Akia Uwanda, zoo lights and death metal: Top 5 things to do this weekend in Jacksonville
The fireworks are over (except for that one guy) and things are starting to slow down a bit as Northeast Florida settles into its summer routine. Friday nights are getting more fun. A new event, Summer at the Cummer, kicks off with the first of 10 free Friday night events at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, and the zoo is lit up with lasers and stilt-walkers for its IllumiNights Summer Spectacle. There's also a concert by a big Mexican star and a couple of death metal shows, just to keep things interesting.
Summer at the Cummer
The doors of the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens on Riverside Avenue are open for free from 4-9 p.m. on Friday nights this summer. This week's Summer at the Cummer event features outdoor games, Connor Hickey playing on the cafe patio and Akia Uwanda performing on the upper tier.
llumiNights Summer Spectacle
The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens closes its gates at 5 p.m. every day, but on Fridays this summer they are flung back open from 6-10 p.m. for IllumiNights Summer Spectacle. Most zoo exhibits will remain open until 8 p.m. and visitors can check out the visiting Dinosauria attraction, an interactive laser show on the Great Lawn, stilt-walkers and acrobats, bubbles in the Play Park and light shows in the foliage. $24-$29.
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‘Bluey’s Big Play’
If you don’t know who Bluey, Bingo, Bandit and Chilli are, you clearly don’t have young kids. The stars of the hugely popular Disney Junior show come to the stage as life-size puppets for a new story, "Bluey's Big Play." Performances are at the Moran Theater in downtown Jacksonville at 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. $34.50-$71.
Gerardo Diaz concert
Lots of musicians have cool nicknames, but Gerardo Diaz is known to fans as "El Cerebro de Oro," which, at least according to Google Translate, means "The Golden Brain." That's also the title of his 2022 album, a big hit in the world of the Tierra Caliente music of southern Mexico. Diaz plays a concert at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Jacksonville Equestrian Center. Voz de Mando and Salazar are also on the bill. $70.
Metal mania
We try not to get too hung up on band names — some are clever, some are dull, some are just weird — but, wow, look at these two shows coming to Jacksonville this weekend. Friday night, Jack Rabbits in San Marco welcomes the Behold the Brutality Tour with Violence System (a symphonic death metal band from Atlanta) atop a bill that also includes Subdivisions, Truth to Power and the Fallen Sons ($10). Sunday night, 1904 Music Hall in downtown Jacksonville brings in the Florida Swamp Tour with Obituary, a pioneering Tampa death metal band, headlining a show with opening acts 200 Stab Wounds and Tribal Gaze ($25-$30).
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Fun things to do this weekend in Jacksonville, Florida
