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The St. Johns Tattler
Watching St. Johns County.

The Scene

Shows, cheap eats, beach days, and what's actually happening this weekend.

scene

Satsang under the oak at 6, and the free rooms carry Sunday until 1

The touring show is at Colonial Oak Music Park, ticketed, from $28.41 on Eventbrite. The Original Cafe Eleven has Sons of Paradise and Stylie at 7:30, all ages. Prohibition Kitchen, Tradewinds and the Milltop play on with no cover printed anywhere, and the free STAR shuttle runs the beach loop until 9.

Cheap Eats & Late Night

Saturday: A Flock of Seagulls at 8, and the music runs to 1:30

Forty-seven listings on the county calendar today. The two ticketed rooms are A Flock of Seagulls at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, doors 6:30, $52.79 to $81.14, and Ellis Paul at Cafe Eleven, doors 7, all ages with a $5 under-21 fee at the door. After nine the night belongs to four rooms, and Tradewinds holds the latest, to 1:30 a.m. The free STAR shuttle runs to 11 tonight.

THE SCENE

Art Walk runs 5 to 9 tonight and the music goes past 1 a.m.

Friday, Nov. 6: the First Friday Art Walk opens the galleries for free from 5 to 9, Bruce Cockburn plays the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall at 8 with doors at 6:30, the Mill Top runs three sets ending at midnight, and Blistur holds Tradewinds until 1:30 in the morning. Hastings runs its Fall Harvest Festival through Saturday. Not one bar on tonight's list prints a cover.

Campus & Young Life

Some polling places moved since 2024, and polls run 7 to 7 today

Voting today costs nothing and has one condition worth checking before you leave: the place. The Supervisor of Elections says some election day polling locations have changed since the 2024 cycle, and election day voting is at your assigned precinct only. Bring a photo ID with a signature; the voter information card does not count. A mail ballot still at home has to be driven to 4455 Avenue A by 7 p.m. After the polls: live music in at least five rooms tonight, free trivia around the county, and a Terrific Tuesday Mockingbird at the Limelight at 7:30. The beach stays out, with the rip current risk high into late tonight.

THE SCENE

Three rooms have live music tonight and trivia starts at six

Monday, Nov. 2: a singer at Prohibition Kitchen from 6 to 9, the Tradewinds grid runs three acts deep into the night, the Mill Top plays until 8:30, and eight trivia nights run from Kingfish at 6 to Cafe Eleven at 7:30. Nothing on tonight's list prints a cover. And the polls open at 7 tomorrow morning.

Nightlife & Local Music

Jake Shimabukuro plays Cafe Eleven at 8, and Sunday ends by 10

The ukulele player who sells out theaters is in a 501 A1A Beach Boulevard room tonight, seated, all ages, with a $5 under-21 fee at the door. Eighteen listings run on the bureau calendar, Mill Top has sets at noon and 4:30, Prohibition Kitchen has De Lions of Jah at 6, the free STAR bus runs 9 to 9, and the clocks went back an hour overnight.

Cheap Eats & Late Night

Halloween Saturday: a free show at 7, three rooms past 11

Tangled Orchid plays Colonial Oak free at 7. Mill Top's own page runs the Chuck Eliot Duo to 11:59. The corn maze stays open to 10. The STAR shuttle is free until 11 tonight, the rip current risk is high into Sunday, and the last early-voting ballots go in by 6 p.m.

Campus & Young Life

Halloween eve: the haunted trail moved, and tonight is its last night

EstuSCARY runs 7 to 9:30 tonight and then it is over; it does not run on Halloween. The page now says LOCATION UPDATE: Guana River Dam, 505 Guana River Road, not the South Beach Access lot it said last week, and at least one event calendar still lists the old one. $20 online, $30 at the trail. The free hour is the Shores trunk-or-treat, 6 to 7. All eight county football teams play tonight, the bureau lists 37 rooms with live music and prints a cover on none, and the rip current risk stays high through Sunday evening.

THE SCENE

Halloween is Saturday, the Amp is dark, and two shows are free

The rip current statement runs to 8 p.m. Friday, so the water is out for two more days and Saturday is the first clean one. Colonial Oak is free both Thursday and Halloween night, 7 to 10, with Tangled Orchid on the 31st. Prohibition Kitchen has four bands across three nights and prints no cover on any of them. EstuScary is $20 to $30 and wants you in costume. Saturday has a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms after 2 p.m.

