Eric Barton, the founder of Cocktails for Humanity, making me a mean drink

If you haven’t, you’ll get your chance this weekend.

Fort Lauderdale’s FAT Village, the burgeoning artist neighborhood, hosts its monthly art walk the last Saturday of every month. Here, the block is filled with food trucks, artists, musicians, and craftsmen. Since its inception just a few years ago, it has put the village on the South Florida map and rivaled older community art walks.

General Provision, a shared work space, is converted into a bar for the Cocktails for Humanity popup, where volunteers mix up delicious drinks to benefit a different charity each month. At C&I Studios, an “idea agency,” its coffee shop Next Door becomes a sort of underground music space with live music, art, and drinks. Also, art galleries open their doors and the village’s main exhibition space is filled with the works of local artists — last time, methods of listening to music through the ages was on display, from a piano and massive radios to a record player, tape player CD player, all the way to our bitty cell phones.

An outdoor bar at the art walk

Walking down the block at last month’s event, I was shocked to see how much it had grown even from the last time I went. People flooded the streets like it was the city’s annual Day of the Dead festival , and the number of artists and crafters has shot up. My friend and I couldn’t resist the super hero art, pin up t-shirts, bullet casing jewelry,  bottle openers in the shape of brass knuckles and other novel oddities. Besides the food trucks serving burgers and the like, Gaysha lured me in with their ramen noodle bowls filled with a hearty broth and pork. My friend was thrilled to find an East African booth that served up a heaping pile of homemade food.

So many vendors, so little time

So if you love art, music, drinks, food, and supporting local businesses, you know where you’re spending your Saturday night this weekend.

HINT: Sounds pretty awesome right? You’re not the only one to think so, and the art walk has become so popular that parking is a NIGHTMARE. I highly recommend taking an Uber or Lyft so you spend more time in the village and less time screaming in frustration.