The best September events in Miami

Back for its sixth season, The Horrorland unveils an 18-acre park with multiple scare zones, five all-new haunted houses, creepy carnival games and DJs spinning spine-tingling tunes all night. There are also Cirque-style horror shows and fire performances, the Coffin Bar and Ghostly Beer garden with themed libations, a Cemetery Food Village and much more. Basically, monsters, ghosts, zombies and all kinds of frightening creatures will jump up when you least expect it as you make your way through every themed passage, house and photo op.  The Horrorland runs Thursday through Sunday nights, from September 13th through October 31st, and takes place at The Scream Park located inside Jungle Island. Tickets start at $34.99, with a fast-pass option for $74.99. It’s a family-friendly attraction but the experience is recommended for children 10 and older, and carrying infants or children through is discouraged. 

This huge haunted experience is one of the largest of its kind in South Florida, and this season is stacking up to be the most epic yet, featuring five brand-new haunted attractions and Florida’s only 3D haunted house. Set inside the abandoned Sears at Miami International Mall, House of Horror 2025 spans more than 100,000 square feet of immersive, Florida-inspired nightmares (so you know it's going to be twisted), from cursed swamps and haunted farmlands to post-apocalyptic wastelands and twisted clown funhouses. Outside, two new scare zones—The Harvest and Midway Mayhem—transform the midway into a spooky realm where scare actors and creepy carnival characters lurk. Tickets include unlimited carnival rides (like the Scarecoaster, South Florida’s only haunted roller coaster) and classic midway games. While you're there, explore over 20 food and beverage options, including Halloween-themed treats and liquid courage in the form of beer from Cervecería La Tropical.

Brickell’s backyard transforms into a neighborhood bazaar for The Underline’s monthly Farmers Market, a bustling pop-up stocked with seasonal produce, baked goods, cheeses, honey, artwork, handmade crafts and more. Graze the artisanal prepared foods, grocery shop for the week and discover a new local maker you can't live without. Located at The Underline’s Brickell Backyard Promenade green crosswalk on Southwest 1st Avenue across from Southwest 9th Street, the outdoor market runs on select Saturdays through December 20th from 9am to 4pm. Free

Start your night with a sexy little skate sesh at Basement Bowl + Skate: Disco Hour at The Miami Beach EDITION. Every Saturday, house spirits, beer, and wine are half off from 10pm to midnight, with half-hour skate sessions starting at $30 and skate rentals included (just don't forget your socks). Between the neon-lit bowling lanes and the ice rink, DJs play rotating parties like Vibras Y Bowl on the first Saturday and Neon Nights & Strikes on the third.

The Coconut Grove Farmers Market is probably Miami’s most well-known. Every Saturday, Homestead's Glaser Organic Farms transforms an unoccupied corner of Coconut Grove into a full-fledged produce market with dozens of fruit and vegetable stands, a raw bar featuring prepared foods and salads and coolers filled with cold-pressed juices and nut mylks. There’s even velvety vegan ice cream for sale and several rows of picnic tables where you can sit and enjoy your bounty. Along its periphery, you’ll find other local vendors selling honey, homemade soaps, handmade jewelry and other artisanal items. And the setup and breakdown are so fascinating to watch! Much like the circus leaving town, everyone quickly dismantles their tents and packs up just after sunset, leaving no trace of the bustling day on the empty gravel lot.

Elliot & Erick Jiménez: El Monte is the Cuban twin photography duo’s first solo museum exhibition, marking their leap from award-winning image makers for the likes of Prada, Tiffany’s, Bad Bunny and Selena Gomez to multi-disciplinary artists on an institutional stage. Inspired by the Afro-Caribbean spiritual tradition of Lucumí and Lydia Cabrera’s seminal text El Monte, the show centers on a womb-like, chapel-meets-forest installation alongside photographs and sculptural works that explore spirituality, ancestry and identity. 

On South Beach, Ocean Drive tends to get all the glory. But just two blocks west, Washington Avenue is home to countless local favorites and hidden gems, along with its own vibrant history as a business district. Every other weekend, explore all the latest the street has to offer at Vibration, the fourth-annual live music series that spans 11 genres across 11 diverse venues, from 5th Street to 17th Street. The roving live music tour hits the rooftop lounge at Esmé Miami Beach, Mickey Burkes Irish pub, the chill tap room at South Beach Brewing Company, inimitible dive bar Mac's Club Deuce and several more. Purchase a $25 passport to receive a free genre-themed drink at each of the 11 participating spots, where you'll hear everything from hip-hop, rock and jazz to reggae, funk and house. There's even a karaoke stop along the way.

Legion Park is the place to be on a beautiful Saturday morning, as tents pop up from Biscayne Boulevard all the way to Biscayne Bay. Run by Urban Oasis Project, which oversees some of Miami’s most important farmers markets, you’ll find produce from local favorites like Little River Cooperative and French Farms, artisan-made goods like fresh bread, hummus and empanadas (the Chilean ones are excellent), and even dog treats. (Don’t worry, Fido always gets a free sample.) In the morning, a hundred or so yogis gather under the Spanish oak-draped banyan trees for a donation-based yoga class and then stock up on goods from some of the new-age vendors onsite.

Miami's biggest night for improv comedy happens every Saturday at Villain Theater in the heart of Little Haiti. Enjoy original, spontaneous live performances from some of the fiercest improvisers across South Florida. Shout out a suggestion and become a part of the action as the theater's talented cast of actors spins hysterical yarns over the course of two Second City-style improv shows. Mingle and sip beers in the lobby lounge in between sets: A ticket grants you access to both the 8:30 and 10pm showtimes.

On view from May 1 through October 12, ICA Miami debuts a landmark retrospective of Olga de Amaral, the visionary Colombian artist whose 60-year-plus career transformed textile and fiber art as it merged indigenous weaving with Bauhaus design and Modernist abstraction. Presented with Fondation Cartier, the show features over 50 works, from goldleaf Estelas to airy Brumas, including pieces originally commissioned for major public spaces and many never before seen outside Colombia. The show invites viewers to step into a meditative “vertical forest” designed by award-winning architect Lina Ghotmeh, where Amaral’s tactile, light-absorbing works take center stage.