It's 904 Day AND a three-day weekend 🌴

Good morning, Southside! 🌴

Friday is 9/04 and this year it happens to kick off a three-day weekend. The forecast is classic early September: low 90s, an afternoon storm most days, and the tropics are leaving us alone for once (Edouard went to Texas). Plan for mornings and evenings, and keep an indoor option in your back pocket for 3 o'clock.

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Here's what's worth leaving the house for 👇

Let's get to it. -S

TOGETHER WITH COMMUNITY FIRST IGLOO

It's going to be 93 degrees on Saturday. There's a sheet of ice on Philips Highway.
Community First Igloo, at 3605 Philips Hwy, is where the Jacksonville Icemen practice. The rest of the week it's the neighborhood's rink: public skating sessions most days, $18 to get on the ice, $10 for kids five and under, $8 if you need skates, and free on Monday mornings if you show the Publix app. They run learn-to-skate classes, youth and adult hockey leagues, and birthday parties, and there's a tap house for whoever is holding the coats.
See the public skate schedule →

No money changed hands for this placement and this slot is free while we're small. Run a Jacksonville business? Get on the list →

904 Day at Riverfront Plaza
The city's own holiday landed on a First Friday this year, so Downtown Vision merged the two into one free night on the river: live music from Adam Cotton and Jupiter's Porch, food and dessert trucks, the Riverwalk Bar, vendors, 904-themed photo ops, face painting, and bubbles for the kids. Street parking downtown is free after 6, and the Water Street garage is $5. If you want to make a full day of it, there's a free downtown walking tour from the Visitor Center at 100 N Laura St at 9:30 that morning, no sign-up needed. (Downtown, worth the drive.)Riverfront Plaza, 2 W Independent Dr · Fri Sept 4, 5:00-9:00 PM · Free

[Sat-Sun] · 🚚 Monster Jam
Twelve-thousand-pound trucks in the arena, three shows across two days: Saturday at 1 and 7, Sunday at 1. The Pit Party runs 10:30 to noon both days if your kid wants to see the trucks up close and get a driver's autograph. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

[Fri-Mon] · 🦁 $9.04 off at the Zoo
The Jacksonville Zoo is taking $9.04 off general admission all four days, applied automatically when you buy online. Saturday is also SUPER Saturday: costumed superheroes, princesses, and mermaids around the grounds from 10 to 2, with a scavenger hunt that earns your family a free ticket to the zoo's Spooktacular this fall. (Northside, worth the drive.)

🖼️ Free admission at the Cummer
The Cummer drops admission to zero from 11 to 4 for 904 Day, with live music and lawn games out in the gardens. If you've been meaning to see the "Moment in Time" photography show, it closes Sunday, so this is the free window. (Riverside, worth the drive.)

🌿 904 Day at the Garden
The Garden Club of Jacksonville opens its riverfront campus for a small business showcase, food trucks, live music, lawn games, raffles, and guided tours. Free, with a suggested $9.04 donation if you're feeling it. A short walk up Riverside from the Cummer, so you can do both. (Riverside, worth the drive.)

🏒 Icemen Jersey Unveil and 904 Day Celebration 📍Philips Hwy
The Icemen got a whole new look over the summer, and this is where the new jerseys get shown for the first time, at their practice rink on Philips Highway. Hockey Ops Q&A, exclusive merch, and skating. It's their 10th anniversary season, and the home opener isn't until October 16, so this is the early look. RSVP through the team site.

🍹 904 Day After Hours
Visit Jacksonville's toast to the city in James Weldon Johnson Park: a Duuuval-Rita at the bar, music from Mr. Al Pete, and food from Jazzy Krab, Jax Lumpia, Hard Pressed Burgers, Rolling Fatty's, and Scoop and Swirl. A few blocks from Riverfront Plaza, so you can bounce between the two. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🍺 904 Day Adult Mixer at Pour Taproom
Free, after-work, and grown: live music from Dats Pressure Band, two DJs, and a host, at the self-pour taproom on Laura Street. Grab a free ticket ahead of time. Tables are the paid option. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🤍 Blanco After Dark at Babylon 📍Baymeadows
Jacksonville's long-running all-white R&B party is back, and it's on Baymeadows this time. DJ Byrd presents, the dress code is all white and they mean it, and it runs until 2.

📚 Story Time in the Square 📍San Marco
First Saturday of the month, which means the San Marco Preservation Society and San Marco Bookstore read to the littles at the gazebo in Balis Park. Bring a blanket, seating is first come first served, and it runs rain or shine unless there's real lightning.

🍋 The Lemon Drop Festival
An outdoor cocktail festival built around one drink: lemon drop martinis in more flavors than you knew existed, live music, food trucks, and a vendor market on the river at Ford on Bay. Grown-ups only. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

⚽ Sporting Jax vs Lexington SC
Jacksonville's first-year pro soccer club plays a Saturday night home match at UNF's Hodges Stadium. Kickoff is 7, so the sun is going down by the second half and the heat with it. (UNF, a short hop from the Southside.)

🎭 The Dialogue
A stage play that puts Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela in the same room, with their wives, and lets them argue about justice, faith, and what they left behind. Free, all ages, free parking, doors at 5 for a 7 o'clock curtain. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🎸 Juanes at the Florida Theatre
The Colombian rock star brings his North American tour to the Florida Theatre on the Sunday of a long weekend, which means you can actually go. Doors at 7, show at 8. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🌴 SANGRIA: An All Inclusive Experience
Jacksonville Caribbean Carnival's Labor Day Sunday send-off: premium drinks and a Caribbean menu are both included in the ticket, two DJs, and a sunset over the river from The Social on Cesery. Dress is casual to dressy, Caribbean colors encouraged. (Arlington, worth the hop.)

🎧 The Crystal Method at Myth
Electronic music veterans The Crystal Method headline a Labor Day takeover with a full undercard across the main room and the terrace. A Sunday night before a Monday off is the only night this makes sense, and it does. 18 and up, free parking. (Downtown.)

🏃 Run Jax Labor Day 5K 📍Baymeadows
A flat, certified 5K that starts on Baymeadows Road in front of 1st Place Sports and runs through Beauclerc, with a one-mile fun run at 8:30 after. Everybody gets a finisher medal. Register by Sunday to save $5, and packet pickup is Friday and Saturday at any 1st Place Sports.

⛸️ Labor Day Summer Closeout Skate 📍Philips Hwy
The Igloo drops public skating to $12 for two sessions on Labor Day. It'll be 90 outside and a whole lot less than that in here. Skate rental is $8 if you need it, and the sessions fall between late morning and mid afternoon, so it slots right after the 5K.

A few Jacksonville things worth knowing, minus the doom-scroll:

That's the weekend, Southside. Go do one thing off this list, then reply and tell me how it went.

See you next Thursday,
-S

The Southside Brief · San Marco to Mandarin, plus the best of Jax worth the drive · thesouthsidebrief.com