Florida Events
Every date here was checked against the organiser’s own site. When an event has not announced its next edition, we say so rather than moving last year’s date forward twelve months.
Orlando
Halloween Horror Nights Orlando
The biggest, most expensive nightmare in America.
$$$ · Worth traveling for — if you like being scared and can handle the crowd.
Tampa
Howl-O-Scream Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Haunted houses, scare zones, and roller coasters in the dark.
$$$ · Tampa's best Halloween night out, and better value than Orlando.
Dade City
Scream-A-Geddon Horror Park
Sixty acres of haunts, and this year a $2.5M rebuilt midway.
$$ · The Tampa Bay area's best pure haunt night.
Lake Buena Vista
Jock Lindsey's Halloween Hangar Bar
Disney's Indiana Jones bar goes full Halloween — no ticket required.
$$ · Orlando's best free Halloween date night.
Winter Garden
Haunted Mangoni
Italian dinner walks into a haunted house.
$$ · A haunted date night with a real dinner attached.
Orlando
Howl-O-Scream SeaWorld Orlando
Orlando's other big haunt — shorter lines than Universal, same season.
$$$ · The value pick among Orlando's big haunts.
Orlando
Visit Orlando's Magical Dining
188 restaurants, three courses, $40 or $60 — Orlando's best food deal.
$$ · The best-value six weeks on Orlando's dining calendar.
Winter Haven
LEGOLAND Florida Brick-or-Treat
Halloween for the under-tens — included with park admission.
$$ · The family Halloween pick if your kids are under ten.
Florida starts Halloween in August.
Orlando
Halloween Horror Nights Orlando
The biggest, most expensive nightmare in America.
$$$ · Worth traveling for — if you like being scared and can handle the crowd.
Tampa
Howl-O-Scream Busch Gardens Tampa Bay
Haunted houses, scare zones, and roller coasters in the dark.
$$$ · Tampa's best Halloween night out, and better value than Orlando.
Dade City
Scream-A-Geddon Horror Park
Sixty acres of haunts, and this year a $2.5M rebuilt midway.
$$ · The Tampa Bay area's best pure haunt night.
Lake Buena Vista
Jock Lindsey's Halloween Hangar Bar
Disney's Indiana Jones bar goes full Halloween — no ticket required.
$$ · Orlando's best free Halloween date night.
Winter Garden
Haunted Mangoni
Italian dinner walks into a haunted house.
$$ · A haunted date night with a real dinner attached.
Orlando
Howl-O-Scream SeaWorld Orlando
Orlando's other big haunt — shorter lines than Universal, same season.
$$$ · The value pick among Orlando's big haunts.
Winter Haven
LEGOLAND Florida Brick-or-Treat
Halloween for the under-tens — included with park admission.
$$ · The family Halloween pick if your kids are under ten.
Key West
Fantasy Fest
Key West completely loses its mind for ten days.
$$ · Worth traveling for — once, and only if you commit to it.
Plant City
Sir Henry's Haunted Trail
Three outdoor haunted trails and a haunted hayride, thirteen seasons in — Tampa Bay's real scare attraction.
$$ · The haunt worth the drive from the Suncoast.
St. Petersburg
Gallagher's Pumpkins & Christmas Trees
St. Pete's daily pumpkin stop, with the vintage red truck photo waiting out front.
Pinellas' easy, everyday pumpkin patch.
Key West
Fantasy Fest
Key West completely loses its mind for ten days.
$$ · Worth traveling for — once, and only if you commit to it.
Pinellas Park
Oktoberfest Tampa Bay (German American Society)
The club-run Oktoberfest: German bands, a real beer hall, schnitzel and bratwurst, three weekends.
$ · The Bay's most authentic Oktoberfest.
Destin
Destin Seafood Festival
The luckiest fishing village on the Gulf feeds everyone for a weekend.
$ · The Panhandle's essential seafood festival.
Kissimmee
Green Meadows Farm Fall
Meet the animals. Pick a pumpkin. Keep it.
$$ · The smartest value farm day in Kissimmee.
