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Seasonal
Bring a blanket. A 7,000-square-foot wall, a full orchestra inside, and a lawn full of people who paid nothing for the best seat on the island.
On 17th Street, a block from Lincoln Road, the New World Center has a large blank exterior wall facing a public lawn. During the season, concerts performed inside are projected onto that wall, with the sound carried across the park, and anybody can sit on the grass and watch for nothing.
It is the best free thing to do after dark in South Beach and a great many visitors staying four blocks away never hear about it.
The building was designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 2011 as the home of the New World Symphony, an orchestral academy for postgraduate musicians. The wall and the adjacent Soundscape Park, laid out by the landscape practice West 8, were designed together for exactly this purpose: the projection surface is part of the architecture rather than a screen wheeled out afterwards.
The orchestral season runs roughly from October into May, and the free outdoor projections are scheduled through it. Some are live relays of a concert happening inside at that moment. Others are recorded programmes or films.
Bring a blanket or a low chair. People bring picnics, wine and children, and the atmosphere is closer to an open-air cinema than a concert hall. Arrive half an hour early on a good evening in season; the lawn fills.
The park is a short walk from the 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue garages, and the free Miami Beach Trolley stops nearby. The Miami Beach Botanical Garden is across the road and free during the day, and Lincoln Road is one block south.
Dates, programmes and start times are published each season and change frequently, so check the current schedule rather than turning up on spec. Evening temperatures from December through February drop further than visitors expect; bring a layer.
SourcingBuilding authorship, opening year, the projection wall's design intent, the park's designers and the free outdoor concert format summarised from the New World Symphony's own public information and City of Miami Beach venue material. Season dates and individual programmes are published by the organisation and change; no schedule or price is asserted here.
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