Art has always been the Grove’s favorite love language. With Valentine’s Day and the art festivals aligning, even Cupid is besotted. You’ll find him emptying his quiver into galleries, onto stages, beneath banyan trees, toward a piano bench or a darkened theater. There’ll be no escape, so dress the part and be ready to fall hard.
Two churches – St. Stephen’s and St. Hugh – feature music that may find couples dreaming of nuptials past or future, while the moon over the Barnacle might be equally inspirational. Theaters are reaching their peak season, with new shows starting in several venues. Just like Cupid, you can’t miss…
Grovites know exactly where they want to be on this super-busy weekend. Many will tell you “get out of town!” Others have equally strong convictions to stay and take advantage of the signature weekend, especially this year as Valentine’s Day adds its emotional weight. Here are some tips to help you and your guests navigate the art festivals.
- While the Coconut Grove Arts Festival dominates the vibe and advertising, be sure to explore the other fair at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
- Before arriving, check out the Spotlight’s coverage from earlier this week. That’s a great way to learn about the shows, the artists and their long histories.
- There are three entrances to the Coconut Grove Art Festival and locals tend to prefer entering through the 27th Avenue gate or the entrance nearest City Hall (Pan American Drive).
- Arriving early on Saturday and Sunday (gates open at 10:00 a.m.) can be pleasant while the air is cool and the crowds minimal. Sunday mid-day seems to have the most energy – a polite word for crowds.
- Many advise that Monday is the day to go, when crowds are usually smaller and discount tickets are available.
- The emerging artist booths attract many to meet and speak with the show’s new talent.
- Along McFarlane Road – outside the gates of the festival, you’ll find many booths of local Grove organizations. There, neighbors are eager to describe their activities and your opportunities. The Coconut Grove Sailing Club, the Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove and many others will welcome you. (If you’re a Sailing Club member, don’t forget to sign in and get a pass to reach your boat and the Club’s building.)
- Arrive by bike. Outside the McFarlane Road entrance, you’ll find a free bike valet service that will watch over your pedaled vehicle while you’re at the fests. Bike Coconut Grove organizes this service at the intersection with Grand Avenue. Cool kids volunteer to stay with your bicycle even during the hottest days. Free but the youngsters accept tips (hint, hint).
- St. Stephen’s Art & MakersFest has two entrances to their free event. The McFarlane Road entrance by the church is the most prominent. Less used is the entrance on Main Highway – across the street from Chug’s Diner and Fuller Street.
- The St. Stephen’s show is a comfortable labyrinth of artists and food stalls. The kettle corn booth in the far corner is a perennially popular destination. The school is exceptionally generous to share its restrooms with show visitors, and you’ll find that building’s entrance near the kettle corn.
- The Coconut Grove Branch Library will be closed all three days, but the libraries in Virrick Park and Shenandoah will welcome those seeking quiet relief from the crowds. On Saturday the Grove branch library will hold a special bubble-oriented storytime at CocoWalk for kids.
On Valentines Eve, the moon rises above the Bay, the lawn slopes gently between the oaks, you brought the wine, the cheese and the blankets. The Barnacle’s Moonlight Series delivers one of the two missing pieces in the music of indie folk writer Keith Johns. What’s the other missing piece, you ask? If you can’t figure that one out, go ask ChatGPT. Friend, what are you waiting for? 3485 Main Highway, Coconut Grove. Friday 2/13 from 6:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:00 p.m.; picnics welcome, no pets. Tickets from $10.
Valentine’s Day presents the eternal question before a word is spoken. As tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz and soprano Jeanette Donatti share a line, pause, or breath, their meaning moves faster than any word — when a look or a pause does more than a note or chord. Pianist Roberto Berrocal keeps the ground steady beneath it all. St. Hugh Steinway Concert Series at St. Hugh Catholic Church, 3460 Royal Road, Coconut Grove. Friday 2/13 at 8:00 p.m. Complimentary reception follows — if you’re not rushing home. Ticketed.
