First things first. Did you know that there’s now a unicorn-themed monster truck named Sparkle Smash?
And did you know that it is on its fabulous way to the City Beautiful as part of the perennial truckasaurus battle that is Monster Jam? Well, now you know. Piloted by Jam veteran Kayla Blood, the whimsically hued and behorned automobile is a welcome relief to the testosterone fog in the air, and apparently inspiring to the younger grrrls in the audience to boot.
You can also see Grave Digger, Megalodon and the usual suspects smashing it up in fine fashion, and copious automotive carnage. Start those engines.
One of the more notable post-holiday post-season football bowl games, the Cheez-It-branded Citrus Bowl, returns this week.
The college football blowout sees the Michigan Wolverines take on the Texas Longhorns for a New Year’s Eve grudge match. The Longhorns have the edge, but it’s anyone’s game really. Say goodbye to 2025 right by inviting all your rowdy friends over and … wait, wrong league, wrong era.
Head thee to Camping World for some cheesy crackers instead.
The nation’s most hotly contested HBCU football rivalry, between the Florida A&M University Rattlers and the nearby Bethune-Cookman University Wildcats, comes to Orlando with a packed weekend of events.
The big game includes the extravagant Disney halftime show featuring marching bands from both teams, and there will be fan meetups, parties, concerts, a big-time car show, club nights, brunches and even a golf tournament.
The concerts and afterparties taking over the city for Classic Weekend include some major-league R&B and hip-hop headliners. Just a few: Musiq Soulchild performs at a welcome mixer Thursday at Mango’s, and Paul Wall, Ying Yang Twins, Slim Thug, Lil Flip play the Vanguard later that night.
On Saturday night, Trey Songz hosts a “Party in the Country” at Mango’s, Kodak Black and Hotboii perform at Rum Jungle on International Drive, and Jermaine Dupri and Trick Daddy take over the Majestic Events Center. To close out the weekend, Atlanta rap legend Jeezy takes the stage at the Kia Center on Sunday, joined by Plies, Boosie Badazz and the Girl JT for a night of Southern hip-hop royalty, and for the diehards, G Herbo and Bunna B play late Sunday at Rum Jungle.
Footbal game: 3:30 p.m., Camping World City Stadium, 1 Citrus Bowl Place, campingworldstadium.com, $46-$156.
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After a years-long hiatus, Vans Warped Tour came back to life to celebrate 30 years, and Orlando received the reanimated fest with open arms and plugged ears.
The once summer-only touring fest is largely credited with changing the music festival landscape. It started as an alt-rock and punk fest that grew into a musical cottage-industry, helping to launch artists and serve as a model of what a community-forward fest could look like.
It’s been three decades since, and a 2025 Warped Tour brought with it much of what it used to be — this time, wrapped up in shiny new checkerboard-print packaging.
Despite its new size and inflated dollar signs, the fest honored tradition: guests crowded the central setlist blowup as soon as the gates opened, artists poured out their gratitude for fans, an attendee crowdsurfed while in a wheelchair. It touched on the past while welcoming plenty of new fans.
Crowds were littered with not only seasoned Warped-goers returning again, but also with a new generation of little ones perched on parents’ shoulders, heads bobbing to whatever they could hear through padded headphones.
Across eight main stages and additional smaller showcases, the Orlando event featured big-name headliners (A Day to Remember, GWAR, Bowling For Soup, Falling in Reverse, Less Than Jake, The Wonder Years), newer alt acts and hardcore heavyweights (MGK, Julia Wolf, Angel Du$t, Winona Fighter) and local Orlando bands (mode., Gilt, Watts).
Tens of thousands of fans packed into Camping World Stadium to sing along, no less impassioned than in years past. The 2025 consensus was clear: $17.50 beer was a small price to pay for some sonic nostalgia.
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Orlando is one of just three cities set to host a back-from-the-dead Vans Warped Tour this week, as part of the skate-punk festival’s 30th anniversary swing.
Performers at this pop-punk weekender include Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, Pennywise, Less Than Jake, Thursday, MGK, Angel Du$t, Yellowcard, Falling in Reverse and many (seriously) more.
The tour comes to Camping World Stadium and thereabouts in as a partnership with Insomniac, responsible for big-name music festivals like fellow downtown staple Electric Daisy Carnival.
Vans Warped Tour is alive again and heading to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium this month to celebrate more than three decades of music.
Orlando is one of only three cities hosting the pop-punk extravaganza and 30-year anniversary comeback, and is set to welcome a series of corresponding events leading up to the two-day fest that takes place Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 15 and 16.
The Warped Wall-Street Takeover transforms Wall and Court streets into “Warped World” for a four-day bar crawl-style get-together from Nov. 13 to 16. It’s free to attend and features food trucks dishing out Warped Tour-themed eats, a Warped Pour pop-up bar, trivia nights and a barbecue after the festival’s final shows of the night on Nov. 15 and 16.
On the eve of the fest, Warped will partner with Emo Nite to put on a night of nostalgic emo and pop-punk anthems courtesy of a live DJ. The party takes place at the Beacham on Friday, Nov. 14.
If you can’t make the Orlando events, the Skate Park of Tampa is also set to host the annual Harvest Jam All Ages Contest — which will serve as a one-stop shop for Warped Tour 2025 merch.
Warped Tour kicked off in June in Washington D.C. and touched down in Long Beach, California in July. The Orlando fest wraps up the comeback.
