The art festivals aren’t over after all. South Miami Art Fest keeps the paint flowing just a few Metro stops south with canvases lining the streets and the Lowe Art Museum just a short walk away. Meanwhile, Gifford Lane is already prepping for its own homegrown takeover, where porches double as galleries and neighbors compare notes over Cucumber Punch. The spectacle hasn’t faded — it’s just more intimate.
Beyond the tents, the weekend keeps unfolding. Seraphic Fire lifts American folk into something luminous at Church of the Little Flower, Dance Meets Fashion blends costume and choreography at the Koubek Center, and dinner theater at Atchana’s turns tableside into center stage. In this neighborhood, art prefers a front porch.
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.
Next Stop Broadway. In its last weekend in town, 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.
Still wandering around looking for one more artist’s tent? Don’t go cold turkey. South Miami (SoMi) Art Fest keeps the weekend rolling with painters, sculptors, photographers and ceramicists while live music threads through the blocks and kids claim their own corners of the street. 57th Avenue is closed down for the Art Fest at Shops at Sunset Place, 5701 Sunset Drive, South Miami. Saturday 2/21 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday 2/22 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with live music and dancing Saturday from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Free and open to the public. Metrorail to South Miami Station. Program here.
Small Hands, Big Ideas. The Lowe Art Museum’s family workshop turns a Saturday morning into shared studio time, with a teaching artist guiding participants of all ages through materials and techniques inspired by works in the galleries. Less lecture, more discovery — the kind of hour where grown-ups quietly join the kids’ fun. Lowe Art Museum, 1301 Stanford Drive, U-Miami campus. Saturday 2/21 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Nominal family ticket. University Metro stop.
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, noon-ish. A for-fun-only sail and raft up follows Sunday. Info linked here.
TREEmendous Miami gathers at Historic Virginia Key Beach Park for its Annual Meeting and Volunteer Appreciation Picnic, celebrating a year of ambitious planting and the people who showed up to dig, water, and keep going. Stay for the bonfire as the sun drops and the stories get retold. Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, 4020 Virginia Beach Drive. Saturday 2/21. Details and membership here.
Some histories are told in bronze. Others are told over conversation. April Bey’s Artist Talk introduces Atlantican Opulence: Portals and the Ritual of Waiting in Line for Hot Patty, a commissioned work honoring the Bahamian roots woven into Miami’s story, followed by a Bahamian Souse Out with chicken souse and Johnny cake served. The Underline Plaza, 140 Ruiz Avenue, Coral Gables. Saturday 2/21 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. RSVP. Complimentary brunch-style fare while it lasts.
There’s an insightful honesty in admitting you’re tired before the conversation even starts. An Evening with David Zahl gathers readers in Davis Hall for drinks, appetizers, and a live conversation with the Christianity Today Book Award finalist and author of The Big Relief, a book that leans into grace for people running on fumes. Plymouth Congregational Church, 3400 Devon Road. Saturday 2/21 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Free with advanced registration.
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.
Dance Meets Fashion takes the stage with five juried works, each performed in original costumes designed by Dario Feal in direct dialogue with the movement itself. The result is less runway, more conversation — bodies and garments shaping each other in real time, followed by a Q&A that pulls back the curtain on how it all came together. Koubek Center Theatre, 2705 Southwest 3rd Street. Sunday 2/22 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets $10. Free valet parking.
Music in the jungle is 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.
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 Sunday 2/22. 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.
Here they reach the big time. The New World School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra performs on the mainstage at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall, a room that has launched careers and tested plenty of nerves. Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Knight Concert Hall, 1300 Biscayne Boulevard. Tuesday 2/24 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets modestly priced considering their exceptional talents.
Dinner gets dramatic fast. Don Juan: Pride and Paradise turns Atchana’s Homegrown Thai (upstairs) into the stage, with actors weaving between tables in a Caribbean-set musical where romance, ego and a high-stakes deal collide just feet from your seat– somewhere between theater and dinner party. Atchana’s Homegrown Thai Restaurant, 3194 Commodore Plaza. Dates Tuesday 2/24 through Thursday 3/5 at 7:00 p.m. (Spotlight hint: get $15 off with code MAGIC26.)
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.
The Secret Within the Secret. One of the most coveted tickets in Coconut Grove is admission to the Secret Garden Tour of Coconut Grove and yours can be free. How? Volunteer and join the in-crowd at six exclusive gardens that 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 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.
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.
Three nights on the water and nobody’s sitting down. Montreux Jazz Festival Miami brings Jon Batiste and Trombone Shorty’s New Orleans Celebration, plus Nile Rodgers & CHIC, TOTO, Bomba Estéreo and more, with late-night jam sessions overlooking Dinner Key. The Hangar at Regatta Harbour, 3385 Pan American Drive. Friday 2/27 through Sunday 3/1. Standing room only tickets remain.
You’re right at home when surrounded by the unhurried music of South Miami Unity’s Musical Festival Reunion. The United Voices of Praise, and IC Talent Dancers headline this community celebration led by the South Miami Black Cultural Affairs Foundation. Come for a set, stay longer than planned. Gibson-Bethel Community Center, 5800 Southwest 66th Street, South Miami. Saturday 2/28 from 2:00 to 7:00 p.m.
The Garden after dark feels different, especially once the percussion starts. The sounds and dancers of Carnival from Soul Samba Miami will pull the crowd a little closer to the stage and all the way to Rio. Sunset tram tours roll through the cloud rainforest, cocktails in hand, while a mask-making station and open garden access keep the night loose and wandering. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables. Saturday 2/28 from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. General admission $35.
Save Me a Seat
Do people come for the art or to see each other? Hard to say which is better looking, but there’s no need to choose. The home grown Gifford Lane Art Stroll turns the 3200 block into a leafy runway of painters, porch musicians, old friends and new arrivals — and yes, a couple glasses of that legendary Cucumber Punch never hurt anyone’s glow. Gifford Lane between Oak Avenue and Day Avenue. Sunday 3/1 from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Free.
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.
Friday the 13th. Lucky you! The Barnacle Society’s moonlight concert brings local favorites Invasive Species back to the porch, their deep Americana sound drifting from folk to 1970s jam-band ease as blankets spread and flashlights flicker on. Picnics welcome, lawn chairs encouraged, no pets. The Barnacle Historic State Park, 3485 Main Highway. Friday 3/13 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., doors open at 6:00 p.m. Modestly priced tickets.
Grove’s own Theatre Fest has published its calendar. Save the dates now. Thursday-Sunday 4/16-19.
