This Week in South Florida: October 19–25

Halloween week is the best week of the fall calendar, and this year it lands with range: a haunted carnival on Monday, ABBA singalongs in Fort Lauderdale, stone crab season opening on the sand in Miami Beach, candlelight concerts in two historic rooms, Chayanne at Kaseya Center, and a 90-year-old blues legend in West Palm Beach.

Every pick below was checked on October 19, 2026 — real event, real venue, real date — and every one passes the date test: you can picture a couple having a genuinely great night here. Every event name links straight to tickets or the venue, and every link was verified live before this draft went for approval.

Monday, Oct 19

House of Horror Haunted Carnival — 6–11 PM, Tropical Park, 7900 SW 40th St, Miami, FL 33155. From $39.99 online, and Monday is the smart night: the Maniac Monday deal drops admission to $29.99. Five haunted houses — including Howie's Blind Terror, a haunted dark roller coaster — plus unlimited carnival rides and free parking are all included. A haunted house is a perfect early date: you find out fast who grabs whose arm. New this year, the 21+ Club Blood Type lounge is a cocktail break between scares. Get tickets.

Tuesday, Oct 20

The Concert: A Tribute to ABBA — 7:30 PM, The Parker, 707 NE 8th St, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304. Billed as the closest thing to ABBA you'll ever see, the setlist is wall-to-wall singalong: “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia,” “Waterloo.” Dinner on Las Olas first, then a room where everyone ends up dancing in the aisle. Get tickets.

Historic Ghost Tours at Deering Estate — 7:30–9:30 PM, Deering Estate, 16701 SW 72nd Ave, Palmetto Bay, FL 33157. $45 per person. Rangers walk small groups through the historic Richmond Cottage after dark, sharing the estate's paranormal reports — cold spots, unexplained sounds, decades of staff stories. Bring a flashlight and arrive 15 minutes early; late arrivals don't get in, and it sells out. Book the tour.

Wednesday, Oct 21

South Beach Seafood Festival opens — Made in Miami dinner, 7–10 PM, Phuc Yea, 7100 Biscayne Blvd, Miami. $235 per person. The 14th annual festival kicks off stone crab season with a one-night-only collaborative dinner from six of the chefs who built Miami's dining scene. It's the splurge pick of the week: one seating, one menu, no decisions all night. Get tickets.

SoundScape Cinema Series: Casper — 8 PM, SoundScape Park, 400 17th St, Miami Beach, FL 33139. Free. The City of Miami Beach projects movies onto the New World Center's 7,000-square-foot outdoor wall every Wednesday, and this week's pick is the friendly-ghost classic. Bring a blanket, pack a picnic, and claim a spot on the grass early — the best free date in Miami Beach. See the series schedule.

Thursday, Oct 22

Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band — 7:30 PM, Kravis Center, Helen K. Persson Hall, 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. Singer Julia Keefe — who has shared stages with Tony Bennett and Bonnie Raitt — leads a big band celebrating Indigenous jazz pioneers like Mildred Bailey in the Kravis Center's intimate Persson Hall, and every PEAK Series ticket includes a complimentary beverage. Dinner on Clematis Street first, then brassy, romantic jazz — the Palm Beach pick of the week. Get tickets.

South Beach Seafood Festival: An Evening in Miami Beach — 7 PM, choice of Rao's Miami Beach or Macchialina, Miami Beach. Night two of the festival is a pair of intimate, multi-course chef dinners with wine and cocktail pairings. Pick Rao's for old-school red-sauce romance or Macchialina for rustic Italian. Get tickets.

Friday, Oct 23

Chef Showdown at the South Beach Seafood Festival — 7–11 PM, Lummus Park, 1130 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139. $175, all-inclusive. Twenty chefs battle head-to-head on the sand, you taste everything, and you vote for the champion — endless seafood and cocktails included. Dinner, a show, and an argument about who deserved to win, in one ticket. Wear shoes that handle sand. Get tickets.