Sep 26 – Nov 15Mount Dora
Great Scott Farms Fall Fest and Corn Maze
Seven acres of corn between you and victory.
$$ · Central Florida's classic corn maze day.
Live Oak
Suwannee Hulaween
A music festival inside an enchanted forest.
$$$ · Go all in. Half-committing to Hulaween is the one way to do it wrong.
The events people plan a whole year around.
Lake Buena Vista
EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival
Global tasting booths ring World Showcase for three months each fall.
$$$ · The best festival for eaters at Walt Disney World.
Key West
Fantasy Fest
Key West completely loses its mind for ten days.
$$ · Worth traveling for — once, and only if you commit to it.
Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show
The world's largest in-water boat show takes over seven marinas.
$$ · Florida's premier marine event, full stop.
Miami Beach
Art Basel Miami Beach
Three public days of the fair that turns the whole city into Miami Art Week.
$$$ · The one Florida event with genuine global pull, and worth planning a December weekend around.
Tampa
Gasparilla Pirate Fest
Tampa does not hold a pirate parade. It stages a hostile takeover.
Free · Unlike anything else in America. Plan the trip around it.
Lake Buena Vista
EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays
Eat your way around the world at Christmas.
$$$ · The most food-forward holiday event in Orlando, and the only one where the queue is for a dish rather than a ride.
Daytona Beach
Daytona 500
NASCAR's biggest race opens the season on Daytona's high banks.
$$ · Florida's marquee motorsport day — go once.
Miami
Calle Ocho Music Festival
Fifteen blocks of Little Havana closed to traffic for the closing day of Carnaval Miami.
Free · The biggest free day on Miami's calendar, and it earns the crowd.
The annual ones worth planning a year around.
Daytona Beach
Welcome to Rockville
Four days of rock on the Daytona speedway infield.
$$$ · Worth the drive if rock or metal is your thing. Four days is a lot of festival; camping on site is the way people do it.
Panama City Beach
Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam
Where country meets the coast, for four days.
$$$ · A real destination festival, not a day trip: Panama City Beach is a long haul from the peninsula, so treat it as the whole weekend.
Miami
Ultra Music Festival
The one the rest of the world flies in for.
$$$$ · Worth traveling for if electronic music is your thing. Book accommodation absurdly early.
White Springs
Florida Folk Festival
The state's own folk festival, 75 years deep.
$
St. Petersburg
Tampa Bay Blues Festival
Three days of blues on the St. Pete waterfront.
$$ · The closest marquee music festival to Tampa Bay, and the easiest one to do without booking a hotel.
Dade City
Scream-A-Geddon Horror Park
Sixty acres of haunts, and this year a $2.5M rebuilt midway.
$$ · The Tampa Bay area's best pure haunt night.
Key West
Fantasy Fest
Key West completely loses its mind for ten days.
$$ · Worth traveling for — once, and only if you commit to it.
Live Oak
Suwannee Hulaween
A music festival inside an enchanted forest.
$$$ · Go all in. Half-committing to Hulaween is the one way to do it wrong.
Orlando
Gators, Ghosts & Goblins at Gatorland
Trick-or-treating at an alligator park, which is a sentence only Florida produces.
$$ · The most Florida Halloween there is, and the gentlest.
Naples
Naples Stone Crab Festival
Stone crab season opens, and Naples throws it a waterfront party.
Free · Southwest Florida's tastiest excuse for an October drive.
Myakka City
Sarasota Medieval Fair
Step into a medieval village for a fall weekend of performances and festival fun.
$$ · The area's best full-day fall festival that isn't about pumpkins.
Apalachicola
Florida Seafood Festival
Florida's oldest maritime festival, the year the oysters came back.
$ · The bucket-list Florida festival for seafood people this year.
Fort Lauderdale
Seminole Hard Rock Winterfest Boat Parade
A hundred lit-up yachts glide down the Intracoastal for the holidays.
Free · South Florida's favorite holiday night — go for the megayachts.
Live Oak
Suwannee Hulaween
A music festival inside an enchanted forest.
$$$ · Go all in. Half-committing to Hulaween is the one way to do it wrong.
