🌴 Fort Myers Brief: September 14 - 20

Ten days of free songwriter shows start Friday, and that alone would carry a week. Then Nikki Glaser sold out one night at the Mann so fast they added a second, the Everly Brothers show opens at Florida Rep on Tuesday, downtown does its monthly Music Walk on Friday and the Calusa Nature Center opens its pumpkin patch on Saturday. Somewhere in there a brewery is hosting a deep fried cook-off and a farm is hosting goats. Here is what we would actually leave the house for.

We recommend confirming with event hosts for complete details and current schedules.

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🍟 Fried, Farm Fresh and Free

🍗 SWFL Fried Food Throwdown
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 12:00 PM
📍 Location: Millennial Brewing Company, 1811 Royal Palm Ave, Fort Myers
🍺 Details: Eight or more chefs and food trucks competing on one category only, and the category is deep fried. Reggae band, brewery beer, and a judging panel that is technically you. Go hungry and walk over to Point Ybel afterward.

🥨 Three Sips, Three Bites: Oktoberfest
📅 Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
📍 Location: The Workshop Culinary Theater, Luminary Hotel, 2200 Edwards Dr, Fort Myers
🍺 Details: A three course Oktoberfest dinner with three paired pours in the Luminary's teaching kitchen. Small room, the chef talks you through each plate, and you are out by eight with the whole evening still ahead of you downtown.

🧺 The McGregor Local Farmers Market
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 12:00 PM
📍 Location: The McGregor Local, McGregor Boulevard, Fort Myers
🍅 Details: The single most popular listing in this week's pack, which says something about how badly everyone wants a market that starts at noon instead of dawn. Local growers, makers and food vendors on the McGregor corridor, and shade.

🍅 Downtown Fort Myers Farmers Market
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM
📍 Location: Fort Myers Farmers Market, Downtown River District
🧺 Details: Every Saturday, rain or shine, and Kaye Krest's jewelry table is back again this week. Do this one at nine, the McGregor market at noon, and you have covered every tomato in Lee County by one.

🧠 Tuesday Trivia at Southern Fresh Farms
📅 Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: 8500 Penzance Blvd, Fort Myers
🐔 Details: Trivia on a working farm with the animals still awake and the kitchen still open. More relaxed than the downtown trivia crowd, and a lot more parking.

🍺 Trivia Night at Point Ybel
📅 Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:30 PM
📍 Location: Point Ybel Brewing Co, 2180 W First St Ste. 110, Fort Myers, FL 33901
🧠 Details: Free to play, fiercely contested, and the regulars have been sharpening for months. Same night as the farm trivia, so pick your crowd: chickens or taproom.

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🎃 Pumpkins in September

🍂 Friendly Forest Fall Festival
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20, 2026
⏰ Time: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM both days
📍 Location: Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium, 3450 Ortiz Ave, Fort Myers
🎃 Details: The Nature Center's welcome to fall, which in Fort Myers means a pumpkin patch at 91 degrees and nobody minding. Scavenger hunts, crafts, a bounce house, animal talks and planetarium shows, $13 for adults and $7 for kids. The shade under the boardwalk trails is real.

🐄 Goat Snuggling with Marsala the Highland Calf
📅 Date: Monday, September 14, 2026
⏰ Time: 10:00 AM
📍 Location: 13151 Pinto Lane, Fort Myers, FL 33912
🐐 Details: Sit down, get climbed on, and watch a Highland calf named Marsala wander through inspecting everything. Monday morning is the quiet session and the goats are noticeably more affectionate when they are not sharing you with a crowd.

🧘 Goat Yoga with Marsala
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:00 AM
📍 Location: 13151 Pinto Lane, Fort Myers, FL 33912
🐐 Details: Same farm, same goats, downward dog added. Nine o'clock beats the worst of the heat and leaves you plenty of time to make the noon market on McGregor with hay still on your mat.

🐾 Pets and Play: Two Days of Workshops
📅 Date: Sunday, September 20 through Monday, September 21, 2026
📍 Location: Delta Family Counseling, Fort Myers
🐕 Details: Two days of workshops on what animals do for the people who live with them, run by a counseling practice that uses them in session. If you have ever suspected the dog is doing more for your head than the therapist, this is where someone finally agrees with you.

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🏃 Move Before It Gets Hot

🏃‍♀️ Apex Hispanic Heritage 5K and One Mile Fun Run
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 8:00 AM, one mile at 8:10 AM
📍 Location: Bell Tower Shops, 13499 S Cleveland Ave, Fort Myers
🎉 Details: Second year of the race, first year at Bell Tower, and the organizers promise music at the start line and a party at the finish. Run it, walk it or dance it, and the one mile is the right answer for anyone who has not run since the last time we told them to.

