These are the best things to do in Miami this weekend

Sweet Caroline is turning eight years old. You could sing the classic Happy Birthday jingle, or you could death scream to Chop Suey! instead. Anything goes at Sweet Caroline’s karaoke birthday party, happening Thursday, July 23, at their original Brickell location. Liquid courage is served from 8 to 10pm with a complimentary open bar, and for those who really want to grease the wheels, daily happy hour offers $3 beers and $7 specialty cocktails from 6 to 8pm. Ages 21+ can RSVP for free on Eventbrite.

Latin pride, psychedelic cumbia, and charity join together at Cumbia Libre, a benefit concert to support emergency relief in Venezuela. Bogotá’s buzzy psych-cumbia group, Romperayo Sound System, headlines the night, alongside Miami’s own cumbia band, Sonora Tukukuy, with support from local DJs in between. The concert takes place on Saturday, July 25, between Colombia and Peru’s national independence days, with Peruvian food vendors, live dance performances, and fun surprises to mark the occasion. All ages welcome.

For one day only, two of Miami’s Michelin-lauded restaurants will join together for a Peruvian- and Mesoamerican-inspired culinary experience. Barra Callao pops up at Los Félix in Coconut Grove on Sunday, July 26, presenting a cross-cultural à la carte menu of Peruvian-style ceviche, raw bar dishes, masa-based creations, and cocktails. Reservations are recommended, though early birds can try their luck as walk-ins, too.

Candlelit yoga at a jungle-themed studio. Need we say more? ALO, the trendy fitness brand, returns to Little River this Saturday, July 25, for an intimate vinyasa flow at Wild Thing. Led by ALO partner instructor Gala Ortin, the 60-minute class combines gentle movements with guided breathwork, surrounded by soft candlelight. After class, yogis can unwind together with snacks and beverages, and an ALO gift to take home. All levels welcome.

Summer in Miami is for melting away any stress, and self-care is never more accessible than during Miami Spa Months. Whether your skin is feeling a little parched from the heat, all those Pilates classes have you pining for a massage, or you’ve been meaning to try out that cute new medspa down the street, July and August are prime time to get out and explore all of the top Miami spas participating in the annual summertime promotion. 

Some of the best hotel spas in Miami Beach, Brickell and Sunny Isles have signed on this year, along with boutique medspas and facial spas from down south in Coral Gables up north to Aventura. They’re curating special treatment menus for the occasion, with luxurious experiences priced at $109, $159 or $199. Beyond all the amazing massages, facials and body scrubs, most of these spas sweeten the deal even further with access to amenities like steam rooms, saunas, resort pools and beaches, plus complimentary parking, welcome drinks and more. 

Availability varies, but a majority of the Miami Spa Months deals are offered daily. Just be sure to book in advance, as the best time slots tend to get snapped up quickly. For a full day of discounted indulgence, get acquainted with the Miami Spice Restaurant Months, which overlap with Spa Months in August. 

Two simultaneous exhibitions at the Lowe Art Museum on the University of Miami campus make up the most comprehensive presentation of Afro-Cuban art ever mounted. El Pasado Mio/My Own Past, organized by Harvard's Afro-Latin American Research Institute and expanded for its Miami run, brings together more than 81 works by 44 Cuban artists of African descent spanning two centuries, including nine paintings by Wifredo Lam and works by eleven female artists being exhibited together for the first time. The show restores artists who were deliberately erased from the Cuban art historical record, placing obscured figures like Pastor Argudin, Maria Ariza, and Tony Ximenez alongside better-known names like Agustin Cardenas and Maria Magdalena Campos Pons.

The companion exhibition, Afrocubanismo: Highlights from the Ramón and Nercys Cernuda Collection, traces the cultural movement that emerged in the 1930s, when a generation of Cuban artists began centering the country's African roots at a moment when most of Cuban society had actively suppressed them. The tension in that moment is part of what makes the show complex: some of these artists are seen as co-opting a history that wasn't theirs; others as genuinely trying to re-imagine Cuba through its African roots and Afro-religious forms. On view through September 12. General admission is free.

