Grant Seafood Festival — Local services in Grant-Valkaria

Low rating for the Extremally Poor Planning this festival has in getting people into their fair grounds. At least they have added shuttle service from Valkaria airport... BUT the shuttles have to go on the same roads and wait in traffic jams for up to an hour or more to get to the festival grounds. That may be 3 hours of just waiting for a shuttle and then transportation in traffic jams both coming and going. Did not get in to try the food out as the traffic was horrendous!!! Suggest fully stopping the ad-hoc parking without reserving a spot in advance AND bringing the shuttles into the festival grounds either a special route of waving then thru to make parking at the airport or other facilities much easier to get to/from this festival. Until this is done, the other area festivals like the Cocoa Village Craft Festival on at the same time as this one, is much more enjoyable all the way...

Just getting to the parking area took well over 30 minutes, and we saw only 1 handicapped parking space. Parking in sandy grass was an issue for my nephew's mobility scooter. Seafood offerings were varied, pretty good, and tasty. Food and beverage vendors will only accept tickets - no cash. There were plenty of booths to buy tickets, but we had to walk around to the various vendors first just to figure out how many tickets to buy; and what was served with the seafood. In most cases the price of seafood did NOT include any sides. Sides ans beverages were a separate cost. Beverages had to be picked up at a different booth. There were lots of high tables where you could stand and eat. There was a stage with a band playing. Bring a chair to sit and enjoy them. Booths with craft vendors were available too. The parking was so awful that I probably would not return even though the seafood we tried...

Great seafood, price is a bit high but taste is very good. Fried shrimp is delicious, at about $1 per shrimp. Lobster roll is not what it sounds like, it's a slice of bread with lobster (and it seemed like it was mixed in with imitation crab) in somewhat of a salad. It actually tasted good. Roasted corn on the cobb with butter was ok, the corn was more like a steamed corn, the very top looks roasted but there was no actual roasted corn. Still it was ok. Lobster bisque was nice and buttery, I thought it was good. Music was ok, a few people here and there dancing, lots of people drinking and overall it seemed like a great family outing with good food. Parking was free and lots of parking available, no need to park...