The Jags are finally home, and the Shrimp say goodbye 🌴

Good morning, Southside! 🌴

Sunday the Jaguars are home for the first time this season, which means half this side of town will be pointed at the stadium by noon.

In between, the Jumbo Shrimp play the last two home games of their season with fireworks after both, so if you have been saying all summer that you would get out to the ballpark, this is the end of the runway. It is still September in Jacksonville, so plan around the three o'clock storm and bring more water than you think you need.

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

Let's get to it. -S

Jumbo Shrimp vs. Gwinnett Stripers, the final homestand
Baseball season ends at VyStar Ballpark this weekend. The Shrimp close out the year against Gwinnett with a game Friday and a game Saturday, and there are fireworks after both of them. Friday is First Responders Night, with complimentary tickets for first responders and a dollar off if you wear red. Saturday is Fan Appreciation Day: a block party outside the gates starting at 4, a Shrimp neck pillow for the first 2,000 people through the Main Gate on Georgia Street, then the last home game and the last fireworks of 2026. After Saturday they finish the season on the road and that is it until spring. (Downtown, worth the drive.)VyStar Ballpark, 301 A. Philip Randolph Blvd · Fri Sept 11, 7:05 PM · Sat Sept 12, 6:35 PM · See ticket link

📍 San Marco Social 📍San Marco
The San Marco Merchants Association and the San Marco Preservation Society host a standing drink-and-talk this afternoon, and here is the part most people miss: it is open to residents and business owners whether or not you are a member of anything. If you live in San Marco and have ever wondered who actually runs the neighborhood, this is the room.

[Fri-Sat] · 🐬 Florida Fin Fest
A free two-day music and ocean-conservation festival on the sand at the Seawalk Pavilion, with Andy Frasco & The U.N., Magic City Hippies and Future Joy on the main stage, local vendors and a beach clean-up over the weekend. Heads up on Friday: the 9/11 Heroes Run starts from the same pavilion at 6, so beach parking is going to be tight between five and seven. Go early or park north and walk. (Jax Beach, worth the drive.)

[Fri-Sun] · 🌸 Art in Bloom closes at the Cummer
The Cummer's nature-and-flowers show has been up since February and it comes down Sunday, so this is the last weekend. It pairs the museum's own collection with contemporary work from Jane Hammond, Kim Cridler and Ann Wood, and it is included with regular admission, which means the gardens too. Free if you are a member, if your kid is five or under, or if you are a college student on a weekday. (Riverside, worth the drive.)

🐮 Kid Cow and Me at Chick-fil-A Mandarin 📍Mandarin
A free monthly hour and a half of themed activities for little kids on Oak Bluff Lane, off San Jose. It is a chain, and it is also the only thing happening in Mandarin on a Friday morning, and Mandarin is in our masthead. Take the win.

🇺🇸 9/11 Heroes Run 5K
Twenty-five years. The Travis Manion Foundation's run goes off from the Seawalk Pavilion at six on Friday evening, with running, walking and rucking divisions, and it honors the first responders and service members who went in after. Registration stays open until 6:30 that night if you decide late. (Jax Beach, worth the drive.)

😂 Maddy Smith at the Comedy Zone 📍Mandarin
The Wild 'N Out cast member does two shows Friday and two more Saturday at the club on Hartley Road, which is about ten minutes from most of Mandarin and somehow has never been in this newsletter. Twenty-one and up, and doors open an hour before each show.

🎤 Ron White
Tater Salad himself, at the Moran Theater downtown, doing the thing he has been doing with a cigar and a glass of scotch since the Blue Collar tours. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🌉 Vestcor 5K Bridge Run
A downtown 5K that actually goes over the bridges, starting and finishing on Water Street by the Lofts at LaVilla. The one-mile fun run goes off at 8 and the 5K at 8:30. Register by Friday to save ten dollars, and packet pickup is Thursday and Friday at 1st Place Sports or race morning from 6:30. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🏎️ Cruis'n JSCM at the Jax Sports Car Museum 📍Deerwood
Forty-plus rare sports cars in the museum's own collection, plus fifteen hand-picked 80s and 90s cars from local owners competing for a people's choice award, plus the unveiling of whatever hypercar they just bought. Eighties and nineties music, a game room, a food truck, free parking. Fifteen dollars, ten for military and first responders, and kids twelve and under are free with a ticketed adult. Buy ahead, they are warning that walk-ups may be limited.

🎭 Ritz Theatre & Museum Community Appreciation Day
The Ritz turns twenty-seven years since it reopened, and they are throwing a free family day for the neighborhood with Hot 106.5 and DeDe in the Morning on site. If you have never been inside the museum, this is the free door. (LaVilla, worth the drive.)

🤝 9/11 Day of Service Block Party
The Red Hands Family Foundation is putting on music, food and games at the Hunger Fight warehouse on Harper Street, in memory of the people lost on 9/11 and in the spirit of the day-of-service thing that grew out of it. Free. Bring nonperishable food if you can. (Riverside, worth the drive.)

🎷 Saturday Sounds at the Fountain
Live music at Friendship Fountain every Saturday night, and the second Saturday of the month is the jazz one, so that is this week. Food trucks, the Fountain Bar, and the skyline across the water while the sun goes down. Free, and one of the better cheap nights downtown. (Southbank, worth the drive.)

⚽ Sporting Jax vs. Rhode Island FC
Second home match in eight days for the first-year club, out at UNF. Kickoff at 7, tickets start around fifteen dollars, and it is the cheapest professional sport in this city by a wide margin. (UNF, a short hop from the Southside.)

🍺 Brew at the Zoo
The zoo after dark, with samples from more than fifty breweries, food vendors, a DJ and keepers out talking about the animals. Twenty-one and up with a real ID, no exceptions and no kids. There is a designated-driver ticket for a lot less if you are the one driving home. (Northside, worth the drive.)

🎻 Greensky Bluegrass
The Michigan jam-grass band at the Florida Theatre on a Saturday night. Loud, long, and not really bluegrass by the end of the second set, which is the point. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🏈 Jaguars home opener vs. Cleveland Browns
First home game of the season, one o'clock kickoff, on CBS 47 if you are watching from the couch. Tickets are the usual home-opener price, so this is either the weekend you splurge or the weekend you find a good seat somewhere with a screen. (Downtown, worth the drive.)

🎺 Shofar in the Square 📍San Marco
Chabad San Marco brings the shofar out to San Marco Square on the last evening of Rosh Hashanah, for the blowing of the horn and tashlich. It is free, it is outdoors in Balis Park, and it is open to anyone who wants to stand there for it. They ask that you RSVP through their site so they know roughly how many chairs.

🎙️ Big Chip Presents: Stroke Talk 3 📍Mandarin
A local stand-up showcase at the Comedy Zone on Hartley Road, Sunday night, twenty bucks. Sunday shows at a comedy club are usually the local guys getting a real room, which is the best value in stand-up. Twenty-one and up.

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

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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