Kick off the weekend with laughs, live music, and local art at the Comedy Vybez Festival on Friday, July 24, from 4 to 10pm at the Miami Beach Bandshell. Billed as the largest Black stand-up comedy festival in South Florida, the event is part of the four-day Miami Takeover celebration and features a stacked lineup of Black comedy veterans and rising stars, including Tony Woods, Ashima Franklin, and Joe Clair, the former host of BET's Rap City. The fun doesn't stop at stand-up: enjoy live R&B performances, a soulful Toni Braxton tribute by singer Latasha Bla'q, and an immersive art activation by Miami-based muralist Rodney Royal.

If the words “Get Lost” and “Crosstown Rebels” mean anything to you, listen up. Damian Lazarus is back at Club Space for a sunrise set on the terrace, sharing the lineup with LA-based artist Enamour and South Africa’s DESIREE. Expect a bit of Afro house, genre-bending techno, and a high-energy dance floor. The wizardry begins Saturday night, July 25, and runs through Sunday afternoon in classic Space fashion.

It seems that wrestling is having a moment in Miami. The latest iteration? DeathMatch2, a punk-laced spectacle promising two stages, six wrestling matches, live bands, DJ sets, local vendors and more. As for the music, expect some metalcore, hardcore, and hard techno – the usual mosh favorites. It’s all happening Saturday, July 25, at The Boombox, a sprawling warehouse space near the Bird Road Art District. The 18+ event runs 9:30pm to 5am. Wrestling kicks off at midnight.

If your Netflix algorithm includes Wild Wild Country and Wayward, the Museum of Sex Miami's new exhibition was made for you. Utopia: Three Centuries of Sexuality in American Cults and Communes, curated by filmmaker and publisher Jodi Wille, traces how over 20 American intentional communities — from the Shakers to the Rajneesh movement to the Source Family — used sexuality, spirituality, and art to build alternative visions of society across 300 years. More than 300 artworks, photographs, films, garments, and rare artifacts make up the two-story show, nationally recognized by Artforum and the Brooklyn Rail. On view through November.

The Betsy has hosted live jazz ten times a week on Ocean Drive for years, and this summer's programming leans into Miami's multicultural identity in a real way. The anchor is the Overtown Jazz Legacy Series, which honors Miami's golden-age jazz era. On July 10, resident vocalist and Miami's "first lady of jazz" Carole Ann Taylor performs with the Angel Perez Trio, featuring Juilliard graduates Renée Cruz on bass and Brandon Lee Lewis on drums. The following night, July 11, the Bruno Tzinas Quartet takes over — led by Miami-born Manhattan School of Music trombonist Bruno Tzinas and joined by pianist and Miami Dade College educator Jim Gasior and Juilliard-bound bassist Sofia Longa, in a program curated by Nicole Yarling in partnership with WDNA Radio.

Every Tuesday through the summer, Grammy-winning pianist Tal Cohen performs at the Piano Bar as part of the Piano Masters & New Voices mentorship series alongside pianist Martin Bejerano, connecting rising Frost School of Music students with established performers. The free outdoor Promenade Concert Series continues in Lummus Park on August 2 with vocalist Amy Arlo and Jaui Schneider, and August 9 with the Assel Jean-Pierre Trio. All events are free and open to the public. For a full rundown of daily programming, check out The Betsey's cultural calendar. 

In the winter of 1984, Jack Pierson left New York for Miami Beach and spent six months in cheap apartments, thrift stores and the city's queer nightlife scene, capturing a barrier island on the brink of transformation. The Bass is currently showing the first exhibition devoted to that chapter, tracing Miami's impact on Pierson's photography, sculpture, installation and works on paper through a body of work steeped in desire, wanderlust, loneliness and the particular kind of escapism South Beach offered before Art Basel made it expensive. The anchor is ARRAY (MIAMI), a new ten-by-fourteen-foot commission combining Pierson's own photographs with posters, poems and postcards in a dense, layered collage.