The best fall events in Miami for cozy, seasonal fun

Like seafood? If you’re in South Florida, you don’t have much of a choice. And even if your taste buds prefer to stay on land, South Beach Seafood festivities might convert you thanks to four days’ worth of showcases and showdowns highlighting dozens of Miami’s most sought-after seafood restaurants, such as Joe’s Stone Crab, RED South Beach, Joliet and Sushi | Bar. It all culminates with the massive, 11th-annual South Beach Seafood Festival’s main event on Saturday, October 21. Bring an appetite and possibly a bib.

Our beloved, homegrown indie music festival continues to outdo itself. Now on its tenth run, the Miami-born music, art and tech festival will serve up oodles of trippy, immersive installations and tropical-goth fashion alongside a cutting-edge lineup of indie, electronic and hip-hop heroes.

Fred Again, Iggy Pop, Caroline Polachek, Lane 8 and Unknown Mortal Orchestra feature on the initial lineup announcement for III Points 2023. Similar to last year, the late-night fest will still go down at its longtime home, Mana Wynwood. 

Tickets for III Points 2023 are on sale now via iiipoints.com. Two-day general admission tickets cost $189 and VIP passes start at $499. Single-day tickets are not yet available, but ran at $109 last year.

Art Basel, which stages four major fairs each year—in Hong Kong, Basel, Miami Beach and, most recently, Paris—focuses on modern and contemporary art and puts more than 200 leading galleries and 4,000 artists from across the globe in front of the art world’s top curators, museums and collectors. On the heels of its biggest-ever, twentieth-anniversary show in 2022, Art Basel returns to its home at the Miami Beach Convention Center for the 2023 edition.

Full details have to be released, but the main event typically comprises five sections: Galleries (works from leading galleries), Edition (editioned pieces), Nova (works created within the last three years), Positions (dedicated to emerging artists) and Survey (works created before the year 2000). The weekend of Art Basel has become a major draw for Miami, with parties, satellite fairs and major events being held in conjunction with the show—have fun celebrity-spotting.

How's this for a reality check? The Miami Book Fair celebrates its 40th edition this year! Expect the regular mix of riveting author presentations, mind-expanding conversations and even more innovative ways to honor the written word. The annual street festival is slated to take place from November 12 through 19 along the Miami-Dade College downtown campus. Check back for a preview of the best-selling authors scheduled to be in attendance.

Picture a battalion of gourmet chefs cooking the top heritage beef, pork, lamb and all kinds of succulent meats over an open flame; sommeliers pairing fine wines with delectable dishes, and teams competing in a culinary showdown to see who will be crowned the Prince or Princess of Meat. This year, Off Site, Old Greg's, Leku, Luca Osteria and Apocalypse BBQ are among the contenders to throw their hats in the ring. From parillada stations and multiple Cajas Chinas to over-the-top dessert stations, all that and more is going down at this annual swine-eating extravaganza.

Back for a third year, Tinez Farms' Pinterest-perfect pumpkin patch provides the ideal fallscape for all your seasonal photos. Aside from the multi-sized and colored gourds and hay bales, there's an animal barnyard and petting zoo, a garden maze, Tinez yard games, climbing, swings, zip lines, a bounce house and a tubing slide to help get you into the autumnal spirit. You can also opt to add on a cow barrel train or pony, donkey and horse rides to your experience. On the weekends, peruse the farmers' market, where you'll find organic produce and artisanal wares from local businesses.

The lush botanical gardens of Fairchild make for the perfect backdrop to this seasonal activation geared toward families. Impressive mythical beasts perched throughout the grounds breathe smoke, roar and share their legendary stories as kiddos partake in scavenger hunts and dragon quests to become knights and dragon royalty.

In recent years, it’s been called Audacy Music Festival. Back in the day, it was known as Riptide Music Festival. Now, the names have merged and, regardless, it’s going to be one hell of a rockin’ weekend on Fort Lauderdale Beach over the first weekend in December. Last year’s headliners included Muse, Machine Gun Kelly, The 1975 and Jack White. Stay tuned to see which big names grace the beach as the lineup is unveiled.