⛳ Golf Scramble at Eastwood
📅 Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
⏰ Time: 1:00 PM
📍 Location: Eastwood Golf Course, Fort Myers
🏌️ Details: A four person scramble on the city course, which means the worst golfer in your group costs you nothing and the best one carries everybody. One in the afternoon in September is brave, so bring water and low expectations.

👟 Point Ybel Run Club
📅 Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:30 PM
📍 Location: 2180 W First St Ste. 110, Fort Myers, FL 33901
🏃 Details: Every Thursday, run first and drink after, all paces and nobody left behind. A reasonable warm up for the Bell Tower 5K two days later.

🧘‍♀️ Poses and Pints Yoga
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:30 AM
📍 Location: Point Ybel Brewing Co, 2180 W First St Ste. 110, Fort Myers, FL 33901
🍻 Details: Yoga on the brewery floor, a pint when you finish, and you are back in the car before eleven. The Fried Food Throwdown opens a few blocks away an hour later, which is either a reward or a contradiction.

💃 Weekly Line and Partner Dance Lessons and Open Dance
📅 Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: 3061 E Riverside Dr, Fort Myers, FL 33916
🕺 Details: A lesson first, then open floor, and no partner required for the line portion. Indoors, air conditioned, and one of the more popular midweek listings this week for exactly that reason.

🏃‍♀️ Let's Get MOVING, City of Fort Myers
📅 Date: Monday, September 14, 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30 AM
📍 Location: Riverside Community Center, Fort Myers
💪 Details: Free movement class run by the city, indoors, and built for people who want to move without anybody yelling. A good Monday reset.

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🎸 The Songwriters Are Coming

🎤 Island Hopper Songwriter Fest, Opening Weekend on Captiva
📅 Date: Friday, September 18 through Sunday, September 20, 2026
⏰ Time: Friday sets start at 6:30 PM at RC Otter's, 'Tween Waters and The Green Flash, 7:00 PM at Keylime Bistro and Jensen's Twin Palm
📍 Location: Captiva Island, then Cape Coral, downtown Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach through September 27
🎶 Details: Ten days, more than 60 shows, most of them free, all of them the people who wrote the songs you know playing them in rooms that hold about a hundred people. It opens on Captiva this weekend, and if you go Friday you get Dave Gibson, Thom Shepherd, Tim James, Joe Vitale Jr. and Angie K on five different patios within walking distance of each other. Downtown Fort Myers gets its turn the following Wednesday and Thursday.

🎶 September Music Walk
📅 Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM
📍 Location: Downtown Fort Myers River District
🎷 Details: Third Friday of the month, free, the whole downtown grid turns into one long stage. Musicians on the corners, bars with their doors open, and no agenda beyond wandering. Start at First Street and let the noise decide.

🎻 Resacoustic Trio at The Hideaway
📅 Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
⏰ Time: 5:30 PM
📍 Location: The Hideaway Bar, downtown Fort Myers
🍻 Details: An acoustic trio playing indoors and air conditioned for Music Walk, which is the smart version of Music Walk in September. Get there at half past five, get a seat, and let everyone else sweat on the sidewalk.

🎺 ACMA Music Under the Stars: Doug MacLeod, Michael Boswell Opens
📅 Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium, 3450 Ortiz Ave, Fort Myers
🎸 Details: A two time Blues Music Award nominee playing acoustic blues at the planetarium, which is the kind of sentence you only get in this town. The most popular music listing on this week's calendar, and the Nature Center is a much nicer place to sit outside than it sounds.

🎶 Colours of Céline
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:30 PM
📍 Location: Music and Arts Community Center, 13411 Shire Lane, Fort Myers
🎤 Details: Three vocalists, a full live band, and the entire Céline Dion catalog from The Power of Love to the Titanic song. Presented by Gulf Coast Symphony at their own hall off Daniels, which has become the best mid size room in the county for exactly this kind of night.

🎧 Live from 2 to 5 at Point Ybel Brewing Co
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 2:00 PM
📍 Location: 2180 W First St Ste. 110, Fort Myers, FL 33901
🍻 Details: An afternoon set in the taproom, no cover. Pairs well with the Fried Food Throwdown a few blocks over if you want to make a full downtown Saturday out of it.

🎻 Irish Sessions at Point Ybel Downtown
📅 Date: Monday, September 14, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM
📍 Location: 2180 W First St Ste. 110, Fort Myers, FL 33901
🍀 Details: Traditional Irish tunes played in a circle by whoever shows up with an instrument, the way it works in an actual Irish pub. Free, and a genuinely good reason to be downtown on a Monday.

