This is one of the fuller music weekends of the summer on Long Island, and you do not have to cross a bridge for any of it. Jones Beach has a headliner on both Saturday and Sunday, the Tilles Jazz Fest takes over the Brookville campus for a day, the Empire State Fair is closing out its run at the Nassau Coliseum, and out east the Hamptons Greek Festival and a polo Saturday are drawing the East End crowd. Everything below is happening right here, from Wantagh to Southampton. Here is what to plan around, with the parking and traffic reality for each.

Train at Jones Beach Theater — Wantagh

Saturday, July 18, 6:45 PM | Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh

Train brings the Drops of Jupiter: 25 Years in the Atmosphere tour to Jones Beach on Saturday night, a full run of the hits with the ocean breeze coming right over the stage. A Jones Beach show on a July Saturday is one of the best nights the island has to offer, and it fills the place.

The catch is always the same one at Jones Beach. There is a single causeway in and out, the Wantagh State Parkway backs up for the show and then everyone leaves at once when the encore ends, and the walk from the far end of the lot is a long one in the dark. A drop right at the plaza means you skip the causeway crawl on the way in, and your driver is staged and waiting when the lights come up instead of you inching toward the exit for 45 minutes. For anyone coming from Suffolk or the North Shore, that is the difference between a great night and a sour one.

Toto, Christopher Cross and The Romantics at Jones Beach — Wantagh

Sunday, July 19, 6:45 PM | Northwell at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh

Jones Beach does it again on Sunday with Toto, Christopher Cross, and The Romantics, three acts and a deep catalog of songs everyone in the car will know. It is a natural for a group of friends or a couple making a Sunday evening of it by the water.

Same causeway, same math. Sunday night traffic on the Wantagh Parkway is lighter than a Saturday but the post-show exit is still a single-lane bottleneck off the barrier island. If you are pairing the show with an early dinner in Wantagh or Merrick, let a car handle both stops so nobody is the designated driver watching the clock, and so the ride home is the wind-down instead of the fight. We run Jones Beach nights all season and we plan the pickup around the way that lot actually empties.

Tilles Jazz Fest at LIU — Brookville

Saturday, July 18, doors at noon | Tilles Center, LIU Post campus, Brookville

The third annual Tilles Jazz Fest, produced with Jazz at Lincoln Center, takes over the LIU Post campus in Brookville on Saturday for a full day of live music across four indoor and outdoor stages. There are food trucks, artisans, a free swing dance lesson, and a second-line parade that walks the crowd to the evening headliner, the Buena Vista Orchestra carrying the Cuban music of the Buena Vista Social Club tradition. It is family-friendly and it runs all afternoon into the night.

The Brookville campus sits off Northern Boulevard in the middle of the Gold Coast, and an all-day festival means people arriving and leaving in waves rather than one clean rush. Campus parking works, but the approach on 25A and the local roads around Old Westbury and Brookville gets tight on a summer Saturday. A drop at the gate lets you come and go on your own schedule across a long day without moving the car, which matters at a festival you might dip in and out of.

Empire State Fair — Last Weekend at the Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale

Saturday, July 18 & Sunday, July 19 | Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale

The Empire State Fair is wrapping up its run in the Coliseum lot in Uniondale this weekend, open both days with the rides, the midway, the petting zoo, the new water show, and Saturday-night fireworks over the lot. If the kids have been asking to go all month, this is the last call.

The Coliseum sits right at the Meadowbrook and the Hempstead Turnpike, which is convenient right up until a fair weekend and a summer Saturday land on the same day. The lot holds the crowd, but the in-and-out around the Meadowbrook interchange at peak hours is where the time disappears, and it is worse on a fireworks night. If you are making a day of it with a group or pairing the fair with dinner, a drop at the gate takes the parking and the Uniondale traffic off your plate entirely.

Hamptons Greek Festival and Polo — Southampton and Bridgehampton

Both days | Southampton | Polo Saturday, July 18, 4 PM | Bridgehampton

Out east, the Hamptons Greek Festival runs all weekend in Southampton with live Greek music, an art show, a Kidz Zone, and the food and pastries the festival is known for. On Saturday afternoon, Polo in the Hamptons brings a match, an open bar, and preferred seating to Bridgehampton, the kind of dressed-up afternoon the East End does well. Either one is a full day out.

The Hamptons in July is the Hamptons in July. The Montauk Highway and the Sunrise Highway are jammed on a Saturday, parking near the Southampton grounds and the Bridgehampton polo field is scarce and tightly managed, and the drive home after is the part nobody looks forward to. If you are heading out for the day, or already staying in the area, a car service handles the drop and the ride back so the afternoon is the memory and not the traffic. We run the East End all season and we plan the timing around the way those roads actually move.

North Fork Wineries — Any Time This Weekend

Saturday & Sunday | Route 25 and Sound Avenue, North Fork

If a festival is not your speed, the North Fork tasting rooms are in full summer swing, and this is the single best car service call we run all summer. Somebody has to drive between the vineyards and stay dry, and Route 25 and the back roads out east are not where you want to be guessing on that after a couple of tastings. Book the day and everyone in the group actually gets to enjoy the North Fork, with a driver who knows the route from Aquebogue to Greenport.

One Call Handles the Whole Weekend

Whether it is Train or Toto at Jones Beach, the Tilles Jazz Fest in Brookville, the last of the Empire State Fair in Uniondale, the Greek Festival and polo out in the Hamptons, or a day on the North Fork wine trail, the common thread is the same. The event is the easy part. Getting there and back is where a Long Island summer weekend goes sideways, especially with a Jones Beach causeway to escape or the Montauk Highway to survive on the way home.

We have run these roads for 20 years, from the Wantagh Parkway to the Gold Coast to the East End, and we plan the drop and pickup around the way each spot actually fills and empties. We cover all of Nassau and Suffolk, the Hamptons, and the North Fork, and if your weekend also includes a flight we handle the JFK and LGA runs too. See our Long Island car service details, or request a quote and we will take care of the rest. The car will be there.

Best Things To Do on Long Island This Weekend — July 18–19, 2026