Returning to Miami for the first time post-pandemic, the James Beard Foundation’s signature Taste America culinary series will unfold over one epic night at the Rubell Museum in Allapattah this October. Hosted by Chef Akino West of Rosie’s in Miami and visiting Chef Rodolfo Cuadros of Bloom Plant-Based Kitchen in Chicago, the tasting event will feature nearly 20 food and beverage stations helmed by a lineup of the city’s top culinary talent including Timon Balloo of The Katherine, Eileen Andrade of Finka Table & Tap, Carlos Garcia of Leku Miami, Raheem Sealey of Drinking Pig BBQ and others. Additional brand activations and local partnerships will be announced closer to the event. Both general admission and VIP tickets are all-inclusive of food and drinks.

Maluma Baby. Papi Juancho. Don Juan. Call Maluma whatever you want, but he’s playing a big-time gig at Kaseya Center in early November as part of the “Don Juan U.S. Tour.” Fun fact: The Medellín-born reggaetonero has his own mezcal these days—Contraluz—and it is delicious. Maybe pre-game appropriately with that?

The world’s largest holiday theme park (at least according to the website) returns for its 40th season with shimmering lights, over 100 carnival rides and plenty of only-in-Miami experiences. The county-fair-meets-winter-wonderland is chock-full of roller coasters, amusement rides, carnival games, photo ops with Santa and his helpers, and an assortment of fair food—think fresh doughnuts, funnel cakes and more. 7400 NW 87th Avenue

We might be getting a tad ahead of ourselves, but we swear we can feel a change of season in the air. Really! Cooler days and breezier evenings are no longer a far-off fantasy—autumn in Miami is just around the corner and we can’t overstate how excited that makes us. 

Adding to the festive buildup, Rooftop Cinema Club just dropped its super spooky schedule of September and October screenings. For the next two months, enjoy classic fall flicks like Hocus Pocus and The Silence of the Lambs and seasonal favorites like Practical Magic and The Rocky Horror Picture Show mixed in with the usual slate of cult films and new releases.

Get ready to jam out to some of the biggest names in improvisational rock and funk at the breezy Miami Beach Bandshell. The third annual North Beach Music Festival hasn't released its 2023 lineup yet, but last year featured a stacked bill including Lotus and Lettuce, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, Dopapod, Antibalas, Trouble No More, Keller Williams and others. As you're grooving by the Atlantic Ocean, make sure to hit up the yummy local food vendors that will be there to nourish your body and soul.

After a slow summer of blanketing heat and darkened theaters, stage lights have finally started to flicker on and curtains rise as theater companies across South Florida kick off their dynamic fall seasons. There’s a lot to sort through over the last three months of 2023, and our picks for the most exciting shows are a testament to the diversity of producers, audiences and talent in the cultural melting pots of Miami-Dade and Broward. 

Expect to encounter both timeless (Twelve Angry Men) and contemporary (The Book of Mormon) classics, plus newer works that examine LGBTQ and Latinx issues with compassion, nuance and biting humor. We’re especially excited for the second season of Miami’s freshest producing company, LakeHouseRanchDotPNG (they really should do something about that cumbersome name), whose new plays reveal different sides of its mission to bring absurdist and avant-garde stories to the region.

Looking to inject some culture into your autumn in Miami? Peruse our fall theater preview below, a roundup of the best shows across South Florida to book right now.

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The “Ginger Jesus” is landing in our neck of the woods. On the heels of playing mega arenas throughout the U.S., the folksy, pop-rockin’ Irishman plays a comparatively intimate show at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood come late October. Beyond his other math symbol-titled albums, take a pre-show listen to “-,” which dropped in May.

Ready to get into the holiday spirit? R&B royalty including the likes of Tyrese, Xscape, Tank, 112, Silk, Next and Red Hat are converging on the Kaseya Center to help boost your festive mood with a sprinkling of smooth holiday jams. A similar event went down in June, so if you missed it, you’ve been given a second chance—with an extra dose of Christmas cheer time around.