One Sunday, one window, no headcount
The Ichimura Miami-Japan Garden holds its Free Fall Festival on Sunday 1 November 2026, from 10:30am to 4pm. The garden sits at 1101 MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island. The park opens 9am to 5pm every day and admits the public free.
The organiser publishes the date and the window. It publishes no attendance figure for any edition and no vendor count. A hotel pricing that weekend works from a 330-minute window and a free gate.
The crew clock starts two hours before the gate
Volunteer sign-up runs through a Google Form titled Ichimura Miami-Japan Garden Volunteer Form 2026. The form offers three availability windows: all day, 8:30am to 5pm; 8:30am to 1pm; and 12:30pm to 5:30pm.
A full-day shift opens two hours before the 10:30 gate and closes one hour after the 4pm close. The morning and afternoon windows overlap for 30 minutes, from 12:30pm to 1pm.
The form collects a name, a phone number, an email, allergies, a unisex adult t-shirt size and an emergency contact. It states no number of volunteers the day needs.
That 8:30am start is the earliest activity the organiser prints for the day. It sets the first arrival a hotel can plan for on the Sunday morning.
Named acts, no published fee
The Friends of the Japanese Garden runs the event. It incorporated in 1984 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit. The garden it runs today opened in 2005.
The organiser's artist page names its regular performers: the Yoshiko Taiko Dojo Drummers, and Fernando Moraes, Gretchen Schmidt and Karen Bowie, who have played the garden for five years. Danielle and Claudio Ponce are listed as newer additions. Sara Comettant runs the cosplay contest. Masafumi Nakanishi, a Shinto priest, has come three years for the Thanksgiving and 7-5-3 ceremonies. Frank Nieves of the Institute for Budo Studies volunteers his services.
The organiser publishes no fee, honorarium or contract for any act. The one priced labour input on the site is vendor space.
Two act credits sit inside page comments
The rendered home page carries the date, the window, the rain-or-shine terms, the cash-only note, the park hours, the address, the volunteer links and the sponsor column. It carries no act names.
Two act credits sit inside HTML comments on that page: free taiko drumming by Fushu Daiko, and ikebana workshops by Ikebana International Miami Chapter 131 with two free sessions at 11am to noon and 1:30pm to 2:30pm in the first tent. No visitor sees either line. Neither name appears on the artist page, the 2021 festival notice or the 2018 notice.
The ticket page sells an Ikebana Class & Supplies seat at $15 and an Onigiri Class at $5. The 2021 notice printed its own bill: violinist Aiko Heidi Dillon, Soran dancers, taiko drummers, an ikebana demonstration and a magic show, inside an 11am to 4pm window.
Booth money runs through one phone line
Booth and sponsorship enquiries route to Rick DelVecchio at 305-992-0703, a number printed twice on the home page. DelVecchio is president of the Friends and chairs its programmes.
An inside vendor space costs $45. Outside entrance spaces 23, 24 and 25 cost $25 each, for $75 across the row. Space sells first come, first served. The vendor supplies a tent and a table. The spaces carry no electricity. The page states no refunds, no rainchecks and no change of mind after payment.
What the window fixes for a hotel
A 10:30 gate and a 4pm close put the demand inside one Sunday. A guest who checks out before 10:30 misses the programme. A guest who stays to 4pm needs a late check-out or a second night.
The 8:30am crew start sets the first demand on parking and on the lobby. The park's own 9am opening caps the queue ahead of the gate.
The organiser prints no attendance figure. A hotel can price the cancellation term against a published window and an unknown crowd. Hold the term until the organiser prints a number.