Things to do / Travel Guide
Events of all types, including ones that get national attention, occur throughout the year in South Florida.
January
The national college football FedEx Orange Bowl is held every New Year's Day at Pro Player Stadium in Miami.
Art Deco Weekend in Miami Beach is a weekend-long street party celebrating the Art Deco District. Tours of the famous buildings and plenty of music and dancing are available.
February
The Coconut Grove Arts Festival is a very large gathering of artists and their works, mostly of contemporary style, in the Coconut Grove section of Miami.
The Miami International Film Festival screens a large variety of films, domestic and foreign, over a 10-day period in Miami. This festival is attended by tens of thousands of visitors as well as hundreds of people from the film industry.
March
The Sanibel Shell Fair, a week-long event for sea shell collectors and artists is held at Sanibel Island on the Southwest Gulf Coast each March.
Carnival Miami, an event lasting more than a week, is essentially a gigantic street party with a Latin American emphasis. The event, very popular with the local Cuban community, has its main venue within the Little Havana section of Miami.
April
The Conch Republic Celebration is held in the Conch Republic (a.k.a., Key West) each April. Many of Key West's typically laid-back residents fancy their island home as a separate country. This week-long event features parades, music, and - oh yes - bed races.
June
The Goombay Festival is a weekend-long celebration of Bahamian and Caribbean culture. Each June the festival is held in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, featuring lots of food and music.
July
The America Birthday Bash is of course held on July 4th to celebrate Independence Day. The bash consists of many family-oriented events and activities, and is naturally capped off with a large nighttime fireworks show. This event is very popular with the patriotic local Cuban community.
The Hemingway Days Festival is a week-long event celebrating Key West's most famous resident celebrity, the author Ernest Hemingway. Interestingly, the festival includes a unique and amusing look-alike contest.
October
The Fort Lauderdale Boat Show is a multi-day event featuring one of the world's largest in-water exhibitions of pleasure craft.
At the end of October is Fantasy Fest, a week-long, wild Halloween festival held in Key West, featuring, among other things, a lively parade.
December
The Winterfest Boat Parade is a unique nighttime procession of decoratively-lit boats along the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) in Fort Lauderdale.
The King Orange Jamboree Parade held every December 31st in Miami, is one of the largest parades in the country and is nationally covered by media outlets.
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