Welcome to our live coverage of the second Pinball at the Beach which is being held, as it was last year, at the TradeWinds Island Grand resort in St. Pete Beach, Florida.
Pinball at the Beach is a very different style of show, designed to be much more relaxed and enjoyable for everyone attending. Although there are many special guests from across the pinball world, there are no seminars and very few vendors. The emphasis is on socialising, playing the machines and hanging out in the resort with friends old and new. With that in mind, there are no single day tickets sold, only tickets for all three days which cost $199.
The event is organised by Little Shop of Games’ Marshall Dickson and Edward VanderVeen, formerly of the Texas Pinball Festival. They met at the FreePlay Florida show and conceived this unique type of pinball show, with the inaugural PatB taking place in February 2025.
We’ll be updating this report across all three days of the show to bring you a feel for the machines, the atmosphere and the many attractions of a Floridian beach location.
So, let’s start with the resort. The Island Grand is a large complex of hotel rooms, conference facilities and leisure spots. Within the grounds are numerous pools, miniature golf, tennis courts, a boating lake along several bars and catering outlets, all located on the beach.
You may notice the scarcity of people in the pictures above. While the sun is shining and the skies are blue, the heatwave experienced at last year’s event hasn’t yet come to Florida. So temperatures up until Friday have generally peaking at around 60F/16C. However, things are warming up as we head into the weekend, with 68F/20C expected on Saturday.
While the Island Grand resort is large, it has a sister property next door called RumFish Beach.
Island Grand and RumFish Beach together form the TradeWinds resort. Pinball at the Beach guests can stay at either resort hotel and use all the facilities of both.
Hotel rooms for Island Grand sold out soon after becoming available at the show rate, but RumFish Beach still had availability at the time of writing.
So, let’s move on to Pinball at the Beach itself.
The show opens to guests at 5pm on Friday, but we arrived at midday on Thursday to get a preview of the machines available and see how the show was being set up.
Thursday
Pinball at the Beach’s machines are housed in a large tent in the Island Grand complex, called The Pavilion.
By Thursday lunchtime there were quite a few machines already inside, but many more would be arriving later in the day and on Friday.
The first manufacturer to set up was Spooky Pinball. Their recent Beetlejuice machine was quickly sold out, but they also made a batch of games for shows such as this.
For Pinball at the Beach they brought twelve Beetlejuice machines, split into a row of eight with the Dante’s Inferno topper, and an island of four fitted with the Beetlesnake animatronic topper.
Elsewhere in the hall, the latest games from Jersey Jack Pinball and Barrels of Fun had arrived.
On the other side of The Pavilion, Stern Pinball machines were being set up.
While the machines are prepared, room dividers, drapes and electrical feeds were being installed.
As the sun started to set over the water, we left the team for the evening and returned Friday morning to check on their progress.
Friday
Although there was still plenty to do, the show hall was starting to take shape.
Although most attention has been on Beetlejuice, there is a row of previous Spooky Pinball titles set up as well.
Likewise, the full catalogue of Jersey Jack Pinball machines is set up along with multiple editions of Harry Potter.
Not to be outdone, all three Barrels of Fun titles are available too. Two of their newest Winchester Mystery House, two Dunes and a Labyrinth.
Although the doors don’t open until 5pm today, registration was available for guests in a building opposite the entrance to The Pavilion.
As opening time of 5pm came around, the queue to get in grew. Along them, three rather special vehicles arrived.
So, as 5pm approached, the first in line got excited to have the whole hall of games at their disposal.
Finally, 5pm came around and the show hall opened. Pinball at the Beach 2026 was officially open.
Although there were plenty of amazing games, many guests made their way to the back of The Pavillion for some Beetlejuice.
However, there was still a strong demand for show merchandise.
That’s it for now from Pinball at the Beach.
Pinball News will be back later with more now the show is officially open. It then runs through until midnight tonight, reopens at 10am on Saturday until midnight, and runs from 10am until 2pm on Sunday.
We’ll also bring you news of the Pinball at the Beach Tournament run by Colin MacAlpine and Phil Grimaldi which also begins at 5pm tonight.
So, check back for all the latest from St. Pete Beach and this second Pinball at the Beach.
