Two blocks of downtown Fort Lauderdale will be busy over the long weekend. On the west end of Las Olas Boulevard, the Broward Center will run four Cirque Dreams Holidaze shows in three days. A few blocks east, NSU Art Museum will open its doors for free to anyone who can prove a Fort Lauderdale address. The free day comes on Sunday, after five ticketed performances on Friday and Saturday, though Cirque's last show and three film screenings share Sunday with it. The weekend's other free event, Christmas on Las Olas, is on Tuesday. Counted by what it costs a resident, downtown's Thanksgiving weekend doesn't end on Sunday afternoon. It ends at 10 p.m. on December 1.
Here is the order it runs in:
- Friday, Nov. 27: Cirque Dreams Holidaze at 4 p.m. and A John Denver Christmas at The Parker at 7:30 p.m.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: Cirque at 3 and 7 p.m., plus an afternoon screening of Bitter Christmas on the FLIFF calendar.
- Sunday, Nov. 29: Good Morning, House at Andy's Corner Coffee, free resident admission at NSU Art Museum, Cirque's final show and three more Bitter Christmas screenings.
- Tuesday, Dec. 1: the 64th Christmas on Las Olas, 5 to 10 p.m.
The Riverwalk's holiday lights stay on along the New River every night in between.
The Free Day Comes on Sunday
NSU Art Museum, at One East Las Olas Boulevard, runs Fort Lauderdale Neighbor Day on the last Sunday of every month. In November, that's Sunday, Nov. 29, from noon to 5 p.m. The museum's event page lists what residents get:
- Free admission with a photo ID, driver's license or residential utility bill showing a Fort Lauderdale address
- 2-for-1 wine in the Museum Café
- 10% off books published by NSU Art Museum at the Museum Cafe & Store
The City of Fort Lauderdale makes the program possible, according to the museum. The proof-of-address rule matters on a holiday weekend. Visiting relatives with out-of-state licenses don't qualify. A downtown resident whose license still shows an old address can bring a utility bill instead.
The timing matters because of what's on the walls. Two exhibitions opened at the museum on Nov. 15, so the November Neighbor Day is the first free resident day since they opened.
Two New Shows, and Several Others With Closing Dates
Frozen Gestures follows expressive movement in sculpture from Abstract Expressionism to the present. It takes its title from a term for the moment when Lynda Benglis' pours of pigmented latex, spilled straight onto the floor in the late 1960s, hardened into their final form. Frank Stella turns up too, with his early-1990s work pouring molten metal into sand molds and using 3D printing to make forms that look like brushstrokes.
Ragnar Kjartansson: Sunday Without Love is a single-channel video projected at room size. It records a performance from September 2025 on the Renon Plateau in Northern Italy, where Kjartansson and nine performers sing the same fragile chorus over and over, adapted from a 1990s German song. Both new exhibitions run through April 11, 2027.
The shows that were already up have earlier closing dates. According to the museum's Currently on View page, they are:
- A Backward Glance: Highlights from the William J. Glackens Collection, through Feb. 7, 2027
- Michael Richards: Escape Plan, through Feb. 14, 2027
- Joel Meyerowitz: Aftermath, through Feb. 14, 2027
- Wifredo Lam's Legacy, through March 14, 2027
- Christo and Jeanne-Claude Surrounded Islands Documentation Exhibition, through spring 2027
Counting forward on the calendar, the last Sundays left before the Glackens, Richards and Meyerowitz shows close are Nov. 29, Dec. 27 and Jan. 31. That leaves a resident three free visits to see them. The museum's Neighbor Day page covers the November date. Check the museum's events calendar for December and January before you plan around them. Thanksgiving Sunday is the only one of the three that both new exhibitions are also part of while family is still in town.
Before Sunday, You Pay for Tickets
Friday and Saturday on this end of Las Olas mean ticketed shows. The Broward Center lists Cirque Dreams Holidaze in the Au-Rene Theater at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 27, at 3 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 29. The Sunday matinee starts while the museum is in the middle of its free hours. A household that wants both will need to split up or choose.
On Friday night, Wells Hall at The Parker hosts Rocky Mountain High Experience: A John Denver Christmas, starring Rick Schuler, at 7:30 p.m.
The Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival's November calendar lists Bitter Christmas on Saturday, Nov. 28 at 1 p.m., and on Sunday, Nov. 29 at 2, 4:30 and 7 p.m. FLIFF runs screenings at Savor Cinema and at the W Hotel Fort Lauderdale, so check which venue each showing is at when you book.
Sunday morning starts before the museum opens. Good Morning, House runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Andy's Corner Coffee, 727 N. Federal Highway. Its Las Olas Boulevard event listing describes it as an event that "brings coffee culture and the dance floor together for a feel-good Sunday experience in downtown Fort Lauderdale." It overlaps the museum's noon opening by two hours, so you can go from one to the other on the same Sunday.
The Lights Stay On Every Night
The one thing running all weekend is along the river. Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale started Light Up Lauderdale on Thursday, Nov. 5, with a lighting ceremony at Esplanade Park. The city describes it as a 10-week celebration of holiday lights along the banks of the New River. Counting ten weeks from the launch takes the display into mid-January. By Thanksgiving it will have been up for three weeks, and it will still be up after Christmas on Las Olas.
Esplanade Park sits on the river behind the Broward Center, so the lit stretch is right outside a Cirque show as it lets out after dark. On Saturday, the 7 p.m. show lets out onto lights that are free to walk.
Tuesday Ends the Weekend
The Las Olas Association's 64th annual Christmas on Las Olas is Tuesday, Dec. 1, from 5 to 10 p.m. It covers East Las Olas Boulevard between SE 6th and SE 11th avenues. The organizer bills it as free and open to everyone, with a holiday marketplace, live performances, Santa's Village, Snow Mountain and ice skating. To get there, the event page suggests the Water Taxi or the Circuit ride service and links to parking and valet information.
So the weekend has two free days. A Fort Lauderdale address gets you into the museum on Sunday, and Christmas on Las Olas on Tuesday is free for everyone. Between them is a Monday with nothing scheduled downtown. Friday and Saturday hold the paid shows. For a resident counting costs, the cheapest stretch of the holiday comes after the guests have gone home.
Three days later, the Las Olas event calendar lists Merry Market @ Luigi's on Friday, Dec. 4, from 5 to 9 p.m., with 14 vendors.
A Storefront to Watch on the Way
The Christmas on Las Olas footprint passes 609 E. Las Olas Blvd., where Big City Tavern operated for 25 years until it closed at the end of September. The Sun Sentinel reported on Nov. 7 that Parisol, a French brasserie, will take over the space after a total renovation and is aiming for a mid-January opening. If that date holds, the brasserie would open about when the Riverwalk lights come down.
Living a few blocks from Las Olas means the boulevard's calendar shapes your weekends, whether that's a free museum Sunday, a Tuesday street festival, or a new brasserie in a 25-year-old restaurant space. If you own a downtown condo and want to know what that location is worth today, Team Van Zyl can put together a current home value with you before the new year.
