Traffic alert: How to get in and around the Coconut Grove Arts Festival
Thousands of people will pour into Coconut Grove this weekend to check out the work of more than 280 artists.
That will mean extra traffic and some detours on a holiday weekend when the Miami International Boat Show is also packing the town.
The 62nd Coconut Grove Arts Festival runs on Presidents Day Weekend from Saturday, Feb. 14, through the Monday holiday.
The festival, unwittingly created by press agent Charlie Cinnamon as a PR stunt to draw people to a performance of the French musical “Irma La Douce” inside the former Coconut Grove Playhouse in October 1963, runs along McFarlane Road, South Bayshore Drive and Pan American Drive.
Cinnamon, who died in 2016, told the Miami Herald for the festival’s 50th anniversary in 2013 that “it was tough to get people to cross the causeway or from wherever to come to the Grove Playhouse. As a press agent looking for some sort of gimmick, since the show was set in Paris, let’s do a Left Bank Art Show.”
He figured since the Grove was an arts colony in the 1960s, and also a lure to fledgling folk-oriented musicians like David Crosby, Joni Mitchell and her former husband Chuck Mitchell, Jerry Jeff Walker and his pal who would soon brand Key West as a barefoot paradise, Jimmy Buffett, his little arts fair might capture attention.
“People started to come,” Cinnamon said inside his Lincoln Road office of his PR stunt.
The arts festival returned the next year with a new name, the one it has carried for generations since.
Here’s how the arts festival will affect Grove traffic and some details for those going to this year’s event:
Festival hours
The 2026 Grove Arts Festival runs 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. And 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Presidents Day, Monday.
One-day general admission tickets are $29 for ages 13 and up. No charge for 12 and younger.
No-car zones
Streets generally begin closing at 11:55 p.m. Thursday to allow for artists to set up their booths around noon Friday. The streets will stay closed through 11:55 p.m. Monday.
No cars will be allowed on these closed streets:
- The right lane on Grand Avenue and a fully closed McFarlane Road.
- Southwest 27th Avenue and Tigertail Avenue.
- Left lane closure on Aviation Avenue and fully closed Bayshore Drive up to McFarlane Road.
- South Bayshore Drive from Aviation Avenue to McFarlane Road and from McFarlane to Grand Avenue during the festival.
Driving tips
Traffic is heavy on southbound I-95 at Exit 1A and the Rickenbacker Causeway. If you’re opting for that route follow U.S. 1 to 27th Avenue, festival organizers suggest. They recommend taking westbound State Road 836 and then 27th Avenue south to the festival.
Alternate routes to get to the festival include 22nd or 32nd avenues from South Dixie Highway.
Parking
You can park at the Regatta Harbour garage at 3351 Pan American Dr.; Mayfair Parking Lot at 2801 Florida Ave.; Cocowalk Parking Garage, 3015 Grand Ave.; and Municipal Lot 6, near the Coconut Grove Playhouse at 3498 Main Highway. There is on-street parking and other lots, too.
Fair organizers suggest taking Metrorail to the Coconut Grove station.
Or take Lyft or Uber and punch in “Coconut Grove Arts Festival” as your destination, fest organizers say.
This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 6:46 AM.
