Most Miramar Beach residents know about the Sandestin Wine Festival. Fewer know about the South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival. Almost nobody realizes the two run back-to-back, with less than a mile separating the venues, producing a ten-day food and wine corridor that begins April 16 and doesn't close until April 26. No other Emerald Coast address can do that.
That back-to-back is the spine of a spring calendar that is denser than any recent year — and it arrives while Grand Boulevard is adding its most significant batch of new tenants since the pandemic. Three permanent openings are on the way. Two major festivals land within the same week and a half. And from early March through late May, Baytowne Wharf runs a free event on almost every weekend. If you live here and have been treating spring as a quiet stretch before summer crowds, 2026 is the year to revise that.
What's Coming to Grand Boulevard Before Summer
The first new address is already open, or close to it. Perla Baking Co. — already a known quantity in DeFuniak Springs — opened an early-2026 location at Grand Boulevard, bringing buttery croissants and properly brewed coffee to an open-air center that, until now, asked you to settle for a chain. Warby Parker is scheduled to arrive in spring 2026, a meaningful addition for a stretch of retail that skews toward apparel and home goods and has lacked an eyewear destination.
The third arrival is the most anticipated and the furthest out. Spell Restaurant Group — whose flagship Shades Bar & Grill in Inlet Beach just celebrated its 30th anniversary and made Yelp's 2025 list of the Top 100 Family Friendly Restaurants in the U.S. — is opening a second Shades at the western entrance to Grand Boulevard. The 4,800-square-foot space at 8670 US Highway 98 is slated for late summer 2026, designed with 34 draft beers and 28 screens alongside a chef-driven menu. The group operates ten restaurants across Florida and Tennessee. Grand Boulevard gets one of their most recognized concepts.
Three openings in a single calendar year is not routine for a lifestyle center that has spent the past few years turning over single tenants at a slow pace. It changes the Saturday errand run.
March: Baytowne Wharf Wakes Up
While Grand Boulevard's new tenants are still finishing out their spaces, Baytowne Wharf is already moving. The Wednesday Night Concert Series runs every Wednesday from March 4 through March 25, 7 to 9 p.m., free, on the Events Plaza Stage. Lawn chairs and blankets are the standard kit. The programming pulls from local and regional talent across genres — the kind of bill that rewards showing up without a set expectation.
On Saturday, March 7, the annual Motors in March auto show takes the village streets from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with everything from classic muscle cars to imports lined through the walkways. It runs alongside the concert series, which means a Saturday that covers both if you time it right.
The Village Door, which holds the distinction of being voted best place to dance on the Emerald Coast, kicks into spring break programming beginning March 6 — nightly, with DJs and drink specials. If you live in the resort and have out-of-town guests arriving in March, Marina Bar & Grill at Baytowne Marina gives you the casual bay-view lunch, and Ovide at Hotel Effie handles the elevated dinner. The infrastructure for a full weekend is already here before the marquee events start.
Ten Days in April That Miramar Beach Owns
Here is the sequence: the 39th Annual Sandestin Wine Festival runs April 16 through 19 at the Village of Baytowne Wharf. It has been called the "Kentucky Derby of Wine Festivals" — the phrase is borrowed from the event's own description but the logic holds, given that it has run continuously for 39 years and consistently tops area polls as the must-experience event of the season. The Grand Wine Tastings on April 17 and 18 feature more than 500 domestic and international wines, with vineyard owners and winemakers on the floor alongside gourmet bites from Emerald Coast chefs. Wine dinners, yoga, and live music fill the surrounding days.
Five days later, the South Walton Beaches Wine & Food Festival opens at Grand Boulevard, running April 23 through 26. The Thursday Winemakers & Shakers event kicks things off at 5 p.m. at Wine World in Destin; the Grand Boulevard action begins Friday April 24 with the Kick-Off VIP Wine Tasting (4 to 6 p.m.) and Bitters, Brews & Bartenders (5:30 to 8 p.m.). More than 600 world-class wines are poured across the four-day run.
Two festivals, two venues, one zip code, a combined eight days of programming — and between them, a gap of only four days. That is the ten-day corridor. A resident who attends both events without planning stays inside the neighborhood for the entire stretch. Visitors attending one typically don't know about the other, which is their loss and the local's advantage.
May Before the Crowds Move In
The spring calendar finishes with the Tequila & Taco Fest at Baytowne Wharf on Saturday, May 16, 1 to 4 p.m. at the scenic waterfront. It is a ticketed event, which means it stays manageable in a way the open-air festivals do not always manage.
By late May, the Baytowne Wharf summer programming is in full rotation — Tuesday and Sunday evening shows at the Village, Monday and Thursday afternoon events at the Beach House Pool Deck — and the Sandestin resort tram is running its full seasonal schedule. The spring window that residents own, before that machine spins up, closes around Memorial Day weekend.
Three new tenants at Grand Boulevard. Two back-to-back wine festivals in the third week of April. A free concert series through the end of March. If the question is whether spring in Miramar Beach is worth staying for in 2026, the calendar has already answered it.
If you are thinking about buying or selling in Miramar Beach and want an honest read on how this neighborhood performs — not just in peak summer, but across the full calendar — the Justin Myers Team is based here and knows this market at every price point. Reach out when you are ready to talk.
