This holiday season, Victoria Park has two stages a few doors apart. The Parker is at 707 NE 8th Street and FTL War Memorial Auditorium is at 800 NE 8th Street, both inside Holiday Park. Between them they have comedy, orchestras, metal tours, a Hanukkah comedy show and a Nutcracker before the year ends. Both venues park their crowds for free inside the same city park, and War Memorial's field lot is first come, first served. On the nights both stages are booked, getting a space is the hard part. If you live a short walk from the gate, you skip that part.
On Thursday, November 5, Greensky Bluegrass plays The Parker. The same evening downtown, Light Up Lauderdale runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Esplanade Park, and the lighting ceremony starts at 6:30. From here through December 20, the busiest evenings on NE 8th Street are easy to predict.
Two venues, one park full of parking
Each venue runs its own parking, and both send you into Holiday Park.
- The Parker: Free self-parking is in the Holiday Park lot next to the theater. Valet costs $25 per vehicle for most performances and opens 1.5 hours before the show. Rideshare drop-off is on the street in front of the building.
- The Parker, driving in: The theater's directions bring you into Holiday Park from NE 8th Street and tell you to turn in the median before War Memorial Auditorium to park.
- FTL War Memorial: Parking is in the field across from the auditorium. It's free, first-come, and attendants direct cars at every ticketed event.
- FTL War Memorial, driving in: From US-1, turn onto Sandy Nininger Drive at NE 8th Street. Rideshare drops off at the roundabout by the main doors, and pickup is toward the field lot at NE 8th Street and G. Harold Drive.
So both venues route drivers in off NE 8th Street, and The Parker's directions point to the same turn before War Memorial Auditorium. On a night with one show, that works fine. With two, you have two audiences heading for the same part of the park around the same time, and The Parker's valet opening 90 minutes early is the clearest sign of how early the theater expects people to come.
The two buildings now have more pull than they used to. The Florida Panthers reopened a renovated War Memorial Auditorium in November 2024. The site now includes the Baptist Health IcePlex, which has two indoor rinks, one of them for public skating, and also serves as the team's practice rink. The Parker is affiliated with the Broward Center.
The six nights both stages have shows
War Memorial has seven concerts left on its 2026 calendar. On at least six of those nights, The Parker has a show too.
| Date | FTL War Memorial | The Parker | Also that night |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat., Nov. 7 | Victoria Monét, Frequency of Love Tour | South Florida Pride Concert Band, Waves and Wanderers | |
| Wed., Nov. 11 | Lenny Pearce, Toddler Rave World Tour | South Florida Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 | |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Dark Star Orchestra, second of two nights | Derrick Stroup, Running Hot Tour | |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Beartooth, Pure Ecstasy World Tour | South Florida Symphony Orchestra, Handel's Messiah & Holiday Pops | |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Sabaton, Legends On Tour, rescheduled | Three Dog Night | Winterfest Boat Parade on the New River |
| Sat., Dec. 19 | JBeatz, It's Getting Late Tour | Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, The Nutcracker |
These six nights run in pairs: an arena-size touring act next to an orchestra, a ballet or a comedian. December 5 puts Beartooth, with Don Broco, Magnolia Park and Windwaker opening, next to Handel's Messiah. Two very different crowds head for the same park that night.
December 12 is the busiest. Sabaton plays War Memorial with Pop Evil and Wings of Steel, and Three Dog Night plays The Parker. The same evening, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., the Winterfest Boat Parade lines up on the downtown New River between Stranahan House and the Broward Center, then heads east and north up the Intracoastal. If you're going to the parade, a show and dinner that night, walking from home saves you a parking search at each stop.
Dates change. Sabaton's War Memorial date is already a rescheduled one, and the 6LACK show set for November 18 is listed as cancelled. Check the War Memorial events page and The Parker's calendar the week of any show.
The nights with only one show
Most evenings only one venue is busy, and on those you can drive in without much trouble. In date order:
- Fri., Nov. 6: Matt McCusker, The Healing Frequency Tour, at The Parker.
- Sun., Nov. 8: Alex Edelman, What Are You Going To Do, at The Parker, part of the Truist Comedy Series.