😂 Two Nights of Nikki

🎭 Nikki Glaser: The Stunning Tour
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM both nights
📍 Location: Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, 13350 FSW Parkway, Fort Myers
🎤 Details: The Saturday show moved fast enough that they added a Sunday, so there are still seats if you did not get in the first time. Glaser is the sharpest roast comic working right now, and this is the tour she built after hosting the Golden Globes. Tickets start around $53 with fees, doors an hour before.

🎬 Matilda, Closing Weekend
📅 Date: Through Sunday, September 20, 2026
📍 Location: Fort Myers Dinner Theatre, inside Gator Lanes, Fort Myers
🍽️ Details: The first show at the Dinner Theatre's new home is a full production of the Roald Dahl musical, and this is its last weekend. Dinner and a musical inside a bowling alley is either a terrible idea or a great one, and everyone who has gone says great. Call 239-323-6570 for times.

🎸 Forever Everly: The Everly Brothers Rockumentary
📅 Date: Opens Tuesday, September 15, 2026, runs through October 25
📍 Location: Florida Repertory Theatre, ArtStage Studio, 2267 Bay St, Fort Myers
🎶 Details: Florida Rep opens its 29th season with two performers doing the Everly Brothers harmonies live in front of archival footage, Bye Bye Love and Wake Up Little Susie included. The Studio is tiny, every seat is close, and opening week is the cheapest it will be all fall. Box office is 239-332-4488.

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🌉 A Marker, a Game Night and the Free Stuff

🏛️ Fort Myers Beach Arches Historical Marker Ceremony
📅 Date: Saturday, September 19, 2026
⏰ Time: 10:30 AM
📍 Location: San Carlos Island off Fisherman's Wharf, at the original Arches site
🪨 Details: The stone arches that welcomed everyone onto the beach from the 1920s until the Matanzas bridge took them down in 1979 finally get a marker on the spot where they stood. The group behind it is building a replica at Bowditch Point next year using original stone, so this is the first chapter of a longer story.

🎲 Board Game Night and Sit 'n' Stitch
📅 Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: 1342 Colonial Blvd, Unit C18, Fort Myers, FL 33907
🧶 Details: Half the room plays board games, half the room knits, and nobody has to explain themselves to either half. The quiet Friday option if Music Walk sounds like a lot.

📄 Resume Writing, Job Search and Job Application Workshop
📅 Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:00 AM
📍 Location: 5100 Tice Street, Fort Myers, FL 33905
📝 Details: Free, hands on, and out on the Tice Street campus. Bring whatever version of your resume exists right now and leave with one that does not embarrass you.

⌨️ Self-Paced Typing and Computer Digital Training
📅 Date: Thursday, September 17, 2026
⏰ Time: 1:00 PM
📍 Location: 5100 Tice Street, Fort Myers, FL 33905
🖥️ Details: Drop in, work at your own pace, leave when you are done. Free, same building as the morning resume workshop, so the whole day can happen in one parking spot.

💻 Senior Planet Lectures, Workshops and Courses
📅 Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2026
⏰ Time: 1:00 PM
📍 Location: 5100 Tice Street, Fort Myers, FL 33905
📚 Details: Technology classes built for older adults, taught at a pace that assumes nothing and rushes nobody. Free.

💬 Uplift Peer Group
📅 Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:30 AM
📍 Location: 2506 Second Street, Suite 106, Fort Myers, FL 33901
🌅 Details: Early morning peer support downtown, same time every week. Quiet, steady, and there whether or not the week went well.

⚠️ Please verify all event details with the respective organizers before attending, as schedules and venues may change.

📰 What's Happening in Fort Myers

🔗 The School Board Passed a $3.05 Billion Budget and Cut 457 Jobs to Do It
The board voted 6-1 on September 11 for a fiscal 2027 budget that drops the millage rate to 5.271 mills, the eighth cut in nine years, while pulling $45 million from reserves and not renewing 457 positions including 275 teachers, with Debbie Jordan the lone no over security overtime, lobbying costs and money flowing to the central office instead of classrooms.

🔗 A New Local News Site Launched With Allegations Against Mayor Anderson
SW Florida Lighthouse, a Substack run by 30 year journalist and former News-Press reporter Bob Norman, published its first story September 9 with two young men alleging Mayor Kevin Anderson befriended them and made inappropriate sexual advances, and Police Chief Jason Fields said the matter was referred to FDLE, which found insufficient evidence to pursue charges.

🔗 Whataburger Is Finally Open on Cleveland Avenue
The Texas chain opened its first Southwest Florida restaurant at 11 AM on September 10 at 12916 S. Cleveland Ave. with a line already waiting, an 86 seat dining room, 65 to 75 new hires, and a second location already moving through development at 22927 Lyden Drive in Estero across from Coconut Point.

