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🍦Turtle Tracks, Mom's Weekend, and a Tarpon Kickoff
Best Things To Do in SRQ
Carson B
May 05, 2026
Happy Mother's Day week to all the moms reading. And to everyone else — gentle reminder you've still got time to get a card, but barely.
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In today’s edition of the Sarasota Scoop:
Thanks for reading,
Carson
🧠 Think You Know Sarasota? Trivia!
The Sarasota Tarpon Tournament drops its first lines this Saturday, making it the longest-running tarpon tournament in America. What year did it start? |
📰 Local Headline Roundup
Sarasota County Hits the Brakes on More Funding for The Bay
The Bay Park Conservancy went to the County Commission late last month asking for the next round of TIF dollars to push Phase 2 forward. Commissioners signaled they want a more cautious release tied to milestones — the floating day dock is done, but the bigger build-out is still in front of us.
Charliebird Takes Top Honors at the Sarasota Film Festival
The 2026 Sarasota Film Festival just wrapped, and the Narrative Feature Competition went to Charliebird, Libby Ewing's quiet drama about a music therapist working with a young patient at a children's hospital. One to keep an eye on when it hits a wider release.
Siesta Beach Lands at No. 28 in the World
Siesta climbed 14 spots on the World's 50 Best Beaches list for 2026, jumping to No. 28 — the only U.S. beach on the global list, and No. 7 in North America. Voters singled out the 99-percent-pure-quartz sand and the Sunday drum circle. We knew, but it is nice to see it in writing.
🔦 Spotlight: Sea Turtle Nesting Season
If you've taken a sunrise walk on Lido or Siesta lately, you've probably noticed the new yellow stakes and pink flagging tape going up along the dunes. Sea turtle nesting season is officially open. The first nest of 2026 was logged on Venice Beach on April 27 — a few days ahead of the May 1 start — and from now through the end of October, our beaches turn into the busiest loggerhead nursery in the Gulf of Mexico.
The folks marking those nests are Mote Marine Laboratory's Sea Turtle Patrol, now in their 45th year. Around 300 volunteers and biologists walk roughly 35 miles of coastline — Longboat Key down through Venice — at civil twilight every single morning, April 15 through October 31. They read the prior night's tracks in the sand, find the nest, mark it with a coded stake, and log everything. Longboat Key's volunteer group has been tracking nests since 1969, which means our stretch of coast has one of the longest continuous sea turtle datasets in the country.
Most of what they're finding is loggerhead — 5,384 of last year's record-breaking 5,736 nests were loggerheads, with green sea turtles a fast-growing second. Casey Key alone accounted for 2,419 of those nests, roughly 42 percent of the region's total on one narrow barrier island. That's part of why Sarasota County averages over 200 nests per mile, the highest loggerhead density in the Gulf.
The hatchlings start emerging in late June and peak through July, August, and September. Until then, locals get the easy part of the job: turn off or shield any outdoor lights visible from the beach after dark, fill in any holes you've dug before you leave, knock down sandcastles, stack your chairs at the dune line, and skip the flashlights and fireworks. If you do see a nesting turtle or hatchlings making their run for the water, hang back and let them go — no flash photos, no helping hand toward the Gulf. They've got it.
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Thursday, May 7
Plant Bingo at 99 Bottles Taproom
📍 99 Bottles Taproom, Downtown Sarasota
🕦 7:00 PM
🔗 99 Bottles Taproom
UTC Live on The Green
📍 University Town Center, The Green
🕦 6:30 PM
🔗 UTC Sarasota
Sarasota Orchestra: Great Escapes — Starry Night
📍 Holley Hall, 709 N Tamiami Trail
🕦 7:30 PM
🔗 Sarasota Orchestra
Friday, May 8
Music on Main
📍 Lakewood Ranch Main Street
🕦 6:00 PM — 9:00 PM
🔗 Lakewood Ranch
Music in the Park
📍 Bradenton Riverwalk Mosaic Amphitheater
🕦 6:00 PM — 8:00 PM
🔗 Realize Bradenton
Free Music Friday: Joshua Reilly and Mercy McCoy
📍 Centennial Park, Downtown Venice
🕦 7:00 PM — 9:00 PM
🔗 Visit Venice FL
Almost Eagles
📍 Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
🕦 7:00 PM
🔗 Van Wezel
Bradenton Marauders vs. St. Lucie Mets
📍 LECOM Park, Bradenton
🕦 First pitch 6:30 PM
🔗 Bradenton Marauders
Jacob Jolliff & Michael Daves at Fogartyville
📍 Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center, 525 Kumquat Court
🕦 8:00 PM (doors 7:00 PM)
🔗 WSLR + Fogartyville
Saturday, May 9
Bradenton Public Market
📍 Old Main Street, Downtown Bradenton
🕦 9:00 AM — 2:00 PM
🔗 Realize Bradenton
Sarasota Cars and Coffee
📍 Sarasota
🕦 8:00 AM
🔗 Sarasota Cars and Coffee
96th Annual Sarasota Tarpon Tournament Begins
📍 Sarasota Bay
🕦 Lines drop at sunrise (runs through June 14)
🔗 Sarasota Tarpon Tournament
Mother's Day Brunch at Edson Keith Mansion
📍 Phillippi Estate Park
🕦 10:00 AM — 1:00 PM
🔗 Sarasota County Parks
SiestaCon
📍 Robarts Arena, 3000 Ringling Blvd
🕦 10:00 AM — 7:00 PM
🔗 SiestaCon
Casting with Confidence: A Women's Fishing Seminar
📍 James Patton Park, Lakewood Ranch
🕦 9:30 AM — 11:00 AM
🔗 Lakewood Ranch
Gospel Jubilee Showcase at Selby Gardens
📍 Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Downtown Campus, 1534 Mound Street
🕦 1:00 PM — 3:00 PM
🔗 Selby Gardens
Herbie Hancock
📍 Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall
🕦 7:00 PM
🔗 Van Wezel
Bradenton Marauders vs. St. Lucie Mets
📍 LECOM Park, Bradenton
🕦 First pitch 6:30 PM
🔗 Bradenton Marauders
Sunday, May 10
Mother's Day Brunch at Selby Gardens
📍 Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Downtown Campus, 1534 Mound Street
🕦 Seatings at 10:30 AM, 12:00 PM, and 1:30 PM
🔗 Selby Gardens
Mother's Day Brunch at Sarasota Art Museum
📍 Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 South Tamiami Trail
🕦 Seatings at 11:00 AM and 1:30 PM
🔗 Sarasota Art Museum
Jazz Brunch with The Ventura's Jazz Odyssey
📍 Mattison's City Grille, Downtown Sarasota
🕦 12:00 PM — 3:00 PM
🔗 Mattison's
Marie and Rosetta at Asolo Rep
📍 Cook Theatre, FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N Tamiami Trail
🕦 1:30 PM matinee
🔗 Asolo Rep
Mother's Day at The Bay featuring Big Night Out
📍 The Oval at The Bay, 1055 Blvd of the Arts
🕦 4:30 PM — 5:30 PM (free; first several hundred moms get a complimentary rose)
🔗 The Bay Sarasota
Sundays at The Bay
📍 The Oval at The Bay
🕦 6:00 PM — 7:00 PM
🔗 The Bay Sarasota
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