Family

Join the City of Jacksonville for the 4th on the River. Celebrate Independence Day from 5-10pm with live entertainment, interactive activities, food and beverages, and spectacular fireworks displays at three locations along the St. Johns River. The Shipyards on Bay St. Join in the family fun with a water balloon toss, three-legged race, giant Jenga, crafts, face painting, caricature artist, live entertainment, BBQ, Jax Happenings Mini Challenges, fireworks and more! No coolers or outside food allowed. There will be a Free Concert featuring performances by The Band Be Easy and Pop/Rock sensation – Orleans, the 70s Pop/Rock band that brought …

[avatar user=”Downtown Vision Inc.” size=”thumbnail” align=”left” link=”http://downtownjacksonville.org/blog/2015/06/16/a-day-for-dads-in-dtjax/” target=”_blank” /] By Kristina Aviles, DVI Intern Father’s Day is this weekend and if you’re still figuring out what to do for your dad, look no further! has so much to offer for the wide variety of sporty, artsy or chocolate lovin’ dads out there: For the sports fan: Buy your dad some baseball tickets and take the whole family down to the ballpark, grab a hotdog and cheer on the Jacksonville Suns. For football fans, take your dad out to watch the Jacksonville Sharks or buy your tickets early for the Jacksonville …

In November of 2014, Florida voters overwhelmingly said “Yes” to a constitutional amendment that would provide dedicated funding to conserve critical lands and protect our water resources. If you were wondering what that has to do with an entertainment magazine, then you should probably learn more about the priority list of 119 properties sprinkled throughout the state that need more funding, with more than half in north Florida. This “wish list” is developed by Florida’s Acquisition and Restoration Council, the ARC, which evaluates and ranks state land acquisitions based on more than 40 different attributes. Having a wide variety of …

If you haven’t been to the Southbank Riverwalk in a while, it’s time to go back. The bright blue bricks in shades of aqua, teal, and baby blue may be your first indication that something has changed. That’s because the has just completed an 18-month, $17 million renovation project to make the area more pedestrian, bike, and family-friendly for the people of Jacksonville. In addition to the bricks, the walkway is wider and lined with benches for lounging, shady canopies for sunny days, and improved lighting to make nighttime strolling more safe and comfortable. At its center, the Naval Memorial …

It’s one of the most significant historical structures in Jacksonville, but no one knows how old it is and no one built it. While today the , a popular site for wedding photos and outdoor summer movie screenings, is one of Jacksonville’s most beloved locations and very likely the oldest living being in the city’s 874.6 consolidated square miles, it owes its continued existence to false prophecies, legends, and lies. In all the gorgeous gargantuan tree’s documented history, the supposed facts have often contradicted each other. Though Treaty Oak is featured as one of 17 trees in Jeffrey Meyer’s 2001 …

Hemming Park has played host to thousands during and transformed into a live music stage for the . On June 5-6, Hemming Park welcomes , the largest pogo stick competition in the world, to the downtown core. , the global governing body for the sport of extreme pogo, selected as one of only two cities to host tour stops for Pogopalooza 2015, the World Championships of extreme pogo. Now in its 12th year, Pogopalooza has been held in 15 cities across three countries since 2004. The 2015 US Open will be held in Jacksonville’s Hemming Park followed by the World …

Once the “World’s Lightest and Tallest Fountain”, Now Celebrating 50 Years! Since 1963, Jacksonville has enjoyed a signature fountain and park designed by the late, world-renowned architect , also designer of the , among other notable city buildings. Opening in 1965, and the are situated on the , where generations of families have enjoyed ambulating between the Main Street or bridge, which opened in 1957. The fountain, park, and bridge are the visual triumvirate architectural signatures which connect what was once known as South Jacksonville to Downtown. In the beginning, the fountain and park were made possible by a donation …