Your Top 6 Things to Do: Oct. 18-24
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Hunsader Pumpkin Festival
Oct. 20-21 and 27-28
The granddaddy of all area fall festivals, this 27th annual event features hayrides, pumpkin games, scarecrow displays, a petting zoo and children’s train rides, craft vendors, homemade ice cream and so much more. Get the scoop here.
Sun Fiesta
Oct. 19-21
Venice’s hugely popular celebration includes bed races, a Miss Sun Fiesta competition, arts and crafts, a kid’s corner and lots of food. This year, because of downtown street reconstruction, there’s no parade, but it’s promised to return in 2019. Get the complete schedule of events here. .
Mary's Chapel at Historic Spanish Point.
Full Moon Ghost Tour at Historic Spanish Point
Oct. 24
Spooky times afoot at Historic Spanish Point, as the 30-acre living museum on Sarasota Bay presents three full moon walking ghost tours next Wednesday evening. Stops at the prehistoric burial mound and pioneer cemetery are included, natch.
Kenny G
Kenny G
Oct. 19
You didn’t score tickets to Bob Dylan’s sold-out Sunday night show at the Van Wezel? There’s always an evening with smooth jazz saxophone star Kenny G. The Grammy Award-winner returns to the Van Wezel for one show Friday.
Matthew Duvall
Image: Courtesy The Ringling
Matthew Duvall: Transient Landscapes and Rhythm of the Ringling Season Kick-off Party
Oct. 19-20
The Ringling Museum’s beautiful bayfront gardens become “an instrument for sound” when percussionist Matthew Duvall, co-founder of Grammy Award-winning eighth Blackbird, presents outdoor performances all around the campus starting at 10:30 a.m. Saturday. (Friday evening ticketed show in the Historic Asolo Theatre, too.) Learn more about it here. Saturday evening Duvall and the Kraken Quartet help the Ringling kick off its season with a Rhythm of the Ringling party in the museum courtyard. Fireworks are promised!
Mote's Fish, Fun and Fright.
Fish, Fun and Fright at Mote Aquarium
Oct. 20
Calling all buoys and ghouls for an afternoon of Halloween fun at Mote Aquarium, with shark teeth hunts in “Coffin Creek," deep sea delights in the “Diner of the Dead" and Mad Science experiments and activities. There’s even an underwater pumpkin carving in the shark habitats. Come in costume; children 3 and under admitted free.
