🌴 What's Happening in Naples This Week

The week's real anchor is Waterlily Weekend at the Botanical Garden, two mornings of nearly 300 waterlilies, a curator led weigh off, and one tour where you actually wade in. Off The Hook has Funny Marco Friday and Saturday, Seed to Table runs its last Friday dance party of the month, and the Naples Depot hands out free board games and ice cream. Monday alone still has three trivia rooms and a book club going at once. Here is everything worth leaving the house for.

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

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🎸 Live Music and Nightlife

💃 Friday Night Dance Party at Seed to Table
📅 Date: Friday, August 28, 2026
⏰ Time: 8:00 PM
📍 Location: Seed to Table, 4835 Immokalee Road, Naples, FL 34110
🎧 Details: Live band from 8:00 to 10:00 PM, then a DJ until close, inside the grocery store that turns into a nightclub after dark. It is the least likely party venue in Collier County and also one of the most reliable. Free to walk in, and the food halls stay open around you.

🎤 Dockside Duo at 5 O'Clock Somewhere
📅 Date: Thursday, August 27, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM
📍 Location: Compass Hotel by Margaritaville, 4805 Tamiami Trail North, Naples, FL 34103
🍹 Details: Two players, a poolside patio, and the kind of set list nobody has to think about. Thursday is the quiet night here, which means you can actually hear the band and still get a table. Frozen drinks are the whole point.

🎙️ Open Mic Night at Food & Thought
📅 Date: Friday, August 28, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM
📍 Location: 2132 Tamiami Trail North, Naples, FL 34102
🎵 Details: Organic cafe by day, open mic room by night, and the coffee is genuinely good either way. Bring an instrument or bring nothing and just watch from the back. Small room, friendly crowd, no cover.

🔊 Perreo 3000 at Dimension Event Center
📅 Date: Friday, August 28, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM
📍 Location: Dimension Event Center, 2634 Tamiami Trail East, Naples, FL 34112
🕺 Details: A reggaeton night in East Naples for people who want the volume all the way up. Two hours, no seated portion, and the crowd skews younger than most rooms in this town. Check the listing for door price before you drive over.

😂 Comedy, Trivia and Bar Games

🤣 Funny Marco at Off The Hook Comedy Club
📅 Date: Friday, August 28 through Saturday, August 29, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM Friday, 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM Saturday
📍 Location: Off The Hook Comedy Club, 2500 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples, FL 34109
🎭 Details: Ten million followers worth of internet comedian doing four shows in two nights, which is the biggest booking Naples gets all week. There is a two item minimum per person on top of the ticket, so budget accordingly. The late sets are the loose ones.

🎤 D.J. Demers at Off The Hook Comedy Club
📅 Date: Thursday, August 27, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Off The Hook Comedy Club, 2500 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples, FL 34109
😄 Details: The Canadian with five specials, a Juno nomination, and repeat sets on Fallon and Conan, working a room of a few hundred on a Thursday. Doors open two hours early if you want a front row seat. Photo ID required at will call.

🤠 Boot Scootin' Bingo on Marco Island
📅 Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Sand Bar, Marco Island, FL
💵 Details: A mix of regular bingo and music bingo with cash and prizes on the line. Country leaning soundtrack, which either sells it or does not. Free to play and the deck is open.

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🍽️ Food and Drink

🥂 Sunday Beachside Brunch at HB's on the Gulf
📅 Date: Sunday, August 30, 2026
📍 Location: 801 Gulf Shore Boulevard North, Naples, FL 34102
🌊 Details: Sunday brunch service directly on the sand at the old Beach Club property, which is about as good as a Naples Sunday gets. Off season pricing and off season crowds mean the table you cannot get in February is sitting empty now. Check the listing for exact service hours before you go.

🎺 Sinatra Night at the Italian Deli
📅 Date: Thursday, August 27, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
📍 Location: 902 Park Avenue, Marco Island, FL 34145
🍝 Details: Pizza, sandwiches, and full entrees with the Chairman of the Board playing over all of it. Small deli, so it fills up fast once the first set starts. The kind of Thursday that costs thirty dollars and feels like more.

👨‍👩‍👧 Family and Weekend Mornings

🪷 Waterlily Weekend at Naples Botanical Garden
📅 Date: Saturday, August 29 through Sunday, August 30, 2026
⏰ Time: 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM both days
📍 Location: Naples Botanical Garden, 4820 Bayshore Drive, Naples, FL 34112
🌸 Details: Nearly 300 waterlilies across the aquatic gardens, plus a curator led weigh off, Victoria lily encounters, nature journaling, and a photo competition display. Included with regular admission at $27 for adults and free for everyone 17 and under, which makes it the best value on the weekend calendar. The first 100 shop visitors who buy something get a free magnet, and Rita's is on site if the heat wins.

