing a Surfing Santa, military-tribute displays, a 40-foot dancing-light Christmas tree, and a curved LED light tunnel billed as the world's largest. Nightly showtimes run at 5:30, 7:30, and 9pm from November 20 through New Year's Eve. Tickets are per-vehicle and date-specific — advance purchase is strongly encouraged, and drive-up sales carry a $10 surcharge.
BayPort Holiday Parade at the Beach
December 5, 2026 · annual
The city's free oceanfront holiday parade rolls through the resort area on the first Saturday of December, part of the Beach Events winter lineup alongside the drive-through Holiday Lights show. Floats, marching bands, and holiday characters take over the beachfront for an evening — bundle up, since December at the beach means real wind off the water. It pairs naturally with a lap through Holiday Lights at the Beach the same night.
Virginia Beach Funk Fest Beach Party
August 28, 2026 – August 29, 2026 · annual
A free two-day beach party on the Oceanfront closing out August with funk, R&B, and soul acts on the sand. Part of the official Beach Events season, Funk Fest draws a big, dance-heavy crowd to the resort beach for one of the last major music weekends before Labor Day — no ticket needed, just claim a patch of sand.
Yuengling Shamrock Marathon Weekend
March 20, 2027 – March 21, 2027 · annual
A St. Patrick's-season running tradition since 1973 and the oldest continually run road race in Virginia Beach, Shamrock Weekend brings tens of thousands of runners to the Oceanfront each March. The 8K and half marathon lead off Saturday with the full marathon on Sunday morning, all on a famously flat, fast course that finishes on the boardwalk overlooking the Atlantic — followed by the traditional beach party with live music. Hotels in the resort area book up early for this one.
North American Sand Soccer Championships
June 11, 2027 – June 13, 2027 · annual
One of the biggest beach soccer tournaments in the country packs the Virginia Beach Oceanfront each June, with fields built directly on the resort beach and divisions running from youth teams up to elite professional beach soccer. Organized by the Hampton Roads Soccer Council, the championships turn blocks of sand into a continuous wall of matches for three days — free to watch from the boardwalk, and one of the busiest non-holiday weekends of the beach year.
Patriotic Festival
May 28, 2027 – May 30, 2027 · annual
The Memorial Day weekend country-music-and-military celebration returns to the Virginia Beach Oceanfront in 2027 after several years in downtown Norfolk. Bailey Zimmerman, Ella Langley, and Riley Green headline the three concert nights on the sand, while free military and corporate displays run along the boardwalk during the day. Born at the beach and rooted in Hampton Roads' huge military community, it's the region's signature salute-the-troops weekend.
First Friday ViBe
August 7, 2026 – October 2, 2026 · monthly (first Fridays, May–October)
On the first Friday of each month from May through October, the ViBe Creative District opens up from 6 to 10pm with local artist pop-ups, live music, open mic sets, and DJs — a chance to meet the makers and muralists who give the district its character. It's the ViBe at its most ViBe: deliberately local, a few blocks inland from the boardwalk crowds. Park in the ViBe lot on 18th Street or at the Oceanfront Library; the season's remaining 2026 dates run through early October.
Old Beach Farmers Market
July 11, 2026 – October 31, 2026 · weekly (Saturdays 9am–noon April–October; 1st & 3rd Saturdays November–March)
The ViBe District's Saturday-morning market runs every week from April through October, 9am to noon at 611 18th Street, with local produce, seafood, baked goods, and Virginia wines from area farms and makers. When the regular season ends in late October it doesn't disappear — a winter schedule continues on the first and third Saturdays through March. Parking is easiest in the Runnymede lots on Cypress Avenue or the convention center lot.
Virginia Beach Restaurant Week
January 15, 2027 – January 24, 2027 · annual
The Virginia Beach Restaurant Association's flagship dining event fills each January with prix-fixe menus at roughly five dozen restaurants citywide, from Laskin Road institutions to Oceanfront hotel dining rooms. The 2026 edition ran the theme 'Tastes & Traditions, A Culinary Celebration by Land and by Sea,' spotlighting Chesapeake staples like crab, oysters, ham, and peanuts alongside modern reinterpretations. A companion Dine & Stay program bundles discounted rates at more than a dozen partner hotels, making it as much a slow-season visitor draw as a locals' night out. The VBRA runs the event out of its Laskin Road office in Hilltop, the city's densest cluster of independent kitchens.