- Mon., Nov. 9: John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig 25th Anniversary Movie Tour at The Parker.
- Thu., Dec. 3: Dark Star Orchestra opens its two-night run at War Memorial.
- Sun., Dec. 6: The Musical Box plays the early Phil Collins years of Genesis, 1976 to 1980, at The Parker.
- Tue., Dec. 8: Elon Gold's Hanukkah Tour 2026 at The Parker.
- Thu., Dec. 10: The Fab Four, tribute to A Hard Day's Night, at The Parker.
- Fri., Dec. 11: Voyage, a Journey tribute, at The Parker.
- Sun., Dec. 13: Whindersson Nunes at The Parker, on a new date.
- Fri., Dec. 18 and Sun., Dec. 20: The Nutcracker by Arts Ballet Theatre of Florida, under artistic director Vladimir Issaev, at The Parker.
War Memorial also has programs on its calendar besides concerts. Panthers Learn to Play, presented by LaCroix, runs November 14 through January 2. Over Thanksgiving break there's a Hockey Camp on November 23 and 24 and Cat's Camp from November 23 to 25. The Nutcracker also has school matinees on December 16 and 17 through the Smart Stage Matinee Series. That means school groups arrive on weekdays, before the evening shows that weekend.
The park around the stages is a construction site
While both venues are busy, Holiday Park is in the middle of a city upgrade. Work started in May 2026 and covers a new playground, dog park improvements, shade over the baseball dugouts, signs, landscaping and walking trail work. The city expects to finish by summer 2027, weather permitting. Until then, the playground stays closed, the western part of the dog park stays closed, and some walking paths have posted detours. Noisy work can happen between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Those hours matter if you walk to shows. Noisy work is limited to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., but the city lists the path detours for the whole construction period. If you usually cut through the park to War Memorial's doors, check that the path is open in daylight before using it on show night. The city's Holiday Park page lists the closures. It says nothing about event parking, so plan around the parking rules each venue publishes.
The neighborhood's own streets have work going on too. The city's Victoria Park stormwater project, built by David Mancini & Sons, started January 5, 2026 and is scheduled to finish in early 2028. It includes 43,000 feet of pipe, 360 drainage structures and a new pump station east of NE 20th Avenue and NE 7th Street. The city says lane closures and occasional full road closures will happen while access to homes is kept open, and it posts full-closure notices on the project page. On a double-show night, check that page before you plan a walking route through the neighborhood. Our summer field notes on Victoria Park's edges cover how the construction season began.
The rest of the city's holiday calendar
Downtown and the beach hold their own holiday nights, and only some of them overlap with the double-show nights on NE 8th Street.
- Light Up Lauderdale, Thu., Nov. 5: Esplanade Park, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. It's the same night as Greensky Bluegrass at The Parker.
- Light Up the Beach, Thu., Nov. 19: Las Olas Oceanside Park, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. War Memorial lists no concert that night.
- Christmas on Las Olas, Tue., Dec. 1: Free, 5 to 10 p.m., between SE 6th and SE 11th Avenues, with a marketplace of local vendors, live performances, Santa, snow and ice skating.
- Light Up Sistrunk, Fri., Dec. 4, and the Menorah Lighting Celebration, Sun., Dec. 6: Listed on the city's holiday calendar. December 4 is also a double-show night on NE 8th Street.
- Winterfest Boat Parade, Sat., Dec. 12: The same night as Sabaton and Three Dog Night.
The Las Olas night on December 1 is the easiest one to plan. Nothing is listed on War Memorial's calendar that evening, and the boulevard is south of the neighborhood. The city's Light Up the Holidays page has the full list, including Light Up Carter Park on December 11.
Once the Nutcracker closes on December 20, War Memorial's next listed event is the 67th Orchid Show and Sale, "Orchid Odyssey," January 8 to 10.
If you're hosting family for the Nutcracker weekend or Winterfest, Latitude Key can help you find a seasonal rental within walking distance of Holiday Park and the river. You can also reach out for curated guidance on Victoria Park, block by block, for the months after the season ends.
