☀️ GOOD MORNING, HOLLYWOOD!
Good morning, Hollywood, and happy Friday. It’s a very beach-y edition today, because our beach is having quite a summer: collecting national awards, hosting a new generation of baby sea turtles, battling a record wave of seaweed, and baking under some seriously dangerous heat - all at once. Plus the concert of the summer hits Hard Rock tonight, and it’s National Tequila Day. Grab some water (really) and let’s dig in.

📰 IN TODAY’S BLEND
🏆 Our beach is racking up national awards
🐢 Sea turtle season is in full swing
🎤 Lionel Richie & Earth, Wind & Fire tonight
🌊 The city’s daily war on sargassum
🌡️ A dangerous heat risk this weekend
🥃 Spotlight - National Tequila Day on the beach

📅 WHAT’S HAPPENING - July 24-27

Friday, July 24 - Today!
🎤 Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire at Hard Rock Live - 7:30 PM
🥃 National Tequila Day Tasting at Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort - 4-5 PM, ticketed
🛍️ Night Market Friday at Dania Pointe - artisan vendors + bites, from 6 PM

Saturday, July 25
🌮 Taste at the Track: Tacos & Tequila at Gulfstream Park (Hallandale) - 1-4 PM, ticketed
🎧 Bread Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin tribute) at the Hollywood Beach Bandshell - 7 PM, free
🎧 Disturbed at Hard Rock Live - 8 PM
🍽️ Yellow Green Farmers Market (Hollywood) - 200+ vendors, 10 AM-6:30 PM

Sunday, July 26
🎵 FM Band Miami (80s + 90s hits) at South City Beach Park, Hallandale - free
🍽️ Yellow Green Farmers Market (Hollywood) - 200+ vendors, 10 AM-6:30 PM

Monday, July 27
🎬 $1 Summer Movies at Regal Dania Pointe, from 11 AM
🍽️ Hallandale Eats: prix-fixe menus at 26 restaurants (through Aug 20)

COMING UP
♠️ Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open - starts Tue July 28 (through Aug 11)
👗 FLL Fashion Week Summer Shows on the 101 Dania Beach rooftop - Sat Aug 1
🎒 Back-to-school: Broward classes start Mon Aug 10; Florida tax holiday runs through Aug 20
🎨 Art in the Atrium at the Fred Lippman Community Center - Sat Aug 15
🍽️ Skinny Louie smash burgers now open at Dania Pointe
🍽️ Common Room + the Brooklyn Room coming to 2032 Harrison St, Hollywood

🌡️ High: ~91° | Feels like ~104° | Dangerously hot, afternoon storms
See today’s heat-risk story above - the short version is that it’s genuinely dangerous out there, with feels-like readings pushing 108-110 at peak. On top of that, scattered showers and storms fire up after 2-3 p.m. (around a 40% chance), some with lightning and heavy downpours, and rain odds climb through the weekend. Hydrate constantly, limit midday sun, and never leave kids or pets in a parked car.

Source: National Weather Service / CBS Miami

🏆 Our Beach Is Having a Moment (and the Awards Prove It)

We may be biased, but the rest of the country is catching on. Hollywood Beach has been piling up national honors this year, and it’s worth a little hometown pride. Tripadvisor just named it to its 2026 Best of the Best list of top U.S. beaches - the site’s highest recognition, reserved for the top 1% worldwide.

That’s not the only trophy on the shelf. Miami New Times readers voted Hollywood the Best Beach of 2025, and USA Today named our beloved Broadwalk one of America’s ten most nostalgic promenades - a nod to that brick-paved, old-Florida charm you can’t fake. Parade recently called the whole stretch South Florida’s “slow-burn shore,” finally having its big moment.

The recognition comes as Hollywood Beach rides a roughly $1 billion wave of investment - new resorts, dining, and wellness spots reshaping the shoreline. The trick, as always, will be growing up without losing the laid-back, barefoot character that got us on these lists in the first place. For now, though: enjoy the bragging rights.

Source: Parade / Tripadvisor

🐢 It’s Baby Season: Sea Turtles Are Nesting on Our Beach

Look down as you stroll the sand this summer and you might spot the evidence: shallow tracks, marked-off nests, and the occasional roped stake. We’re in the heart of sea turtle nesting season, which runs March 1 through October 31, and Hollywood’s North Beach is a designated hatchery.

