St. George, South Carolina Sunday, October 25, 2026 Complimentary

County Line Confidential

Dispatches from Dorchester County, South Carolina. Filed weekly. Not all of it true. None of it made up.

World Grits Festival 2027: dates, schedule, and what to expect

The World Grits Festival 2027 is set for Friday, April 9 through Sunday, April 11, 2027, in downtown St. George, South Carolina, at 110 South Parler Avenue. The festival committee has already posted those dates and confirmed that the Rollin’ in the Grits contest is back for 2027. The festival falls on the second full weekend of April every year. The 2026 festival ran April 10–12, the 2024 festival April 11–13, and the pattern has held since the 1980s.

Admission to the festival grounds is free, according to the Post and Courier. You pay for carnival rides, food, and whatever you carry out of the festival store.

When is the World Grits Festival?

Second weekend of April. That is the rule, and the committee has not broken it in the years I have checked. The festival opens Friday at noon, runs Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and winds down Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. If you are reading this before the committee has posted a schedule for the year you care about, use the 2026 schedule below as your guide. It changes very little from one year to the next.

2026 schedule, as a reference

This is the schedule the festival published for April 10–12, 2026. Expect 2027 to look nearly the same.

Friday – Noon to 9 p.m.: carnival – Noon: festival store opens – Noon to 8 p.m.: arts and crafts – 7 to 9 p.m.: live music

Saturday – 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.: carnival and festival store – 11 a.m.: Grits Festival Parade down Parler Avenue – 1 p.m.: Rollin’ in the Grits – 2 p.m.: dance performance – 3 p.m.: hula hoop contest – 3:30 p.m.: grits eating contest – 4 p.m.: wheelbarrow race – 4:30 p.m.: corn toss contest – 7 to 9 p.m.: bluegrass and country music

Sunday – Noon to 4 p.m.: carnival and festival store – 3 to 4 p.m.: religious music

Food and civic booths run all three days. Pets are not allowed inside the festival area.

Does Rollin’ in the Grits still happen?

Yes. The contest went on hold during the pandemic years and the festival itself was not held in 2020 or 2021, but the Post and Courier reported the contest’s return in 2024, local television covered it in 2026, and the committee lists it as back for 2027. The rules are simple. A contestant in a T-shirt and shorts climbs into an inflatable pool of instant grits and water. They are weighed before and after. Whoever carries out the most grits on their body wins. The 2012 festival ran separate heats for children ages 6 to 14 and adults 15 and up.

The grits eating contest follows at 3:30 Saturday. The festival does not currently list a Grits Queen pageant or a 5K on its schedule. A 5K ran in earlier years. The 2012 festival advertised its tenth annual 5K at 9 a.m. Saturday. If you are a runner, check the committee’s site before you lace up.

What does it cost, and where do you park?

Admission is free. Carnival rides, food, crafts, and the festival store are pay as you go. The festival has not published a parking map. Downtown St. George is small and the grid of streets around Parler Avenue fills with parked cars on Saturday morning before the parade. Arrive early, park on a side street, and walk. The parade route runs along Parler, so do not count on crossing it between 11 a.m. and noon.

How to get to St. George

St. George is the Dorchester County seat, population about 1,800, and it sits near the point where I-95 and I-26 cross. The festival committee gives these directions.

From I-95, northbound or southbound, take exit 77 for US 78 and St. George. At the bottom of the ramp turn left onto US 78 East. After about two miles turn right onto US 15 South, which becomes Parler Avenue. Two blocks later you cross the railroad tracks and you are there.

From I-26, coming from Charleston or Columbia, take exit 172 onto US 15 South toward St. George. Drive about eight miles. Cross the railroad tracks.

From downtown Charleston the drive is roughly an hour. From Columbia it is a little longer. Do not expect fuel or lodging downtown. The motels and travel plazas are back at the interstate, and I have a separate page on what is at exit 77.

Where the festival came from

The first World Grits Festival was held in 1986. Town leaders in the mid-1980s wanted an annual event, and a local grocer named John Walters learned through his Quaker Oats contacts that upper Dorchester County bought more grits per person than any other place the company shipped to. The town took the claim and ran with it. The Post and Courier notes the claim is hard to prove. Nobody in St. George has felt the need to prove it.

The festival runs on volunteers and sponsors, and the money it clears goes to community projects and scholarships for area students. Attendance figures vary by who you ask. Wikipedia says close to 10,000. A 2012 news report said more than 40,000 over the weekend. The parade is judged, the grits are judged, and the judging is taken seriously. One of the dispatches, The Grits Judge, is about that. The county map at /map/ marks the festival grounds, and the county history page explains why a railroad town ended up eating this much corn.

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