Yearlong Programs
The LGBT Visitor Center provides essential resources for LGBTQ tourists, both before and during their visit and promotes socioeconomic development and tourism. The Center supports the education, travel and tourism outreach for the Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. The Center builds community by fostering social engagement and community wellness. It also enhances the health and well-being of the LGBT community by providing activities, programs, and services that bring everyone together for a shared purpose. Programming at the Center includes LGBTQ specific financial planning, HIV testing and a transgender support group among other planned activities and events all year round.
The Miami Beach Visitor Center, powered by the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, receives support from the City of Miami Beach, the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, Miami-Dade Tourist and Development Council, and the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. They also partner with leading companies in the tourism and hospitality industry to offer exclusive discounts for visitors along with mobile apps, maps, guides, and brochures to help the visitor explore Miami Beach and its surrounding areas. The Visitor Center has a concierge service providing customized itineraries and recommendations on current and upcoming events, dining, shopping, attractions, and the arts whereby the guest is guided towards quick and easy user-friendly apps such as the MBVCA’s Experience Miami Beach app and the GettinLocal app. These apps utilize geotechnology to provide real time information from sources such as Trip Advisor, Google Maps, Open Table and Uber. Push notifications can also be sent promoting city events and amenities. A new marketing device is being added this coming year to the Visitor Center called HotelPort’s Trackit Media. This is a Kiosk that will provide content distribution, maps, navigation and hyper-locals site information. This interactive kiosk has digital signage to engage visitors and help them take advantage of special promotions and real time tracking for more efficient transportation around the destination.
October 2022
The South Beach Seafood Festival is in its 10th year and will be taking place October 19 – 21, 2022. The festival is a curated event week that celebrates the best chefs and restaurants of South Florida by hosting a variety of events for a diverse group of attendees, This annual seafood festival attracts guests from all over and kicks off Miami’s famed Stone Crab season in October. The events range from intimate dinners to beach bash competitions and all-day pop-up cafes. The event showcases the talents of South Florida’s leading chefs and culinary leaders, and the event’s proceeds ultimately benefit the EAT SMART program which provides healthy meals and nutritional guidance to Florida’s youth through programs at Miami Dade public schools.
November 2022
No Vacancy, Miami Beach, taking place November 17 – December 8, 2022, is a contemporary art experience that celebrates artists, provokes critical discourse, and invites the public to experience Miami Beach’s famed hotels as destination art spaces by turning hotels into temporary cultural institutions – the very definition of Cultural Tourism. Art will be exhibited throughout ten hotels in Miami Beach, where lobbies, restaurants, lounges, patio areas, rooms, balconies and swimming pools may serve as a canvas. The selected hotels include the Avalon Hotel, The Betsy Hotel South Beach; Catalina Hotel & Beach Club; Hotel Croydon; Esme; Fontainebleau, The Faena, International Inn; Royal Palm Hotel; Loews Miami Beach; Royal Palm Hotel; Cadillac Hotel; and Riviera South Beach Hotel.
2022 Urge Miami Thanksgiving Festival
One of the world’s biggest LGBTQ event returns to Miami Beach, November 25- November 28, 2022 during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Events will include 3 daytime parties and 3 nighttime events taking place at various venues including M2 Nightclub, the Royal Palm South Beach Hotel, and the Beach at 12th Street. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Miami Beach Gay Pride (non-profit).
Untitled Art, Miami Beach is an international curated Contemporary Art component event of Art Basel, Miami Beach that will be taking place November 29 – December 3, 2022. This year’s fair will bring together 142 international galleries and non-profit spaces from 25 countries. A progressive sector in support of young and emerging galleries (5 years or less) entitled “Nest” will return. The program offers reduced rates to help foster new galleries and artists. There will also be a focus on non-profits to support the advancement of the creative arts community and an exhibition entitled Arts of Life – Circle Contemporary that provides artists will intellectual and developmental disabilities a collective space to expand their practice. Long Road Projects, an artist residency program dedicated to providing a platform for contemporary artists from diverse backgrounds will also participate as will “Her Clique”, an organization that supports women artists.
This year’s SCOPE Miami Beach, taking place November 29 - December 4, 2022, will be celebrating its 21st year. A total of 150 International exhibitors from 25 countries and 60 cities are expected to participate. The expanded Atrium will provide an experiential multidisciplinary program, now in its 10th year, called The New Contemporary. Originating from the SCOPE Foundation, this non-profit component’s mandate supports emerging contemporary artists through grants, awards, and acquisitions. The expanded Atrium provides an experiential multidisciplinary program now in its 10th year called The New Contemporary.
December 2022
Miami Billfish Tournament of Champions
This 3-day fishing event is an elite sailfish tournament, taking place December 8 – 10, 2022, and is in its 3rd year as the Yamaha Contender Miami Billfish Tournament of Champions. This VIP experience kicks off the sailfish season locally, however, the public will be able to see and enjoy an incredible weekend watching the best of competitive sportfishing as teams pursue an estimated $400,000 purse and coveted Championship Cup. The kickoff event will take place Thursday night before hitting the waters on Friday and Saturday. Event producers will work with local restaurants to create a VIP Hospitality experience for participants with nightly dinners at Red the Steakhouse South Beach, Joe’s Stone Crab, Lobster Shack, Pizza Bar, Bodega, among others. All events will take place on Miami Beach and at the Miami Beach Marina. Teams competing in the tournament are expected to travel from New York, New Jersey, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, and throughout the state of Florida. This particular event will support the Billfish Foundation which helps in the conservation of our oceans off the coast of Miami and Miami Beach and helps to improve the health of area fisheries.