Broward County logged more than 3,000 nests last year along its 24 miles of coast, and loggerheads, greens, and the occasional leatherback are all part of the mix. The nightly ritual is remarkable: females haul ashore to lay their eggs, and weeks later, hatchlings erupt from the sand and scramble toward the brightest horizon - which, in nature, is the moonlit ocean.

That last part is why Hollywood’s “lights out” rules matter. The city’s turtle-friendly lighting ordinance asks beachfront properties to shield lights, mount them low, and use amber or red bulbs, so hatchlings aren’t lured toward roads instead of the water. Want to meet a turtle up close? The free Marine Environmental Education Center on the Broadwalk has daily 3:30 p.m. feedings. Just look, don’t touch - and if you spot a nest, give it room.

Source: Broward County / FWC

🎤 Tonight: Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire at Hard Rock

Clear your Friday night. Two of music’s most beloved acts share one stage tonight, as Lionel Richie and Earth, Wind & Fire bring their co-headlining “Sing a Song All Night Long” tour to Hard Rock Live at 7:30 p.m. It’s about as stacked a bill as a summer night gets.

Between them, these two have a catalog that basically is the soundtrack to every wedding, cookout, and road trip of the last 40 years - “All Night Long,” “September,” “Boogie Wonderland,” “Hello,” “Easy,” “Reasons.” Expect a crowd that knows every word and a whole lot of dancing in the aisles.

Tickets have been going in the $315-and-up range through Hard Rock Live and the usual outlets, and last-minute seats may still be around. If you can swing it, it’s the kind of show you’ll be glad you didn’t skip.

Source: Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood

🌊 The City’s Daily Battle With the Seaweed

If your last beach day came with a whiff of low tide and a thick brown mat at the waterline, you’ve met sargassum - and you’re not alone. The City of Hollywood says its beach crews are out every single day removing the seaweed to keep the sand clean, safe, and enjoyable for residents and visitors.

There’s a reason it’s so relentless this year: 2026 is on track to be one of the worst sargassum seasons ever recorded. The great Atlantic seaweed belt nearly doubled its all-time record in June, and millions of tons are drifting toward Florida’s coast, driven by warm water and extra nutrients in the ocean. Peak beaching season here runs right through the summer.

The good news: the city is adding cleanup equipment under its existing permit, working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to speed things up while protecting the coastline (and those turtle nests). A little patience helps - crews can’t be everywhere at once - but reinforcements are on the way.

Source: City of Hollywood

🌡️ Dangerous Heat: Take This Weekend Seriously

The seaweed isn’t the only thing making the beach a challenge right now. The National Weather Service is warning of a major-to-extreme risk of heat-related illness across Broward and Miami-Dade, with “feels-like” temperatures climbing toward 108 to 110 degrees in the afternoons. This is the kind of heat that sends people to the ER.

“Major to extreme” sits at the top of the scale, meaning the heat is dangerous for anyone without effective cooling and hydration - not only the usual at-risk groups. Those groups still face the greatest danger: older adults, young children, people with health conditions, outdoor workers, and pets. Cars turn deadly fast, too - never leave a child or animal inside, even for a minute.

The playbook is simple but worth repeating: drink water before you’re thirsty, take frequent breaks in shade or AC, wear light clothing, skip strenuous activity during peak afternoon hours, and check on elderly neighbors. If someone shows signs of heat stroke - confusion, hot and dry skin, fainting - call 911. Enjoy the summer, but respect the heat.

Source: National Weather Service / USA Today

🥃 Cheers: It’s National Tequila Day on the Beach

Here’s a happier reason to raise a glass: today, Friday, July 24, is National Tequila Day - and Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort is marking it the classy way, with a guided tasting rather than a rowdy happy hour.

The National Tequila Day Tasting runs 4 to 5 p.m. at the resort (1111 N. Ocean Drive): a ticketed, one-hour session pouring Espolòn Añejo and Extra Añejo, with a guide walking you through what makes each one special. It’s intimate by design, so you’ll actually learn the difference between añejo and extra añejo instead of just... enjoying them.

Tickets are required and space is limited - grab yours through Margaritaville Hollywood Live. And if a formal tasting isn’t your speed, the whole beach is in a tequila mood today, with specials up and down the Broadwalk. Salud, Hollywood.

Image: Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort