It costs five dollars if you feel like it, and the stage sits close enough to the Atlantic that you can hear the surf between scenes. This month, the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival is staging the world premiere of Falstaff: Shakespeare's Greatest Invention at the Seabreeze Amphitheater in Jupiter's Carlin Park, and it is the kind of free summer night people build entire weekends around. Forty minutes north of Boca, with the ocean breeze doing the air conditioning and food trucks parked along the grass, this is not the Shakespeare you sat through in high school.

What You're Getting Into

This is a world premiere, meaning this version of Falstaff has never been staged anywhere before. It pulls scenes from Henry IV, Henry V, and The Merry Wives of Windsor into one story built around Shakespeare's most famous scoundrel. The run splits across two weekends, July 9 through 12 and July 16 through 19, Thursday through Sunday, with the play running about two hours including intermission. Gates open at 6:30pm, preshow entertainment runs 6:45 to 7:45, and the play starts at 8, right as the sky starts to turn.

There is no ticket booth and no dress code. Bring a beach chair, a blanket, and a cooler if you want one, or skip the packing and grab dinner from whichever food truck is parked on site that night, since the lineup changes throughout the run. Kids run around on the grass before the show starts, couples spread out blankets up front, and by the time the actors come out, the whole amphitheater smells like sunscreen and someone's grill a few picnic tables over. This is the 36th year the festival has run Shakespeare by the Sea at Carlin Park, and past two-weekend runs have pulled in as many as 10,000 people, which tells you this is not exactly a secret, just a very well-loved one.

The Insider Move

Gates open at 6:30, and that is the move, not 7:45 when the preshow wraps. Get there early, stake out your patch of grass close to the stage, and you will have time to walk down to the beach first since Carlin Park's sand is right there. Pack bug spray, since dusk on the grass by the water gets buggy fast, and bring a light layer for after the sun drops. Cash covers the suggested donation and most of the food trucks, though some vendors may take cards. If Falstaff has you curious beforehand, Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor are where his character comes from.

The Buzz

Regulars describe the Seabreeze Amphitheater as one of the prettiest places in the county to watch a live show, with the ocean breeze and a star-filled sky doing half the work before the actors even walk out. Reviewers of Carlin Park consistently point to the same things: the setting, the family-friendly crowd, and how well-run the whole thing feels for something that costs nothing. Combine that with a festival that has been doing this for 36 years and regularly draws thousands of people across a single run, and you have got one of the more reliable free nights in Palm Beach County.

Shakespeare by the Sea started in 1990 and has run almost every summer since, with a brief pause during the pandemic. It is presented in partnership with Palm Beach County Parks and Recreation, which is a big part of why it stays free.

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