October is when season in the Sarasota area starts to return and the local events calendar starts to fill up, which is certainly true this first weekend of the month.
A popular free downtown Sarasota street
party series will hold the first event of its new season on Friday, while one of our area's biggest fall festivals will kick off Saturday and Sunday.
Also taking place this weekend: Siesta Beach's famed sands will host a volleyball tournament, local Oktoberfest fun will continue at Wellen Park, and an annual LBGTQ film festival will return.
Looking for even more options? Downtown Sarasota park the Bay will host a free outdoor screening of the iconic 1941 Humphrey Bogart noir "The Maltese Falcon" for its 85th anniversary at 7 p.m. Thursday, while Sarasota Opera House will show "Pretty Woman," the 1990 romantic comedy that made Julia Roberts a star, at 7 p.m. Friday; tickets are $12.
Also celebrating an anniversary Thursday, 5:30-8:30 p.m., will be G2H2 (Gay Group Happy Hour) — which turns 15 this year — at Mellow Mushroom Sarasota with light bites, door prizes, 50/50 raffle and food drive. There is a $10 cover.
Then returning Thursday and running through Oct. 31, Selby Gardens' Historic Spanish Point Campus will host the Halloween-themed light show Lights at Spooky Point. Tickets are $34, $24 members, $19 ages 5-17, and free ages 4 and younger.
1. Fresh Fridays in downtown Sarasota
The popular monthly street party series in downtown Sarasota will hold the first event of its next season — Sunset Soundwaves: A Yacht Rock Experience — a new Fresh Fridays theme designed to ease attendees into the fall season with live music, food and drink from downtown vendors and more for "an easy-breezy night downtown."
Other upcoming Fresh Fridays include Beyond the Canvas on Nov. 6, Light Up the Night on Dec. 4, Neon Oasis on Jan. 8, Cupid's Night Out on Feb. 5, The Millennium Mixer on March 5, Boots on Main on April 2, Back to the '80s on May 7, and Tune Into Tropics on June 4.
7-10 p.m. Friday; Main Street, Sarasota; free; facebook.com/freshfridayssrq
2. Fruitville Grove Pumpkin Festival in Sarasota
One of the biggest fall festivals in the Sarasota area, this 38th annual event held by the farm Fruitville Grove will return this weekend, running Saturdays and Sundays through October.
The festival will feature the walk-through haunted house Hollowgraves Haunted Manor (recommended for ages 8 and up) and Mermaid Encounter (Saturdays), as well as a food truck rally, craft show, live music, kids fun zone, hold-a-skunk, pony, mini-train and hay rides, hug-a-goat, butterfly garden experience and more.
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Oct. 3-4, Oct. 10-11, 17-18, 24-25 and Oct. 31-Nov. 1; Fruitville Grove, 7410 Fruitville Road, Sarasota; $5, free ages 6 and under (admission), $1-$10 certain rides and activities, free parking; 941-377-0896; fruitvillegrovefarm.com
3. Volleyball Tournament on Siesta Beach
Siesta Beach, named the No. 1 beach in the country by U.S. News & World Report earlier this year among other national accolades, doesn't need any help drawing visitors. However, it'll have an added attraction this weekend with a volleyball tournament.
Hosted by the Sunshine State Outdoor Volleyball Association, the tournament schedule will include Adult's Open and Men's/Women's AA-BB on Saturday, and Junior's and Coed's on Sunday.
Saturday and Sunday; Siesta Beach, 948 Beach Road, Sarasota; $93-$160 per team registration; ssova.com
4. Oktoberfest in Wellen Park
Local Oktoberfest celebrations, such as the ongoing, month-long festivities at the German restaurant Edelweiss in Bradenton, will also include this event at Sarasota County planned community Wellen Park.
The third annual celebration will feature beer, brats and other traditional food, an inaugural keg tapping at noon, polka dancing from 2 to 3:45 p.m., stein-hoisting competition at 3:45 p.m., and the DeLeon Family Oktoberfest band playing live music all day.
Noon-6 p.m. Saturday; Downtown Wellen Park, 19745 Wellen Park Blvd., Venice; free admission, $5 entry fee to stein-hoisting competition; 941-960-7805; wellenpark.com
5. Fabulous Independent Film Festival at Burns Court Cinemas
Sarasota arts and LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Fabulous Arts Foundation, which puts on the annual Be Fabulous Music and Arts Festival formerly known as the Harvey Milk Festival, also hosts this 16th annual film festival.
Friday's opening night film is "Hunky Jesus," a documentary about the San Francisco chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and Sunday's closing screening is "Free Beer Tomorrow," another documentary about the Ohio lesbian bar Jack's/Summit Station. There will be screenings of other features, as well as shorts such as "Five Men Auditioning for Terrence McNally's 'Love! Valour! Compassion!'" (McNally, who won a Tony for the play, died in Sarasota in 2020), and "Kiloran Bay" starring past Van Wezel performer Alan Cumming.
Friday-Sunday; Burns Court Cinemas, 506 Burns Court, Sarasota; $14.64, $10.38 students with ID (individual tickets), $49.87 festival passes; fabaf.org
Email entertainment reporter Jimmy Geurts at jimmy.geurts@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Top Sarasota events this weekend include street party, fall festival