Tuesday

Fifteen sets on a Tuesday, and nobody prints a cover

The visitor bureau's music calendar lists twelve live sets in St. Johns County today, from noon at the Mill Top to one in the morning at the Tradewinds. Three more are on venue calendars the bureau's list does not carry, including a 1 p.m. early show at the Tradewinds and a second Mill Top set at 4:30. Not one of the four documents prints a cover charge or a ticket price for any of the fifteen. Every room on this list is a bar, and the earliest one starts while you are still at work.

Monday

Halloween week opens with the beach shut and one band at six

A coastal flood warning runs to 5 a.m. Wednesday with breaking waves of 8 to 10 feet and a high rip current risk through late Tuesday night, so the water is out for two days. Tonight is Micah Gilliam at Prohibition Kitchen from 6 to 9 and a free author talk at the Waterworks at 5:30. The Castillo is free on Tuesday. Everything with a costume on it is Thursday or later.

Cheap Eats

Five Sunday happy hours, and not one publishes a price

Forty-nine restaurants in this county are tagged for happy hour. Twenty publish a window on their own page. Five of those windows run on a Sunday, and the pick is a sports grill on US 1 that says all day. Four of the five pages opened tonight and not one of them has a dollar figure on it. A wind advisory runs until 8 p.m. and a coastal flood warning covers the ocean side of the county from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, so the inland pick is the pick.

Saturday

The beach is out, and $10 buys three blues bands tonight

A high surf advisory for breaking waves of 7 to 11 feet runs from 8 a.m. Saturday to 8 p.m. Monday, the high rip current risk runs through Monday evening, and a coastal flood warning starts at 5 p.m. The St. Benedict the Moor Blues Fest in Lincolnville is 4 to 10 p.m. for $10, with Gitlo, the Duffy Bishop Band and Rosy Blue and the Dreamers. It is outdoors and a wind advisory for gusts to 40 mph starts at noon. Cars and Coffee is free 8 to 10 a.m. Four rooms have local music with no cover printed.

Nightlife

Ten songwriters in one room tonight, and the bar closes at 10

Spinster Abbott's Taproom, 61 San Marco Avenue, has ten names on one bill at seven o'clock for the STA Songwriters Competition. No cover is published for it. The taproom shuts at ten Sunday through Thursday by its own hours, and the competition slot runs seven to ten, so that is the whole night. A count off the visitor bureau's music calendar puts thirty-one listings in eighteen rooms tonight, eleven of them at this one. Sam Pacetti is on two of them.

Tonight

Eleven acts on a Wednesday, and CAKE at the Amp at eight

The county music calendar has eleven acts playing tonight, ten of them in rooms you walk into. CAKE is the ticketed one, 8 p.m. at the Amphitheatre, billed as An Evening with, which means no opener and eight means eight. Latin night at the winery is a twelfth the calendar does not carry. Clear, 64 degrees, north wind gusting to 21, so take a layer to anything outdoors.

Cheap Eats & Late Night

Half-price tenders and $3 shots at Barley from 8 Tuesday

Barley Republic's own page puts Tenders and Tully Tuesday at 8 to 12:30, with half-price chicken tenders, $3 shots of Tullamore D.E.W. and $4 cocktails. Its weekday happy hour is 4 to 6 and everything in it is $5. The Conch House lounge runs 4 to 7 Monday to Friday at $2 off. The Chophouse at Nocatee publishes a happy hour menu with six plates on it, all $13, and no hour at all.

Nightlife & Local Music

Monday has six acts in five rooms and nobody prints a cover

The county's live music calendar has six Monday listings, starting at 2 in the afternoon at Bin 39 and ending at 1 a.m. at Tradewinds. The only full band bill is at Sarbez on Anastasia Boulevard, two acts at 7 and 8, and it is not on that calendar at all. CAKE is at the Amphitheatre Wednesday at 8.

Campus & Young Life

Sunday: the beach is out, and the Greek festival shuts at 5

Three National Weather Service advisories cover the St. Johns coast today. Breaking waves of 7 to 11 feet, gusts to 45 mph, and a high rip current risk that runs through late Monday night. The free things left are inland: the Greek festival's last day from 11 to 5, free parking and a shuttle at R J Murray Middle School, and the farmers market at the car museum until 1. The Sunshine Bus does not run today.

The Scene

A free band at seven, a free shredder at 8:30, gusts to 32

Saturday in St. Johns County. Monroeville plays Colonial Oak free from 7 to 10. Alabama is at the Amp at 7:30 and Molly Hatchet is in Ponte Vedra at 8. The market runs under the oaks from 8:30 to 12:30, and a county shredding truck at the Ponte Vedra Beach library will take your old bank statements and your dead phone batteries for nothing, same hours. The forecast has showers between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. and northwest gusts to 32 mph.