🎲 Retro Game Night at the Naples Depot
📅 Date: Friday, August 28, 2026
⏰ Time: 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM
📍 Location: Naples Depot Museum, 1051 5th Avenue South, Naples, FL 34102
🍦 Details: Twister, Clue, Operation, Battleship, Guess Who, and a dozen more spread across the old train depot, with an ice cream sundae bar from Dairy Queen of Downtown Naples. All of it is free, all ages, last Friday of every month. Bring a blanket if you want floor space for the long games.

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🌿 Outdoors and Wild Florida

🌊 Walk Among the Waterlilies
📅 Date: Saturday, August 29 and Sunday, August 30, 2026
⏰ Time: 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM
📍 Location: Naples Botanical Garden, 4820 Bayshore Drive, Naples, FL 34112
📷 Details: You get a smartphone nature photography lesson and then you wade into the Water Garden, which is not a sentence most botanical gardens will let you write. Separate ticket on top of admission and spots are limited. Wear something you do not mind soaking.

💧 Canal Science Symposium at the Marco Island Library
📅 Date: Friday, August 28, 2026
⏰ Time: 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM
📍 Location: Marco Island Library, 210 South Heathwood Drive, Marco Island, FL 34145
🔬 Details: Researchers from the University of Florida and University of South Florida walking through where the nitrogen in Marco's canals actually comes from and what can realistically be done about it. The hosts are explicit that they are presenting data, not lobbying for a fix. Free, air conditioned, and directly relevant if you voted on water quality last week.

🌕 Sturgeon Full Moon Ceremony at Omaya Studio
📅 Date: Friday, August 28, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
📍 Location: Omaya Studio, 3212 Bayshore Drive, Naples, FL 34112
🔥 Details: Guided meditation in an aerial hammock with crystal singing bowls, harp, and chimes, followed by a fire ceremony and herbal tea. Tickets run about $40 and the room is small. If that reads as too much, it is probably not your Friday, and if it reads as exactly right, book early.

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💼 Community and Business

⛵ Cool Down and Connect, Sailing Into Sunset
📅 Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
📍 Location: Naples Princess, 550 Port O Call Way, Naples, FL 34102
🌅 Details: The Greater Naples Chamber puts its summer networking on a 105 foot boat for two hours, which solves the two biggest problems with networking at once. Thirty dollars for Chamber members and Leadership Collier alumni, thirty five for everyone else. The most popular listing on this week's calendar by a wide margin, so register before Wednesday.

🚨 Emergency Readiness Summit 2026
📅 Date: Saturday, August 29, 2026
⏰ Time: 8:00 AM to 3:15 PM
📍 Location: The Ritz-Carlton Naples, 280 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples, FL 34108
🧯 Details: A free day for Collier residents 55 and up, with breakfast, lunch, and a keynote from former Secret Service director Lewis Merletti. You pick three breakout sessions from CPR and AED, active shooter response, storm readiness, pet preparedness, and how FEMA recovery actually works. Free, at the Ritz, in the middle of hurricane season, so the registration list will not stay open.

👜 LCBW Women on the Move, Naples Chapter
📅 Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2026
⏰ Time: 11:30 AM
📍 Location: Carrabba's Italian Grill, 4320 North Tamiami Trail, Naples, FL 34103
🤝 Details: Monthly lunch meeting for the Naples chapter, open to visitors and built for people who would rather talk business over pasta than over a badge table. Reasonable size room, real conversations, done by one. Register on the listing so they order enough food.

🏍️ The Hangout by Two Guys Bike Night
📅 Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2026
⏰ Time: 6:30 PM
📍 Location: 2360 Pine Ridge Road, Naples, FL 34109
🍔 Details: Bikes in the lot, food inside, and no cover to walk up and look at everything. You do not need a motorcycle to show up, which is good, because most of the crowd arrives in a car anyway. Weeknight friendly and done before ten.

🩸 Blood Drive on Marco Island
📅 Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2026
⏰ Time: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
📍 Location: 51 Bald Eagle Drive, Marco Island, FL 34145
❤️ Details: Twenty minutes of your Tuesday gets you a $20 eGift card, a shirt, and a free wellness check. Local supply runs thin through the slowest month of the year, which is exactly why they are parked there now. Bring an ID and eat something first.