History sounds different when it’s told on the blocks where it happened. Neighborhood History Tours return with a walk through West Coconut Grove, tracing Bahamian roots, everyday life, and the long shadow of Old Smokey, with space to talk about how past decisions still echo in today’s redevelopment and environmental debates. The tour is led by a local organizer and former West Grove resident as part of Engage Miami’s neighborhood series. West Coconut Grove (meeting point shared after RSVP). Saturday, 2/14 at 11:00 a.m. Free with RSVP. Black History Month calendar here.
Love songs that flirt. Rachel Wresh returns for the fifth year with a vocal recital drawn from Broadway’s Golden Age, singing selections from She Loves Me, My Fair Lady, The Music Man, and more. Wit, longing, and melodic confidence do the heavy lifting. The flirting? You’ve got this. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 2750 McFarlane Road, Coconut Grove. Saturday 2/14 from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. Free advanced tickets.
Love and Art. The Coconut Grove Arts Festival opens on Valentine’s Day, which might be the most Grove thing possible. Now is when all your plans come together: early-morning strolls before the sidewalks fill, a mid-day coffee escape when the crowds roll in, or just let the art, water views and wandering do the heavy lifting. Saturday–Monday 2/14–2/16, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Get advanced tickets. Avoid the line.
Fee Fi Fo Fum. Orchestra Miami brings Jack and the Beanstalk to life in a fast-moving, kid-friendly operatic version with professional singers and piano. It’s designed for families, forgiving of wiggles, and short enough to hold attention without bribery. Sunday, 2/15, at 3:00 p.m. at Pinecrest Gardens, 11000 Southwest 57 Avenue, Pinecrest. Tickets are cheaper in advance, parking is free, and cookies and juice after the show do not hurt attendance.
Sotto Voceunfolds as a lyrical meditation on memory, longing, and the afterlife of history, tracing a young researcher’s fixation on a doomed voyage and the elderly novelist still living with the love she lost aboard it. GableStage insiders appreciate the intimacy of this venue, where you’re never more than 6 rows from the stage. Intensity is the watchword. GableStage at the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Avenue, Coral Gables. Playing through Sunday 2/15 with evening and matinee performances. See schedule.
Language turns political fast. English Only, a world-premiere play, revisits Miami in 1980 after the Mariel Boatlift, when a push to make English the county’s sole official language sparked legal and civic resistance. At the center is Manny Diaz — a Grovite, and later Miami’s mayor — alongside activist Emmy Shafer, as questions of power, identity, and representation collide in public life. Colony Theatre, 1040 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach. Through Sunday 2/22. Schedule and tickets.
Classroom chaos meets theatrical payback in Miss Nelson Is Missing, a kid-smart favorite where the worst-behaved class in school suddenly learns what rules feel like. When sweet Miss Nelson disappears and is replaced by the terrifyingly efficient Viola Swamp, attitudes shift fast and appreciation kicks in just a beat too late. Actors’ Playhouse keeps this one brisk, funny, and very family-friendly. Most Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. now through February and then back again in April, at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Tickets.
Flowers for Valentine’s Day? Give an entire garden! One of the most coveted tickets in Coconut Grove is admission to the Secret Garden Tour of Coconut Grove, where the owners of six exclusive gardens will open their gates to the lucky few. The gardens will be within walking distance of each other but exactly where isn’t revealed until the day of your tour, Saturday and Sunday 3/14 and 15. After all, they are Secret Gardens. Tickets (which make great Valentines Day gifts) will sell out.
When Being Seen Goes Wrong. A musical that doesn’t dodge discomfort — and doesn’t try to tidy it up either. Dear Evan Hansen arrives at Actors’ Playhouse with its mix of aching honesty, social-media spiral, and songs that stay with you. This is theater for anyone who’s ever felt unseen, over-explained themselves, or watched a small lie snowball into something much bigger. Performed at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables. Runs through 3/8. Days and times vary. Tickets.
From the heartland. Seraphic Fire brings American Folk to life with a cappella arrangements of songs that carry history in their bones, from “This Land Is Your Land” and “Simple Gifts” to “My Darlin’ Clementine.” The program also includes Hymnodic Delays– long cherished by Seraphic Fire audiences. Church of the Little Flower, 2711 Indian Mound Trail, Coral Gables. Friday 2/20 at 8:00 p.m. Bonus: a pre-concert conversation with Dr. Nola Richardson takes place one hour before the performance. Tickets.
