The best free ticket on the Gold Coast this weekend is not a concert. It is the whole Kravis Center, open from noon to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17, with the symphony, the opera and the ballet all working the room. Build your weekend around that, then pick from five more plans spread from Lake Worth to the Redland, every one of them checked against the people running it.

Saturday in West Palm Beach: the Kravis Center Block Party

Most people only see the inside of the Kravis Center with a seat number in hand. On Saturday the West Palm Beach campus at 701 Okeechobee Boulevard opens every door it can for free, rain or shine, with an RSVP on the center's site. The schedule is long enough to plan around. Palm Beach Symphony runs an instrument petting zoo in the Dreyfoos lobby from noon to 3, and later lets kids take the baton in a session called Conduct Us. Palm Beach Opera reads The Magic Flute to little ones at 1 and brings its resident artists into Dreyfoos Hall at 2 for a season preview. Ballet Palm Beach previews its season on the big stage at 4 and again at 7.

Outside, the Meyer Canopy stage rolls from the Derek Mack Band at 12:45 through Guavatron at 3:40 to the Bryant Thomas Band closing at 6:45. Food comes from The Salty Donut, Driftwood Coffee, The Slider Spot and others. Why it is worth the drive: this is the cheapest way to sit in Dreyfoos Hall all year, and the 6 p.m. behind-the-scenes session on The Great Gatsby with Noah Ricketts is the sort of access that normally comes with a donor card. Bring the kids early, come back without them after dinner.

Lake Worth: the last weekend of a 52-year Oktoberfest

The American German Club of the Palm Beaches closes its 52nd Oktoberfest this weekend at 5111 Lantana Road. Hours are Friday 6 to 11 p.m., Saturday 2 to 11 p.m. and Sunday noon to 8 p.m. The band Froschhaxn Express comes over from Germany for the Pavilion, with folk dancing, a stein holding contest, keg tapping and carnival rides around it, and schnitzel, sauerbraten and bratwurst on the plates.

Buy online. Adults pay $12 on Friday or Sunday and $15 on Saturday ahead of time, against $20 and $25 at the gate; kids 7 to 14 are $8 and 6 and under get in free. On-site parking is $20, but the club runs a free shuttle from Diamond View Elementary and Tradewinds Middle School. Sunday afternoon is the family shift; Saturday night is not.

Fort Lauderdale: the Las Olas Art Fair, and a Caribbean night in Pompano

The 39th Las Olas Art Fair sets up at 740 East Las Olas Boulevard on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., free. It is juried, which is the difference between this and a craft table weekend: the artists in the booths made the work and will talk you through it, and many take commissions. Walk it before lunch, then eat on Las Olas while the galleries along the street are still open.

If you are in Broward on Saturday night, Pompano Beach throws its free Caribbean Fest at Pompano Community Park, 1801 NE 6th Street, from 5 to 10 p.m. We previewed the headliners here.

Davie: Day of the Dead at Flamingo Gardens

Flamingo Gardens runs its Harvest Festival on fall weekends, and Oct. 17 and 18 is the Dia de los Muertos weekend, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 3750 South Flamingo Road. Admission is $24 for ages 12 and up, $17 for ages 3 to 11, and free for members and children 2 and younger. That covers hayrides, pony rides for small children, mini Highland cows and farm animal encounters, plus a costume contest and candy giveaway at 1 p.m. The pumpkin patch and pumpkin painting cost extra.

What makes this one worth the drive from Boca or Weston is everything that comes with the ticket on a normal day: the narrated tram tour, the butterfly conservatory, the wildlife talks and the Wray Home Museum. Come dressed for the theme and the kids will not be the only ones in face paint.

Coral Gables: pumpkins in Ponce Circle Park

The City of Coral Gables fills Ponce Circle Park, 2810 Ponce de Leon Boulevard, with hundreds of pumpkins on Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m. There is live music, pumpkin decorating, face painting, fall photo spots and a small harvest market. Gables residents could buy a $15 presale ticket that covers one pumpkin and entry for up to four; a limited number of tickets are sold in person on the day, first come, first served. Our advice: get there at 2, not 5. This is one of the prettiest backdrops in Miami-Dade for a family photo, and the good pumpkins go first.

The Redland: orchids from around the world

The Redland International Orchid Festival runs all three days at Fruit & Spice Park, 24801 SW 187th Avenue. Hours are Friday noon to 5 p.m. (9 a.m. for Friday First ticket holders) and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. General admission is $20, children under 12 are free, and the ticket also opens the 37-acre park itself. Bring cash: tickets at the door and the $5 parking, which benefits a local Boy Scout troop, are cash only. We wrote about the growers coming in for it last week. The judged bench show, scored by American Orchid Society judges, is reason enough for anyone who has ever kept an orchid alive on a lanai.

How to split it

If you live in Palm Beach County, Saturday writes itself: the Kravis in the afternoon and Oktoberfest in Lake Worth after dark. Broward has the art fair by day and Pompano by night, with Flamingo Gardens as the Sunday plan for anyone with kids. In Miami-Dade, pair the orchids in the Redland on Saturday morning with the pumpkin patch in the Gables that afternoon. Three of these cost nothing at all, which is not a bad weekend for mid-October.