The Scene

Free under the oaks at 7, and downtown is done at 8:30

Colonial Oak is running a free country night on St. George Street tonight. Cafe Eleven has doors at 7 and a show at 8 out at the beach, and half price happy hour stops at 7. The Milltop finishes at 8:30 with no late set, and Tradewinds is the only room downtown with a band at 9.

Nightlife & Local Music

Five sets on two streets tonight, and nobody prints a cover

Tradewinds runs three different acts on a Wednesday, at 1, at 5 and at 9, and Jack Hammer has the late one. The Milltop runs two and is done at 8:30. The only ticketed show in the old town is a Dave Matthews tribute at Colonial Oak at 6, whose own page gives the room two different street numbers and no price.

Campus & Young Life

Free film at 6, free ride until 9, no way back from the 8 o'clock show

Tuesday in St. Augustine costs nothing if you stay downtown and leave before the STAR Circulator stops at 9. River of Grass screens free at Flagler at 6, with an RSVP you need first. Live music at Prohibition Kitchen and the Milltop is free to walk into. The Sunshine Bus is done at 7.40, every trivia night in the county is north of the city, and the one real ticketed show tonight is on A1A Beach Boulevard at 8.

Cheap Eats & Late Night

Two Monday happy hours publish a price, and both start at 4

Barley Republic prints five dollars on burgers, wings, drafts, well drinks, house wine and sangria, Monday to Friday, 4 to 6. The Conch House prints two dollars off and not what it is off. A1A Asian Kitchen runs four hours and publishes no number at all, and still says four different things about Tuesday. Three sets at Tradewinds, starting at one in the afternoon, with no cover printed anywhere on the page.

The Weekend

A free show at Colonial Oak, the Avett Brothers, and a 5.6 foot tide

High tide downtown is 8:58 Saturday morning and 9:40 Sunday, the king tides run through Tuesday, and the weather service has a rip current statement up through late Saturday night. Everything below has a date and a time off the venue's own calendar. The free one is at Colonial Oak and the catch is parking.

Nights & Days

Rain every day through Saturday, and two dozen shows anyway

The National Weather Service has showers and thunderstorms in every one of the next fourteen forecast periods, and Tuesday is at 99 percent. The Amphitheatre has four nights on and it is open air. Milltop is playing twice a day indoors. Prohibition Kitchen has six sets between Tuesday and Saturday night, and Colonial Oak has two. Here is what is on, and what it costs wherever anybody published a price.

scene

Sam Pacetti at Prohibition Kitchen at 6, and the shuttle stops at 9

Five acts on the city's music board tonight and not one of them prints a price. Tradewinds has three more that the board does not carry. Barley Republic's happy hour is four to six with five dollar burgers, and Sarbez has thirty-five arcade games running on quarters until midnight.

scene

Sunday's free shows are downtown and so is the only bus running

Three rooms within a few blocks of each other are charging nothing today, and one of them has three bands on it. The county bus does not run on a Sunday at any hour. The city's free circulator does, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and its eighteen stops are the whole list of places you can reach today without a car.

scene

Gov't Mule at 6, free parking and shuttle, 50 percent chance of rain

The Amp has Gov't Mule and Ziggy Marley tonight, doors at 5, tickets from $61.30, and the satellite lots and the shuttle to them cost nothing. Before that the Saturday market under the oaks is free from 8:30 to 12:30 and this is a first Saturday, which is the one with the donation yoga and the free bike repair. Four more things cost nothing, and a guided hike at Guana costs three dollars. The forecast says a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, so every outdoor plan here has a wet version.

scene

First Friday free 5 to 9, the Oak until 10, a $5 burger until 6

Galleries open their doors downtown from 5 to 9 tonight at no charge, a cathedral concert at 6 asks for nothing at the door, and an AC/DC tribute plays the Colonial Oak free from 7. The happy hour windows all shut by 7, and of the two kitchens that publish a closing time, one stops at 9 and the other at 9:30.

Nightlife & Local Music

The Grass Is Dead at Cafe Eleven at 8, all ages, $5 under 21

The Grass Is Dead is at Cafe Eleven at 8, all ages, with a $5 fee at the door if you are under 21. The Expendables are at Colonial Oak at 6 and that one is ticketed. Smokin Joe plays Meehan's at 1 in the afternoon. Prohibition Kitchen's own calendar has tonight marked Closed for Cleaning, and the weekend starts there Friday at 6.