The vintage sailboats of the Washington’s Birthday Regatta will set sail from the Coconut Grove Sailing Club. In prior years, this event was held largely out of the public eye but this year’s circumstances have created a perfect opportunity for you to see the boats as they leave the mooring field for the regatta. Regatta Park and southwest corner of Dinner Key Marina, 3400 Pan American Drive. Saturday 2/21, late morning…11-ish. A for-fun-only sail and raft up follows Sunday. Info linked here.
A century in, the question isn’t whether Black history matters, but how it’s carried forward. The Macedonia Annual Image Awards Program marks Black History Month by honoring two contributors whose work has shaped Miami’s civic and cultural life, reflecting this year’s national theme, “A Century of Black History Commemorations,” first launched by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1926. The morning unfolds within worship, remembrance, and recognition at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, 3515 Douglas Road, tying local lives to a longer arc of history still being written. Sunday 2/22 at 11:00 a.m. Free.
Music in the jungle and a good reason to bring the whole crew. Greater Miami Symphonic Band opens the year with February Fantasy, filling the Banyan Bowl with classic and contemporary wind band music built on bold brass, rich woodwinds, and rhythms that will keep your younger listeners locked in. Pinecrest Gardens, Banyan Bowl, 11000 Red Road, Pinecrest. Sunday 2/22 at 4:00 p.m. Super-modestly priced tickets include bonus free admission to the Gardens beginning at 3:00 p.m.
Save Me a Seat
Last Call as Girl Scout Cookies prepare to hibernate for another year. Girl Scouts will be closing shop at Milam’s Market and Grove Central. Sales run through 2/23. Schedule and online orders. Supplies vanish faster than the inches of your waistline, so stock up now. It’ll be ten months before they return.
Open House Miami offers architecture nerds, history lovers, and the quietly curious behind-the-scenes access across the city, and the Grove shows up strong. Expert-led special tours give special insights to The Barnacle, Vizcaya, the Commodore Trail, the West Grove, the FIU International Center for Tropical Botany and a closer look at the architecture of Grove local, Max Strang. The tours and talks are all free, but tickets go very fast. Get yours here.
Mozart never took a cruise like this one, but the mischief feels familiar. Così fan tutte is a comedy that once raised eyebrows and still knows how to play with temptation, disguise and romantic dare-devilry, all wrapped in one of Mozart’s most irresistible scores. Performed by the Frost Opera Theater with the Frost Symphony Orchestra, this nautically reimagined production leans into seduction and sweet revenge with just enough scandal to keep the Valentine’s Day embers glowing a little longer. Gusman Concert Hall, 1314 Miller Drive, Coral Gables. Thursday 2/26 and Saturday 2/28 at 7:30 p.m. Modestly priced tickets.
Bonus round for Saturday night: The 2/28 performance is also simulcast outdoors at the Knight Center for Music Innovation plaza, free and open to the public. An easy Metro ride to University Station.
“All Alumni Day” brings generations together as the George Washington Carver High School Alumni Association honors new Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Joyce Price, calls the roll across reunion classes, and lifts up scholarship recipients, with student performances closing the circle. G. W. Carver Middle School, 4901 Lincoln Dr. Friday 2/27 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Tickets $15 by calling G.M. Smith 704-877-9368. Limited park-and-ride available via St. James Church at 1:15 p.m.
Disguises, desire, and comic misfires.. Twelfth Night brings Shakespeare’s most joyful tangle of mistaken identities to the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, where love refuses to behave and power keeps slipping sideways. Jerry Herman Ring Theatre, 1312 Miller Drive, Coral Gables. Playing from Friday 2/27 through Thursday 3/5. Schedule and tickets.
A spring ritual with a very loyal following. The Villagers’ Spring Garden Tour: Primavera opens the gates to five private tropical gardens across South Gables and Pinecrest, each chosen for its design, planting, and sense of place. Check-in takes place at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 11295 Southwest 57th Avenue, Coral Gables, where guests receive an entry bracelet and tour brochure. Saturday 3/7. Gardens open from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Advance purchase strongly recommended. This one sells out.
Grove’s own Theatre Fest has published its calendar. Save the dates now. Thursday-Sunday 4/16-19.
