Gay8 Festival
Miami Street Festival 2025

Gay8 Festival – Miami Street Festival 2025

Miami’s famed Little Havana neighbourhood hosts a LGBT Latino block party, Gay8 (pronounced GayOcho!) each year in mid February. This one day street festival showcases Latino LGBT art, music and food.

• Little Havana has some quirky apartments and rentals on offer, perfect for a complete escape from the Miami scene. Alternatively stay in South Beach and take the 15-minute ride share to the event.

Gay8 (“Ocho”) Festival is a platform, an opportunity to connect with parts of South Florida you never knew were there …. an amazing sticky mess of fun, diversity, history, culture, passion and South Florida realness meant to engage the community in ways no one knew were possible.

Where is the Miami Gay8 Festival taking place?

• The festival will stretch for three fun-packed, activity-filled blocks from SW14th to SW17th Avenues. The famed “Calle Ocho” becomes a pedestrian walkway so all can peruse the day long offerings.
• The party gets going at 11 a.m, as Calle Ocho — Eighth Street for the uninitiated — is closed to traffic for three blocks between 14th and 17th Avenues.

Miami Gay8 Events

• Gay8 features free movies at the Tower, a Doggie Village with a dog obstacle course, dance parties, the Best Miami Sandwich Competition, fashion shows, and many other acts and talent on 4 different stages.
• Other events around the festival will include a cigar lounge, historic walking tours, a mini-film festival, dance parties and more.
• Art will also be aplenty at Gay8 as some of South Florida’s best painters and sculptors will punctuate the festival with booths displaying distinguished, authentic Miami works of art. Walk over to Sala Furniture and have owner Roberto Ramos give you one of his docent like tours of Cuban art.
• Miami Dade College’s Tower Theater, a renovated jewel on Calle Ocho and 15th Avenue will showcase LGBTQ themed films -check out the schedule- all day long.
• Other highlights include the Macho Dance Party, with men from all over the world on Gay8 Festival’s MACHO stage beginning at 2pm to 8pm at Domino Park!

Little Havana and Gay Miami

• Little Havana is a 15 minute drive from South Beach, home to Miami’s gay nightlife and beaches.
• If you want to stay close to the event in Little Havana, the area is home to some superb apartments and alternative accommodation options. Check out the following places to stay close by
• Make sure you check out Azucar Night Club while you are in Little Havana, an authentic Latin drag club with great dancing and cabaret nights.

Recommended hotels in South Beach

If you want to stay close to South Beach, the following hotels are popular with our readers, are close to all the major attractions and gay beaches and have a high rating:

The Setai,    The Marlin Hotel,    Waldorf Towers,    President Hotel