Lynnhaven River NOW Oyster Roast
May 1, 2027 · annual (first Saturday in May)
Lynnhaven River NOW's signature fundraiser turns the waterfront lawn at the Brock Environmental Center into an all-you-can-eat oyster roast, marking the nonprofit's multi-decade push to bring the Lynnhaven's namesake oyster back from near-collapse. Roasted and raw oysters pulled from the restoration reefs anchor the spread, backed by barbecue, local beer and spirits, live music, and a shucking contest, with proceeds funding the group's oyster-reef and water-quality restoration work. It's a rare chance to eat Lynnhaven oysters within sight of the reefs that grew them, at a bayfront green building a few minutes off Shore Drive.
Mount Trashmore July 4th Celebration
July 4, 2027 · annual
Virginia Beach's inland Independence Day tradition fills Mount Trashmore Park -- the converted landfill hill that gives the park its name -- with live music, food trucks, and family activities before a fireworks show over the lake at 9:30pm. It's the free, low-key alternative to the Oceanfront's Stars & Stripes Celebration the same night, drawing families from the Kempsville and Town Center side of the city who'd rather skip beach traffic. Free admission and free parking, with the park's grassy hill doubling as a natural amphitheater for the fireworks.
Autumn in the Air
November 7, 2026 · annual
A newer addition to the city's Parks & Recreation calendar, this single-day fall festival takes over Mount Trashmore Park with folk, americana, and rock bands on an outdoor stage, food and drink for purchase, and activities scattered across the lakefront lawn. Now in its third year, it's grown into the city's answer to a proper autumn street festival without the Oceanfront crowds -- bring a lawn chair or blanket, since tents and large coolers aren't allowed in the event area. Free admission and parking make it an easy afternoon add for anyone already in Kempsville.
Sandbridge Pig Pickin'
September 12, 2026 · annual
The Sandbridge Volunteer Rescue Squad's all-you-can-eat pig roast at Little Island Park has been the neighborhood's signature fundraiser for more than four decades, paying for the advanced life-saving equipment behind the squad's 1,000-plus annual emergency calls. Barbecue, beer and wine, live music, local art vendors, and a bounce house for kids fill the park for an afternoon, with free admission for children under 10. It's Sandbridge at its most neighborly -- a beach-community fundraiser rather than a tourist draw, held at the same park that anchors the south end of the beach.
American Music Festival
September 4, 2026 – September 6, 2026 · annual
Beach Events' Labor Day weekend concert series bills itself as the largest outdoor music festival on the East Coast, spreading national, regional, and local acts across a 60-foot stage at 5th Street plus free park stages at 17th, 24th, and 31st Streets along the boardwalk. Past headliners have included Sheryl Crow, the Doobie Brothers, ZZ Top, and Zac Brown Band, with tickets sold per show, as a three-day Passport Pin, or as VIP packages, while the park stages stay free. It's the Oceanfront's last big blowout of the summer season, timed to send visitors off before the crowds thin out after Labor Day.
Cherry Blossom Festival
March 26, 2027 – March 28, 2027 · annual
Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation's spring showcase fills Red Wing Park's cherry tree grove with live cultural performances, martial arts demonstrations, and hands-on crafts timed to peak bloom in late March. The 2026 edition added a first-ever Nighttime Hanami, lighting the blossoms after dark on opening evening before the daytime festival took over the weekend. Admission and parking are free, with an overflow grass field opening for weekend crowds -- a genuinely photogenic, low-key alternative to the Oceanfront festival circuit, along General Booth Boulevard.
Town Center Summer Fest Music Series
May 22, 2026 – September 7, 2026 · seasonal (nightly concerts, late May-early September)
The Central Business District Association's free concert series takes over Town Center's Fountain Plaza most nights from late May through early September, with cover bands, tribute acts, and local musicians playing against the backdrop of the plaza's high-rises. Restaurants ringing the plaza put out sidewalk seating within earshot of the stage, turning a weeknight downtown into an impromptu outdoor show. It's the closest thing Virginia Beach's inland downtown has to the Oceanfront's summer concert culture -- free, walkable, and parked in the Town Center garages rather than beach lots.