The Northwest Gainesville Fall Calendar Quietly Runs Through Santa Fe College's Campus

The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo stops letting visitors in at 2:30 p.m. and closes at 3. That's about when most of the rest of the campus at 3000 NW 83rd Street starts its day for the public. The Kika Silva Pla Planetarium runs its regular shows on Friday and Saturday evenings, and most concerts at Jackson N. Sasser Fine Arts Hall start at 7:30 p.m.

So for Northwest Gainesville, one address works as two venues on two schedules. Between now and December, the fall season moves from the first schedule to the second. Twice, on Oct. 28 and Dec. 5, the two overlap. Plan around those hand-offs and one campus can fill a whole weekend.

Two Schedules, One Address

Here's how the four public-facing parts of the Northwest Campus split up the hours this fall.

The Teaching Zoo is the only one open every day of the week. It will close on Thanksgiving Day and on Dec. 24 and 25. Apart from the weekday gallery, everything else waits for evenings and weekends, so a Saturday is the one day you can stack zoo, planetarium and a show back to back.

Oct. 28: The Zoo Shifts Into the Evening

Boo at the Zoo is the zoo's one big break from its usual 3 p.m. close. For its 30th year, Santa Fe College moved it to a new date, Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 7 p.m. The hours pick up right where a normal zoo day stops. The college's announcement also says the zoo will be closed during its regular hours that day to get ready.

Here's how the evening runs, according to the college:

• Start behind the SF Gymnasium. SF Athletics runs games and Student Life clubs host activities before families walk onto the trick-or-treat trail.
• Walk the zoo trail. Students in the Zoo Animal Technology program design the Halloween scenes and decorations. Danscompany of Gainesville puts on themed performances along the way.
• Finish at the Fun4GatorKids Kid Zone. Community organizations hand out crafts, games and more candy.

Admission is one non-perishable food item per person, and the donations go to Saints Food Share. Compare that with a regular $10 adult ticket. A family of four gets in for four cans of soup.

Moving Boo to a Wednesday frees up Halloween itself. The zoo is back to regular hours, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., on Saturday, Oct. 31. The planetarium's first Halloween show starts right at 3.

Halloween Weekend Runs on Both Schedules

The planetarium events page shows the Oct. 31 hand-off almost to the minute. The zoo closes at 3 p.m., and the dome lineup that day runs:

1. 3 p.m. Laser Halloween
2. 4 p.m. Laser Beatles
3. 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Beautifica 360
4. 9 p.m. Laser Nine Inch Nails

The Friday before, Oct. 30, has Florida Skies – Autumn at 7 p.m. and Laser Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" at 9 p.m. If Halloween Saturday is already booked, Sunday, Oct. 25 has its own afternoon set: Laser Halloween at 3 p.m., Laser Prince at 4 and Laser Gaga at 5.

The same Friday, Oct. 30, the Gainesville Orchestra plays "Revolution" at Sasser Hall from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. The program pairs Beethoven's Fifth Symphony with Rautavaara's "Cantus Arcticus." Santa Fe College's calendar lists tickets at $20 to $60. That puts the planetarium and the concert hall on campus the same night, and the 9 p.m. laser show starts close to when the symphony lets out.

November Belongs to the Evening Schedule

Once Halloween is over, the campus's public calendar is almost all evening. Here are the Sasser Hall dates, with prices from the college calendar or Showpass ticket listings:

• Sat., Oct. 24, 8 p.m. Young Dancers Showcase. Santa Fe College's news story on the showcase says it brings together more than 200 dancers from Young Dancers Workshop programs, including SF and UF. $10 to $20.
• Fri., Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m. Contemporary Pop Ensemble, playing student arrangements of contemporary pop and original work. $10 to $20.
• Fri., Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m. Songs of the Season, listed at $10 to $20 on the college calendar.
• Fri., Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m. Gainesville Orchestra, "Paprika & Thyme," with Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra" and Respighi's "Fountains of Rome." Showpass lists about $22 to $63.
• Sun., Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m. The Bad Plus. $25 to $35.

Ticket prices aren't always the same from one listing to the next. Songs of the Season shows $10 to $20 on the college calendar and $0 to $20 on Showpass, so check the price at checkout.

On the Fridays from Oct. 23 through Nov. 20, the planetarium runs Florida Skies – Autumn from 7 to 8 p.m. That's a half hour before the Sasser Hall concerts start, so on Nov. 6, 13 and 20 you can see a sky show and a concert in one evening. After Nov. 20, the planetarium's posted schedule has no December dates.

The weekday daytime slot goes to the gallery. The 2026 Annual Faculty Art Exhibition opens Nov. 6 at Santa Fe College Gallery and runs through Feb. 12, featuring Visual Arts faculty work in several media. Gallery spaces are free. The main gallery is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so it fits the zoo's hours far better than the concert hall's.

The 3 P.M. Parking Rule

Parking flips at the same hour the campus does. At the planetarium lot, which it shares with the Natural Sciences Building, the campus police station and the Lawrence Tyree Library, you can park on weekdays before 3 p.m. in any space that isn't outlined in blue or signed as reserved. After 3 p.m. and all day Saturday and Sunday, the blue reserved areas open up too. For evening shows and the weekend planetarium lineup, the lot you can use gets bigger once the zoo has closed.

Parking at the zoo is free. Its lot is shared with the Little School and serves as overflow for the main campus. According to the zoo, that lot fills up early on fall and spring weekdays because students use it, and a full lot doesn't always mean the zoo is busy. Street parking and another lot are nearby, and overflow parking is in Lot #9 across North Road. Weekday morning zoo visits in the fall mean competing with the semester for spaces. Saturdays don't.

There's also a change coming at a park closer to the center of Northwest Gainesville. The City of Gainesville's current projects page says the main wildflower-garden pathway at Alfred A. Ring Park closes Nov. 9 through the end of January 2027 for renovation, with a detour route. If your usual weekday walk runs through that garden, the Teaching Zoo's 9 a.m. opening is a nearby alternative for those weeks.

Dec. 5: One Show for the Whole Campus

For most of the season, the zoo, the planetarium and the performing arts program run on their own schedules. Holiday at Santa Fe, on Saturday, Dec. 5, is the one event that puts them on the same stage. The 2026 listing calls it a joint, interactive holiday performance by SF Performing Arts, the Teaching Zoo, the Planetarium and the Little School. In the story, Perry the mouse and Santa travel through a forest to make it snow, and an animal meet-and-greet follows in the lobby.

Showpass lists several showtimes between 2 and 7:30 p.m. at 3000 NW 83rd Street, with tickets from $0 to $20. Those hours run across the zoo's 3 p.m. close, the same overlap Boo at the Zoo covers in October, and this time the zoo's animals meet guests in the lobby after the show. The college's older Holiday at Santa Fe article is about a 2024 show on a different date, so check the 2026 ticket listing for current showtimes.

After Dec. 5, the season winds down. The zoo is closed Dec. 24 and 25, and the faculty exhibition stays up into February.

Living a few minutes from a campus with a zoo, a planetarium and a concert hall is one of the everyday perks that doesn't appear on a listing sheet, and it shapes how a home here gets used. If you're wondering how that kind of neighborhood value shows up in what your Northwest Gainesville home is worth this fall, Harder Home Team can walk you through it. Get Your Home Valuation.