This event returns for a second year and has expanded to include a third day. The event will once again feature a mixture of improvisational music, jam bands, funk music, and jazz and is set to take place on December 9 - 11, 2022, at the Miami Beach Bandshell and adjacent Bandshell Park that will hold a second stage along and a variety of food and craft vendors. The festival’s lineup includes the following artists: moe., Lotus, Lettuce, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Dopapod, Antibalas, Trouble No More, Keller Williams, Doom Flamingo, Brandon “Taz” Niederauer, Melt, Neighbor, Lemon City Trio, Shira Elias, Guavatron, Afrobeta, Cool Cool Cool.
2022 Capital One Orange Bowl Game Marketing Campaign and Ancillary Events
The 2022 Capital One Orange Bowl Game will be played at the Hard Rock Stadium on Friday, December 30, 2022, with the ancillary events taking place between December 26 and December 30, 2022 throughout Miami Beach. The Orange Bowl features a week of exciting events including the Team Welcome Receptions, Team Beach Parties, Family/Children and Spouses’ outings, Coaches Dinners, Orange Bowl Coaches Luncheon, Orange Bowl Rhapsody, and Capital One Orange Bowl Fan Fest.
January 2023
The Miami Marathon and Half Marathon
The Miami Marathon and Half Marathon will take place January 27 - 29, 2023 and is a favorite “racecation” for runners from around the world. The event consists of 5 component events including a Health and Fitness Expo, Pasta Party, VIP Party, a Saturday Tropical 5k race (3.1 miles) which takes runners by the cruise port, the Art Deco District, and ends at Nikki Beach. All events lead up to the signature Marathon and Half Marathon on Sunday.
February 2023
This three-day event is set to take place on February 3 - 5, 2023 at the Miami Beach Bandshell. Now in its sixth year, the festival brings to Miami an eclectic mix of international and nationally known artists. They can also participate in masterclasses and workshops lead by the artists themselves. Each festival day will feature a minimum of 8 performances on two stages. For the first time since the event’s inception, late night events will take place at the Faena Hotel. Confirmed artists include three-time Grammy winner Snarky Puppy, Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer David Crosby, Grammy winner Lalah Hathaway, Andrew Bird, Isaiah Sharkey, Meshell Ndegeocello, Madison Cunningham, Silvana Estrada, Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco), Bassekou Kouyate, Lizz Wright, Kurt Rosenwinkel’s Caipi, Keyon Harrold, Gisela Joao, Rachel Eckroth, Edman Castaneda & Gregoire Maret, Becca Stevens & Attacca Quartet, Mirrors, Shaun Martin-Three O, Jamison Ross, and Marklettieri Group.
2023 Food Network South Beach Wine + Food Festival
The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival presented by Capital One (SOBEWFF®) is a national, star-studded, four-day destination event showcasing the talents of the world’s most renowned wine and spirits producers, chefs and culinary personalities. This 4-day Festival, set to take place on February 23 - 26, 2023, hosted by Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits and Florida International University, the Festival benefits FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and the Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center. Each year, more than 1,200 students and volunteers gain invaluable real-world experience with the Festival – which serves as an interactive educational platform for the future leaders of the hospitality industry. To date, the Festival has raised more than $34 million for the School.
March 2023
The National LGBTQ Task Force’s Winter Party Festival is a week-long celebration of community held at various locations throughout Miami and Miami Beach for members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer community and its allies. The 2023 festival marks the 30th anniversary of the festival and will take place March 1 – 7, 2023. It is expected to feature 12-15 events of which at least 8 will take place on Miami Beach. The essence of the Winter Party is to escape winter, reunite with friends and chosen family while supporting the social justice work of the Task Force.
The Model Volleyball Tournament, in its 13th year, will take place on the beach Thursday, March 16- Sunday, March 19, 2023. The event will feature each city’s top model agencies as well as some of the top professional volleyball players from around the world competing in a co-ed beach volleyball tournament. Top agencies set to participate include Next, CGM, Elite, MC2, Mega, Front, BMG Runways, 2BC, K2, DAS, and Dorothy Coombs. This year’s event will again support a Miami based organization called AWOM whose mission is to help those who have lost loved ones and improve the lives of young girls locally.
May 2023
National Salute to America’s Heroes
The National Salute to America’s Heroes presented by Hyundai is set to take place on Miami Beach during Memorial Day weekend; May 25- 28, 2023. Recognized as one of the world’s largest events honoring our National Heroes, this annual event is anchored by the Air and Sea Show, Music Explosion and a start-spangled fireworks extravaganza shared with a national primetime television audience. The main component of the event is the world-class Hyundai Air & Sea Show that showcases our country’s state-of-the-art military technology from all five branches as well as our first responder agencies. The two-day event also features offshore powerboat racing demonstrations, extreme water sports, an interactive Display Village including military recruiting exhibits, an Action Zone, a Kid Zone, and more. Other events will include the Music Explosion featuring top musical talent, performances by the US Air Force Max Impact Band, the US Army Band, the US Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team and ends with a special night-pyro parachute demonstration by the US Army Golden Knights Parachute Team kicking off the fireworks. A Dignitary Dinner (Joe’s Stone Crab), Performers Party (Espanola Way) are also included leading up to the two-day show on the beach and at Lummus Park. Two other events will take place off the beach including a Media Day/Enlistment Ceremony at the Opa-Locka Airport Hangar and an additional Performers Welcome Party in Wynwood.
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