⛳ Serenity Club Golf Tournament at Bears Paw
📅 Date: Sunday, August 30, 2026
⏰ Time: 7:00 AM
📍 Location: Bears Paw Country Club, 2500 Golden Gate Parkway, Naples, FL 34105
🏌️ Details: A 7:00 AM shotgun in August is not a scheduling error, it is survival, and by the back nine you will understand why. Charity tournament at a private course most people never get onto otherwise. Register through the listing, and bring more water than you think you need.

⚠️ Please verify event details and availability with the respective venues or organizers, as schedules may change.

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📰 What's Happening in Naples

🔗 Kowal Takes the District 4 Primary With Nearly 71 Percent
Incumbent Collier commissioner Daniel Kowal pulled 8,953 votes to Daniel Zegarac's 3,717 with all 17 precincts reporting, in a statewide primary the Secretary of State expected to land under 20 percent turnout, down from 22.4 percent in 2024 and 25.9 percent in 2022.

🔗 Marco Island's $23 Million Bond Question Came Down to One Vote
The unofficial count was 2,257 yes to 2,256 no on borrowing $23 million for bridge replacements and street repaving, close enough to trigger a machine and manual recount that finished Friday with the measure still passing by a single ballot, and certification set for Wednesday.

🔗 Naples Issues $29 Million in Bonds for the Beach Outfall Project
City Council signed off August 19 on $29 million in public utilities revenue bonds repaid through utility fees, keeping the stormwater fund solvent while the $86.2 million project that pulls drainage pipes off the beach runs toward a mid 2027 finish.

🔗 A Private Golf Club Is the New Plan for a Failing East Naples Citrus Grove
The developer turned away in January on 423 homes returned to the Planning Commission this week with an Audubon certified course and 10 guest cottages on the same 169 acres off Sabal Palm Road, and neighbors packed the hearing convinced the golf plan is a first step back toward houses.

🔗 Southwest Florida Is in a Drought in the Middle of the Rainy Season
A rainfall deficit that started in mid 2025 has produced what is being called the state's worst drought in 25 years, with private wells running dry across the region even as the calendar says wet season.

🔗 Collier Sets the Public Meeting Schedule for the Tourist Tax Question
The county lined up informational sessions in September and October, including one at the Marco Island Community Room on September 30, ahead of the November vote on raising the hotel and short term rental tax from 5 percent to 6 percent to finish the Paradise Coast Sports Complex.

🔗 Naples Children Foundation Puts $600,000 Into Legal Aid for Collier Kids
The grant keeps free legal representation running for roughly 500 children a year in dependency, family law, and education cases through Legal Aid Service of Collier County.

🔗 NCH's Heart Program Holds Its Top National Rating
The Rooney Heart Institute earned three star ratings from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons on a program that runs more than 1,000 advanced procedures a year, with a new heart and stroke critical care center due in 2027.

🔗 Keep Collier Beautiful Is Short on Site Captains for the September Cleanup
The International Coastal Cleanup runs 8:00 to 11:00 AM on September 19 across county beaches, creeks, canals and parks, and the group is recruiting both captains and general volunteers, with service hours available for students.

🔗 Naples Police Intercepted a Package Holding $10,000 Taken From an Elderly Resident
Scammers posing as government officials talked the victim into withdrawing $10,000 in cash and overnighting it to Irvine, California on August 17, and the department's cyber crimes unit worked with UPS and California agencies to stop the package the next day.

🔗 Barron Collier Opened the Season With a 41 to 7 Win Over Palmetto Ridge
The Cougars lost their head coach earlier this month and still put up 41 under interim coach Andrew Clawson, with senior running back Vincent Askridge breaking a 79 yard touchdown run.

🔗 A North Naples Apartment Community Just Refinanced $72.5 Million
The Richman Group took a 10 year loan at 5.74 percent from New York Life Investment Management on Everly, a 320 unit property on Magnolia Pond Circle, as part of a $225 million package moving three Florida communities from development into long term operation.

🔗 Shangri-La Springs Turns 100
The historic Bonita Springs resort marks a century in operation with a run of events in September, which is worth the short drive north if you have never seen the property.

🔗 Bats Eat a Thousand Mosquitoes an Hour and Florida Has Thirteen Kinds
A look at the state's native bat species timed to International Bat Night, and a reminder of what they are doing for you during dengue and Eastern equine encephalitis season.