Events in Miami, Florida

Miami's next large dated events are the Miami Book Fair from November 15 to 22, 2026, Art Basel week from November 30 through December 6, 2026, and the Calle Ocho Music Festival in Little Havana on March 14, 2027.

The Miami Book Fair lists November 15 to 22, 2026 for the full fair and November 20 to 22 for the Street Fair, which it describes as three days of books, food and music across downtown Miami (Miami Book Fair). The City of Miami gives Art Basel 2026 as running from November 30 through December 6 (City of Miami special event permits), in a notice that sets a separate City of Miami permit application cutoff for that week.

The Calle Ocho Music Festival is set for March 14, 2027, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., on Calle Ocho from SW 12th to 27th Avenue, and it is a free event (Carnaval Miami, Calle Ocho page). Bayfront Park posts its own listings: on October 26, 2026 the FPL Solar Amphitheater has an 8:00 to 11:00 p.m. concert, the park lists a Bayfront Park Shoreline Cleanup on October 17, 2026 from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m., and Red Bull Flugtag Miami on October 31, 2026 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Bayfront Park Management Trust events).

Calle Ocho 2027 is on Sunday, March 14, 2027, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Little Havana, run as the marquee event of Carnaval Miami by volunteers of the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana.

The festival fills 15 street blocks of Little Havana with musical stages, international food, sampling sites and folkloric dances, between SW 12th and SW 27th Avenue (Carnaval Miami). Entry is free. For 2027 the organizer lists its VIP passport and its vendor application as coming soon, so anyone planning to sell food or goods on Calle Ocho should watch that page rather than rely on the 2026 forms.

Carnaval Miami is powered by volunteers of the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana and benefits the Kiwanis of Little Havana Foundation youth development programs (Carnaval Miami). The organizer says its series of events attracts an average of one million attendees each year and represents an economic impact of $40M for local artists, vendors and small businesses. Those are the organizer's own figures, not an audited count, and they cover the whole Carnaval Miami series rather than the single Calle Ocho Sunday.

The 2026 Miami Book Fair runs eight days, November 15 to 22, in downtown Miami, and its Street Fair on November 20 to 22 is free to walk in.

The fair has run since 1984 and describes itself as the largest, longest-running literary festival in the nation, a claim that is the fair's own (Miami Book Fair). The fair's site lists its contact as Miami Dade College, 300 NE Second Ave, Miami 33132, phone 305-237-3258. The program runs in three languages for all ages, and the fair also holds literary and cultural events through the year across South Florida.

The difference between the two date ranges is the useful part for planning. Author programs run across the full eight days of the Miami Book Fair, from November 15 to 22, 2026, while the outdoor Street Fair with books, food and music is only the final weekend, Friday November 20 to Sunday November 22. The fair's own site carries separate tickets, directions and parking pages for the Street Fair weekend, and exhibitor applications were listed as open in October 2026.

Bayfront Park, at 301 Biscayne Blvd in downtown Miami, is a 32-acre Biscayne Bay park with performance venues that host concerts and other events, and admission to the park itself is free.

The Bayfront Park Management Trust describes Bayfront Park, originally called Royal Palm Park, as the oldest public gathering space in the Greater Miami community, established in 1896 with a pavilion and green space and later a bandshell (Bayfront Park Management Trust). Today Bayfront Park spans 32 acres in Downtown Miami, with open lawns, a seaside path, performance venues and a historic waterfall from 1926. The same trust runs Maurice A. Ferré Park at 1075 Biscayne Blvd.

Bayfront Park is open daily from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and Maurice A. Ferré Park from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (Bayfront Park FAQs). Parking at Bayfront Park costs $20 and sits next to the trust offices, open Monday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Alcohol is prohibited at both parks except during authorized events, fishing is not allowed, and swimming is not allowed.

Any organized activity or gathering at Bayfront Park or Maurice A. Ferré Park needs a permit from the Bayfront Park Management Trust, reached at 305-358-7550 (Bayfront Park FAQs). That is a separate door from the City of Miami parks reservation system, which matters for a group picnic or a small rally on the bayfront: the trust, not the city parks office, is the first call.

A City of Miami special event permit is filed online at least fourteen days before the event, and the city's permit page lists both a $50.00 non-refundable application fee and review fees of $250.00 or $500.00.

The Office of Film & Entertainment calls itself a one-stop shop for permitting, special events and government liaison (City of Miami Filming and Events), and the special event permit page lists [email protected] for event questions. The same permit page states two fee figures: Step 2 asks for a $50.00 non-refundable application fee, while a Review Fees note dated May 15, 2025 lists $250.00 for an event with up to 1,000 attendees and $500.00 for more than 1,000. The page does not say whether the two are combined, so the total is worth confirming with the office before filing. Under the City of Miami rules, an organizer may apply for ten total days of events per year, applications are reviewed first come, first served, and applicants are invited to a special events meeting with city staff every second Wednesday of the month (City of Miami special event permit page). Alcohol sale and consumption at a special event must end by 3:00 a.m. An application without a site plan or life safety plan or MOT is not reviewed.

Three routes exist. A private-property event, or one in a home for more than 100 people, goes through the temporary event route inside the same application, because the old Temporary Event Permit was folded in. A gathering in one of the City of Miami's 50 rentable parks starts with Reserve a Park Facility, where staff call back within three business days, phone (305) 416-1133 (City of Miami Reserve a Park Facility). A park event with live music, mechanical rides, police or more than 300 people moves onto the special event application.

Two details on the City of Miami page are worth knowing. Coconut Grove applicants pay a supplementary fee and must present to the Coconut Grove BID, which meets monthly, so the city suggests starting 60 days ahead. And the document checklist still asks for a COVID-19 Safety Plan as of October 15, 2026, an item applicants can confirm with the office rather than skip (City of Miami). A pilot Special Events Affidavit now replaces a building permit for tents up to 40x40, portable toilets and generators up to 50KVA. The Art Basel 2026 application cutoff was October 11, 2026, so new Art Basel week applications in the City of Miami are already late.

The City of Miami's Miami Special Events Calendar lists privately hosted events that the City does not host, so it shows what has a permit rather than official city programs.

The calendar page states plainly that its events are NOT hosted by the City and points to separate pages for city meetings (City of Miami Miami Special Events Calendar). For services, the City of Miami answers at 311 or 305-468-5900, and its contact address is the Miami Riverside Center, 444 SW 2nd Ave (City of Miami). The Miami events section has no deeper guides yet, so the table below points to this page and to related Miami guides in other sections.

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of Miami website and the Bayfront Park Management Trust website.