Miami
III Points
Ten stages across five city blocks of Wynwood.
$$$ · The most interesting lineup in Florida for anyone who reads past the headliners.
Tampa
Tampa Pig Jig
Forty barbecue teams, a country headliner, and every dollar fights kidney disease.
$$$ · Tampa's best-value big-ticket day of the fall.
Clearwater
Clearwater Jazz Holiday
Four days of music in a park on the water.
$$ · A Wayfind pick — the best-value big music weekend on the Gulf coast.
Orlando
Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics
A string quartet, thousands of candles, and the Halloween canon.
$$ · The best Halloween date night in Orlando that does not involve being chased.
Orlando
EDC Orlando
Three nights under the electric sky.
$$$ · A big weekend. Commit to all three nights or skip it.
Siesta Key
Candlelight: Halloween Classics
Hear Halloween favorites by candlelight at St. Boniface Episcopal Church.
$$ · Siesta Key's most romantic Halloween.
White Springs
Florida Folk Festival
The state's own folk festival, 75 years deep.
$
Lake Buena Vista
Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Halloween for people who do not want to be scared.
$$$ · The right call with kids. The wrong call if you want to be frightened.
Lake Buena Vista
EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival
Global tasting booths ring World Showcase for three months each fall.
$$$ · The best festival for eaters at Walt Disney World.
Winter Haven
LEGOLAND Florida Brick-or-Treat
Halloween for the under-tens — included with park admission.
$$ · The family Halloween pick if your kids are under ten.
Miami
The Berry Farm Harvest Festival
South Florida's only 5-acre corn maze, in Redland.
$$ · Miami's actual fall farm, not a pop-up.
Orlando
SeaWorld Orlando Halloween Spooktacular
The daytime, no-nightmares half of SeaWorld's Halloween.
$$$ · The most generous family Halloween in Orlando — it costs nothing extra.
Clermont
Showcase of Citrus Pumpkin Ponderosa
Pumpkins by day. Haunted monster trucks by night.
$$ · The pumpkin patch with the best plot twist.
Orlando
Gators, Ghosts & Goblins at Gatorland
Trick-or-treating at an alligator park, which is a sentence only Florida produces.
$$ · The most Florida Halloween there is, and the gentlest.
Parrish
Florida Railroad Museum Pumpkin Patch Express
Parrish heritage railroad pumpkin train with official 2026 FareHarbor dates and coach fares from $35.
The local pumpkin train with honest fares.
Lake Buena Vista
EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival
Global tasting booths ring World Showcase for three months each fall.
$$$ · The best festival for eaters at Walt Disney World.
Orlando
Visit Orlando's Magical Dining
188 restaurants, three courses, $40 or $60 — Orlando's best food deal.
$$ · The best-value six weeks on Orlando's dining calendar.
Destin
Destin Seafood Festival
The luckiest fishing village on the Gulf feeds everyone for a weekend.
$ · The Panhandle's essential seafood festival.
Sarasota
Sarasota Opera Food & Wine Festival
Taste food and wine at Sarasota Opera’s fall festival.
$$$ · The Gulf Coast's best-dressed food festival.
Madeira Beach
John's Pass Seafood Festival
Forty-plus years of grouper, live music and boardwalk sunsets.
$ · The Gulf beaches' definitive seafood weekend.
Naples
Naples Stone Crab Festival
Stone crab season opens, and Naples throws it a waterfront party.
Free · Southwest Florida's tastiest excuse for an October drive.
Fort Myers
The Great Chicken Nugget Crawl — Fort Myers
A downtown Fort Myers bar crawl built entirely around chicken nuggets — a different dipping sauce at every stop.
$ · Downtown Fort Myers, dipped in sauce.
Apalachicola
Florida Seafood Festival
Florida's oldest maritime festival, the year the oysters came back.
$ · The bucket-list Florida festival for seafood people this year.
Planning around one of these? Our city guides cover what else to do while you are there — Tampa, Sarasota and Parrish.