Check out the calendar. It’s almost the May 5, AKA Cinco de Mayo. The Mexican holiday was not meant to merely celebrate fake mustaches, extra-large sombreros, and lots and lots of tequila. Cinco de Mayo was originally intended to commemorate an underdog Mexican army’s victory over the French forces in 1862. But a love for Mexican culture has given the fifth day of May a life of its own.
The Wynwood Yard is not long for this world, but before its gates close for good, owners say they’re planning one “epic final weekend.” YardFest: Farewell to The Wynwood Yard is a three-day extravaganza aiming to celebrate everything that was good about the open-air space. From May 3-5, over a…
The Living Room opened in the Faena Hotel at the end of 2015, but it wasn’t until recently that the gathering space found its musical niche, explains Alejandro Listo, Faena’s entertainment director. “The first idea was to have one band play the entire week. After a while, we decided every night was something different. We added more bands and more bands, and suddenly we have 20 bands rotating.”
Marijuana is slowly becoming legalized, but remnants of its underground, illegitimate status can be hard to shake off. That’s why so many herbal enthusiasts still treat April 20, or 4/20, as a national holiday, simply because “4/20” has become a code that provokes chuckles from potheads. Miami has long had…
Record Store Day, the one part Comic-Con, one part Black Friday audiophile extravaganza, had a festive feel this past Saturday at Sweat Records. The Little Haiti shop earlier in the week had announced that a rent increase would force the Miami vinyl-boom pioneer to relocate. So this would be one last hurrah in a…
“No big nightclubs in Miami had femmes or ultrafemmes in their lineup,” local DJ Gami says of her inspiration to help organize Versus. Internet Friends’ highest-capacity show will be held at the Ground this Friday, April 12. “Ground is usually a bro-fest. There was a lack of this kind of night.”
Bad boys, bad boys — whatcha gonna do when they come for you, Miami? Bad Boys for Life, the third installment of the buddy-cop movies that helped turn Will Smith and Martin Lawrence into A-list movie stars, will be filming in Miami this month. Under the production name “Garden Films Productions…
It’s been a long slog for rock ‘n’ soul band the Sh-Booms from their founding in an Orlando garage in 2011 to having their single “Leon the Hustler” declared “the coolest song in the world.” The Sh-Booms’ debut album, The Blurred Odyssey — whose release the group will celebrate with a free show…
After almost a decade and a half, the organizers of Wanee Music Festival say they might be calling it quits on their extravaganza in North Florida. But fans of the annual event started by the Allman Brothers Band in 2005 need not mope: A new tradition (closer to home) will…
As one-third of the English progressive trance trio Above & Beyond, Tony McGuinness has had a front-row seat to watch the evolving ways the world consumes music. “It used to be the lack of availability of music made it more valued,” McGuinness tells New Times. “You’d go to a club and hear a song, and you’d have to track it down. Then you’d spend weeks getting to know it. An album was valuable because you spent money on it. People’s record collections were a display of their soul.
O Cinema Wynwood is closing this weekend — but not without a final farewell party. “O Cinema was part of the first wave of Wynwood,” explained codirector Kareem Tabsch. “We wanted to honor our friends and say a bye-bye to the neighborhood to thank everyone for supporting.” The art theater…
Irvine Welsh, the author of the youth and drug culture touchstone “Trainspotting,” mentions Miami only in passing in his latest novel, “Dead Men’s Trousers.” But the Scottish writer is grateful to be back in his adopted hometown. “I’ve been in [the United Kingdom] the last couple of months. It’s so dreary and dark. We have no seasons in Scotland — it’s one long, dreary fall.”
A South Florida music tradition returned this past weekend. After canceling its 2018 edition, 9 Mile Music Festival came back Saturday night with an intense dosage of reggae music. 9 Mile began in the ’90s as Bob Marley Festival, founded by the reggae legend’s mother. It was a free show at Bayfront Park…
Like many South Floridians, Matthew Redler found there were more local events he wanted to attend than he could afford. “I was priced out of exploring all the sports and music events Miami had to offer,” the Plantation native and University of Florida student says. Out of that disappointment sprang his eureka moment…
A quick glance at Bigg D’s Wikipedia page shows an impressive resume. He wrote songs for Mariah Carey and produced music for Rick Ross, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez. But midway through an interview with New Times, he dropped a bomb revealing his Miami musical bona fides. “You know that Miami…
You’d think curating the festivities for the makeshift roller rink at III Points last weekend would be enough for Otto Von Schirach and Notorious Nastie in their never-ending quest to keep South Florida weird, but according to them, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Next weekend will bring their Project Pat’s Trap Attack, a three-night extravaganza that will mix music, art, a yacht party, Project Pat, and madness.
It might sound corny, but Daniel Saud and his Zeta bandmates believe in the American dream. Saud formed the rock band in his hometown of Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, back in 2002 when he was 12 years old. Joined by Juan Chi, Gabriel Duque, and Juan Gonzalez, the quartet…
For actress and playwright Carmen Pelaez, inspiration comes from real-life work experience. “I was working in the art world and I would deal with all these people on eBay selling obvious fakes,” she explains, recalling the beginnings of her latest play, “Fake.” “They were doing it very poorly and being…
“There’s enough festivals in the world showcasing bands already well known and successful. We wanted to create a space where people who really love music can come hear new sounds and take those sounds home with them to expand their listening horizons,” Snarky Puppy bassist Michael League says of his original intentions for GroundUp Music Festival. “I wanted this to be a festival that only booked artists that aren’t just wonderful, but wonderful live.”
Do you already have plans for 4/20? If you do, you might want to break them. Kaya Fest just announced the lineup for its Bayfront Park Amphitheater spectacle, and it falls on one of the most irie days of the year: April 20.
There were seven DJs on the bill for Life in Color this past Saturday night, but the main attraction for the thousands of people in attendance was the paint. Gallons of colorful liquid sprayed onto the crowd during the DJ sets. Men on the stage could barely control hoses spewing pink, orange, yellow, and green flumes. Vendors even sold paint for $5 a pop to attendees who wanted to add even more color to everyone’s complexions.
Miami has an electronic music festival in Ultra, a hip-hop festival in Rolling Loud, and an everything-in-between festival in III Points. But the region’s most popular genre of music — Latin — has remained underserved. That is until now. Fuego Music Festival was just announced. It’s billed as “the first East Coast two-day Latin music festival.”