Campus & Young Life

No bus stop serves tonight's free concert at the beach pier

Music and Art by the Sea closes its 2026 run with Jim Stafford and The Eclipse ALL STARS, 7 to 9, no ticket. No Sunshine Bus stop is on A1A Beach Boulevard and the last run east of the bridge leaves at 7:17. From Thursday the STAR Circulator adds fifteen stops out there and runs to 11 on a Saturday, and the city has not published where any of them are. Downtown tonight, a Flagler ID gets into The Children's Hour free and any other student pays $5.

Cheap Eats & Late Night

Four kitchens, one full price list, trivia at 7 on A1A South

Four kitchens, one full price list. DJ's on Hypolita publishes every item and closes Monday. A1A Asian Kitchen is open to 9 tonight with a four-hour happy hour and no price on it, and its own page says four different things about Tuesday.

Nightlife & Local Music

A free record fair at the Amp, and the last night at the rink

The record fair at the Amphitheatre runs 11 to 5 and costs nothing, with Toxic Cats at noon and Bears & Lions at 1:30. The third and last after-party at Ponce De Le Rollin' has doors at 7:30 and the first set at 8, and it ends at 10 instead of 2. Pili Pili is at Prohibition Kitchen at 6, and that room is closed Monday.

Campus & Young Life

Flagler plays three free home games Saturday, noon to 3

Flagler charges nothing at the gate for everything but basketball, and it has a noon, a 1 o'clock and a 3 o'clock at home. The volleyball team is 12-2 and has not lost in its own gym. The songwriters festival plays four rooms for nothing. The one free thing today that can hurt you is the water.

The Scene

Three free nights at the roller rink, and the Amp shuttle quits early

Flipturn starts at 7:30 tonight and the after-party door at the rink is at 11, and the Amp does not publish a time for the bit in between. Three free all-ages nights at Ponce De Le Rollin, a free Jejune show at Sarbez on Saturday, a free record fair Sunday, and a high rip current risk through late Saturday night.

Cheap Eats & Late Night

Four days of free music in five rooms, two post food prices

The songwriters festival starts at 4:30 tonight at Colonial Oak on St. George Street and there is no cover anywhere in it, which means the only money is the tab. DJ's Clam Shack and Prohibition Kitchen print their prices. Tradewinds, Boat Drinks and the Oak do not.

Nightlife & Local Music

Eight bands, three rooms, no cover Sunday, and no bus

Sing Out Loud's third weekend ends today at Jimmy Hula's, Colonial Oak and Spinster Abbott's, and every one of those sets is free. Six more rooms have music with no festival attached. The Sunshine Bus does not operate on a Sunday, so all of it is a drive or a walk.

Campus & Young Life

Eight rooms of free music, free soccer at 1, last bus at 7:40

Sing Out Loud's last Saturday costs nothing at the door and runs to 12:45 a.m. Flagler hosts the second ranked team in the country, free at the gate. Every one of the Sunshine Bus timetables is finished for the day before the 9 o'clock sets start.

Nights & Days

Sarbez books three after-shows off Amp headliners this month

Sarbez has booked after-shows to three Amphitheatre headliners. Two of them are five dollars at the door. Eight parking spaces on site, and the room goes 18 and over at eight and 21 and over at ten.

Cheap Eats

Six happy hours, what they cost, and when the page was last touched

Five dollar smash burgers until six on Spanish Street. Half price on every draft until seven at the beach. Two dollars off everything on the water. What the venues' own pages say, and the one whose page has not been touched since February.

Cheap Eats

Twenty-nine kitchens, one published closing time

Meehan's prints 11 p.m. on a Friday. Prohibition Kitchen runs a late menu to 1 a.m. Everywhere else you are reading bar hours and guessing. What I could fetch Friday morning, and what is under twelve dollars.

Nightlife

One act plays eight rooms in nine days, and the festival is not why

Under the Sing Out Loud showcases there is a second weekend running: the regular rooms, the regular locals, three sets a day at Mill Top and a three-hour set at ten on a Friday. Nobody publishes a cover. Here is who is where.

The Scene

Two Spanish forts twenty minutes apart, one $15 and one free

The Castillo charges $15 a head and takes no cash. Fort Matanzas takes no money at all, ferry included, but the free pass runs out before 11 in the morning. Sept. 17 is a national fee-free day.

Nightlife

Most Cafe Eleven shows add $5 at the door if you are under 21

Cafe Eleven has dated shows on its calendar from Sept. 18 through late February. Most of them are all ages. Almost all of them charge you five dollars at the door for being under 21, and neither the venue nor the promoter publishes a ticket price anywhere you can find one.