🔗 Fort Myers Beach Cut Its Tax Hike From 30 Percent to 3.4
After council told staff to sharpen their pencils, the town tentatively adopted 1.0655 mills instead of the 1.34 first floated, freezing eight vacant positions to save about $600,000, deferring the $11.9 million Ian loan repayment, and leaning on 99 fee increases including parking meters that could hit $6 to $7 an hour and parking fines rising from $77 to $150, with a $299,000 gap still open ahead of the September 23 final hearing.

🔗 A Six Story Hotel Is Coming to the Old Silver Sands Cottages
Council voted 3-0 on September 9 to approve TPI's 60 room One Particular Harbour hotel at 70 feet with a rooftop pool and bar and 10 deviations from town code, over Primo Drive neighbors worried about height and traffic, with Mayor Dan Allers recused for business ties to the developer and employees set to shuttle in from an off island lot on Buttonwood Drive.

🔗 DiamondHead's 57 Room Expansion Got a Unanimous No
The Fort Myers Beach Local Planning Agency voted unanimously on September 8 against the resort's plan to add two buildings and 57 rooms on Estero Boulevard, taking it from 121 to 178 keys, citing height and other code deviations, though council can still overrule the recommendation or the owners can come back with a smaller plan.

🔗 Beach Parking Just Got Harder at Bowditch and Lynn Hall
Lee County closed the Bowditch Point Regional Park lot the week of September 9 for Ian rebuilding, joining Lynn Hall Memorial Park which has been closed since April and Bonita Beach Park to the south, so the move is the Beach Park and Ride on Summerlin Square Drive plus the trolley, with pedestrian access to the sand staying open the whole time.

🔗 Fort Myers Beach Is Done With Flock Cameras
Council signed off on Town Manager Will McKannay's decision to terminate the license plate reader contract covering the Big Carlos Pass and Matanzas Pass bridges and the Times Square area, following the state directive that has pulled the cameras off roads across Southwest Florida over the past two weeks.

🔗 Expect Single Lane Closures at the Midpoint Starting Monday
Lee County DOT starts toll plaza technology upgrades at the Midpoint Bridge on September 14 and continues through October at both the Midpoint and Cape Coral plazas, with one lane closed at a time during daytime hours only because the lane configuration cannot be worked at night, and the goal is to finish before season traffic arrives.

🔗 Eleven Arrested in a Cape Coral Fraud Ring That Targeted Seniors
A nearly three year Cape Coral Police economic crimes investigation ended September 8 with 11 arrests, 50 felony charges including racketeering and money laundering, about $120,000 in cash seized along with a cloned Dodge Hellcat and 44 pounds of marijuana, and hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from victims, many of them seniors, through scams coordinated over social media.

🔗 A $50 Million Trade School Just Opened in Harlem Heights
The Heights CareerTech Institute cut the ribbon September 12 on a 63,500 square foot building at Gladiolus Drive and Pine Ridge Road, built with $42 million in private philanthropy, state appropriations and tax credits plus $8 million for equipment and land, with room for about 500 students in industry credentialed programs designed by local business owners.

🔗 Estero Broke Ground on 600 Apartments and a 190 Room Hotel
FRP Development and Woodfield Development have an $81.5 million Santander construction loan and work underway at 23281 Lynden Drive across from Coconut Point, with phase one delivering 296 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail by the third quarter of 2027 on the way to 600 units, a boutique hotel, 80,000 square feet of shops and 20,000 square feet of office.

🔗 Gas Blew Past $4 a Gallon Overnight
Florida's statewide average jumped 18 cents in a single night to $4.07 on September 9 as the Strait of Hormuz disruption pushed crude higher, and because the state has no refineries or pipelines and relies on tankers through Port Tampa Bay for about 43 percent of its fuel, wholesale shocks hit local pumps almost immediately.

🔗 Measles Hit 110 in Collier While Lee Stays Quiet
Collier County logged two more cases the week ending August 29 to reach 110 of Florida's 158 this year, then went a full week with none, while Lee has had no new cases for several weeks and Collier kindergartners still sit at roughly 89 percent vaccinated against the 95 percent needed for herd immunity.

🔗 Collaboratory Sent $90,000 to Local Arts Groups and Animal Rescues
Fourteen nonprofits split $90,000 from eight legacy funds, with $5,000 each to Alliance for the Arts, Florida Rep, Gulf Coast Symphony and three other arts groups, and $10,000 apiece to Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary, Cape Coral Animal Shelter, Gulf Coast Humane Society and CROW, plus $5,000 to four smaller rescues including the Animal Refuge Center.