DOPE LEMON — 8 PM, ZeyZey Miami, 353 NE 61st St, Miami, FL 33137. From $53. Angus Stone's solo project makes hazy, slow-groove records that sound like a drive down the coast at dusk, and ZeyZey's intimate room is the right size for it. Tacos in Little River beforehand, then a show where you can still hear each other between songs. Get tickets.

Candlelight: Halloween Classics — 8:30 PM, Fontainebleau Miami Beach, 4441 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33140. From $23. The Listeso String Quartet plays “Thriller,” the themes from The Exorcist, Halloween, Psycho, and Stranger Things, surrounded by hundreds of candles inside one of Miami Beach's grandest hotels. Sixty minutes, deeply romantic, and the spookiest it gets is a cello. Get tickets.

Saturday, Oct 24

Seafood Slam: Best of the Fest — 1–5 PM, Lummus Park, 1130 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach. $160, all-inclusive. The festival's main event: unlimited tastings from more than 40 South Florida restaurants, cocktail pavilions, live music, and a new oyster-shucking showdown. Graze together, vote for Best of the Fest, and walk it off on Ocean Drive. Get tickets.

Chayanne: Bailemos Otra Vez Tour — 8 PM, Kaseya Center, 601 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33132. From $61. The tour's name is the date plan: “Bailemos Otra Vez” — let's dance again. “Torero,” “Tiempo de Vals,” and “Dejaría Todo” in a packed arena is as romantic as Miami gets on a Saturday night. Dinner in Brickell first, and buy early — this is his only South Florida stop before Tampa. Get tickets.

Candlelight: A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics — 4 PM, 6:30 PM, and 9 PM, Scottish Rite Temple, 471 NW 3rd St, Miami, FL 33128. From $33. Same candlelit concept as Friday, different room: the Scottish Rite Temple's ornate hall is the more atmospheric setting. Take the 9 PM show — dinner downtown, then strings and candlelight. Get tickets.

Buddy Guy 90 — 7:30 PM, Kravis Center, Dreyfoos Concert Hall, 701 Okeechobee Blvd, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. The nine-time Grammy winner and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer celebrates 90 years on his only South Florida tour stop, with Florida blues guitarist Selwyn Birchwood opening. Some artists you see because you might not get another chance — hearing the man who helped invent electric blues is a shared-memory date. Get tickets.

John Scofield's Electrospective — 8 PM, Miami Beach Bandshell, 7275 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33141. From $56. The three-time Grammy-winning guitarist revisits his funk and fusion catalog with bassist Oteil Burbridge (Allman Brothers, Dead & Company) under the Bandshell's open sky, steps from the sand. An easy sell for a date who claims not to like jazz. Get tickets.

Sunday, Oct 25

New World Symphony: Reich, Stravinsky & Glass — 2 PM, New World Center, 500 17th St, Miami Beach, FL 33139. From $25. Grammy-winning violinist Jennifer Koh plays Philip Glass's swirling Violin Concerto No. 1 inside Frank Gehry's New World Center — a Sunday matinee that feels like an occasion without Saturday-night prices. Also performed Saturday at 7:30 PM. Lincoln Road for coffee after. Get tickets.

Sunday Breeze: Caribbean, Latin & Afrobeat Sunset Social — 6 PM, The Goodtime Hotel, 601 Washington Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33139. $30, including a welcome cocktail and passed appetizers. DJ Gairy Sweetness spins Caribbean, Latin, and Afrobeat as the sun goes down — the weekend's soft landing, and explicitly built for date night: one drink in hand, music you can dance or talk over, and no Monday-morning regrets. Get tickets.

Plan the rest of your week

That's the lineup for October 19–25. Book the small rooms first — Deering's ghost tours, the Persson Hall show at Kravis, and both Candlelight concerts sell out before the arenas do. Doing both big Seafood Festival days? Friday and Saturday also come as a $275 weekend pass.

Browse our full events calendar for everything else happening across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, and keep our fall date guide open for the nights none of these fit — ten evergreen Miami plans that work any week of the season.