The musical lineup includes both seasoned Warped Tour performers and new faces, some of which include 3OH3!, A Day to Remember, The Wonder Years, Winona Fighter, Movements, Simple Plan, Bowling for Soup, Pennywise, Miss May I, Dance Hall Crashers, Less Than Jake, Thursday, MGK, Falling in Reverse, Boys Like Girls, Microwave and many, many more.
Chris Brown, who somehow has fans, will be bringing his Breezy Bowl XX tour to Orlando this week, along with road closures and likely lots of traffic.
The Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, rapper, dancer and actor convicted of assaulting his former girlfriend Rihanna is touching down at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium Tuesday, Sept. 30. And in preparation, the stadium has released a lengthy list of road closures planned to help mitigate the downtown crowds.
Closures are planned for parts of traffic-heavy roads including Pine Street, Church Street, Central Boulevard and more.
Camping World’s free downtown shuttle service runs from 3:30 p.m. to one hour after the event ends. All parking lots open at 4:30 p.m.
The stadium box office opens at 4:30 p.m.; gates open at 5:30 p.m.; and the show begins at 7 p.m.
Jhené Aiko and Bryson Tiller open.
Camping World Stadium recently beat its own record for highest attendance for an R&B artist when The Weeknd took the stage in late August.
Breezy Bowl XX tickets are still available via Ticketmaster to see the performer who pleaded guilty to felony assault over his treatment of Rihanna — just one of the many allegations against Brown.
In 2010, Brown’s application for a visa to enter the U.K. was rejected on the grounds that he was guilty of a “serious criminal offense” for alleged domestic violence, the BBC reports.
The following year, Brown allegedly punched a window at Good Morning America after being asked about the incident, according to the New York Daily News.
Brown was also allegedly involved in a 2012 brawl involving Drake and his entourage, Billboard reports. That led to the pair trading diss tracks about the Alien vs. Predator situation, in which one might be tempted to root for both sides to lose.
Former Spur Tony Parker was even caught up in the fray and had to have a piece of glass removed from his eye, nearly losing it, Yahoo! Sports reports.
In 2013, Brown was allegedly involved in a hit-and-run, according to CNN, although that case against him was subsequently dropped. Later the same year, he was arrested for felony assault in D.C. over an incident in which he allegedly punched a man after refusing to take a picture with him, according to hip-hop mag XXL.
In 2016, Brown was sued for battery, assault and false imprisonment by Mike G, the manager he had hired to repair his public image, as reported by Variety.
In 2018, Brown was arrested in Florida on a felony battery charge, this time for allegedly punching a photographer, according to CNN.
In 2022, Brown was sued by a woman who alleged he drugged and raped her on a yacht owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs, the BBC reports.
In 2024, a docuseries titled Chris Brown: A History of Violence detailed the rape allegations against the singer, as reported by People and CNN at the time.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Brown sued Warner Bros. Discovery in response, seeking $500 million in damages. The singer’s attorneys argued that the docuseries is “full of lies and deception” and that Brown has “grown” since the 2009 Rihanna incident.
Even so, Brown’s legal troubles have continued into this year. In May, he was arrested in the U.K. for allegedly smashing a tequila bottle over music producer Abe Diaw’s head, the BBC reports.
Brown was later released on £5 million bail to commence this tour, though he subsequently had to appear in court on charges relating to the alleged bottle attack.
San Antonio Current’s Digital Editor Stephanie Koithan contributed reporting to this story.
Orlando is set to host matches during the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup at two popular city venues.
Orlando’s Inter&Co Stadium and Camping World Stadium have been selected to host part of the competition, as the 32-team tournament tours the U.S. next summer at 12 venues across 11 different cities in the nation.
Orlando will be the only city to host tournament matches in multiple venues. The city was named the nation’s No. 1 city for sports events by Sports Business Journal earlier this year and continues to be a hub for premier sports competitions.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer took to social media platform X to share the city’s excitement.
“We’re looking forward to hosting some of the world’s best clubs and their supporters in both of our downtown stadiums next summer,” Dyer wrote. “Events like the FIFA Club World Cup solidify our city’s reputation as the top sports event destination in the nation.”
The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will be the largest stand-alone global football event ever to occur both in the U.S. and globally, with the world’s best 32 teams set to participate. The match schedule will be shared after the draw in December. The FIFA World Cup will kick off June 15, 2025.
We’re looking forward to hosting some of the world’s best clubs and their supporters in both of our downtown stadiums next summer. Events like the FIFA Club World Cup solidify our city’s reputation as the top sports event destination in the nation. https://t.co/4hdLsK2xxJ
A holiday weekend celebration of Caribbean culture takes over downtown Orlando
Move over, EDC; this week Camping World Stadium downtown and thereabouts will be home to a holiday-weekend celebration of Caribbean culture in all its many forms. For three days, attendees can take in live music — soca, reggae and calypso — food and drink, dancing and even a parade.
On Friday, Carnival on the Runway — a showcase of Carnival couture and costumes — happens at Camping World. Saturday sees an early Jouvert party (think festive paint and powder being thrown every which way, à la Holi) at Tinker Field, and mini-fest Soca Anthropology taking over the Seneff Plaza in front of the Dr. Phillips Center. Sunday brings the Orlando Carnival Downtown — parade, food festival and even more music — to Camping World. You will dance, guaranteed.