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by Lisa Petrillo
MIAMI (CBS4 News) ― It's been 30 years in the making but Thursday begins the highly anticipated four-day-long gala opening celebration of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts near Downtown Miami.

The center formally opens tonight with the Concert For Miami at the Knight Concert Hall, featuring Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz, Cachao and others. Tickets are $500, but $20 to watch on a giant screen inside the adjacent Ziff Ballet Opera House. Gloria's husband, Grammy Award-winning songwriter Emilio Estefan, is executive producer of the gala.

Beginning at 10:00 a.m. Thursday, there are road closures in effect throughout the gala celebration that include Biscayne Boulevard from 13th to 15th Streets and 14th Street from NE 2nd Avenue to Bayshore Drive.

Metrorail is providing free rides to and from the event.

Carnival Center Opening Schedule

THURSDAY:

• Bell Ringing, 6 p.m.: The bells of neighboring Trinity Episcopal Cathedral at 464 NE 16th St., Miami, ring to announce the opening; The bells will sound again for three hours following Sunday morning services at 10 a.m.

• Inaugural Ceremony, CCPA Plaza, 6 p.m.: Fireworks display accompanied by 12 local percussion ensembles, including the Samba Academy and Fushu Daiko, a Japanese drumming group. Free.

• Concert For Miami, 8:30 p.m.: Grammy-winning composer Quincy Jones emcees event with performances by Gloria Estefan, Bernadette Peters, Jose Carreras, Albita, Carlos Vives and Alejandro Sanz, Arturo Sandoval, Cachao and Andy Garcia. Tickets are $500 for concert at the Knight Concert Hall, $20 to watch on a giant screen inside the CCPA's Ziff Ballet Opera House.

FRIDAY:

• Concert for Orchestra and Stars, Knight Concert Hall, 8 p.m.:Two of the CCPA's resident companies, New World Symphony and the Concert Association of Florida, share the spotlight as Michael Tilson Thomas leads the NWS in the world premiere of Turn the Key, a festival fanfare by American composer Stephen Mackey and the finale to Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 3; $250.

SATURDAY:
• Opera! Ballet! Broadway! , Ziff Ballet Opera House, 8 p.m.:Florida Grand Opera stages Act 2 of Puccini's La Bohme. Miami City Ballet stages Aurora's Wedding, the final act of Tchaikovsky and Petipa's The Sleeping Beauty. Broadway's lights shine throughout the program with entertainment by Harvey Fierstein, the Tony-winning author of La Cage aux Folles and Torch Song Trilogy; $300.

• Late Night Club, Peacock Rehearsal Studio, 10 p.m.-3 a.m.: Food, cocktails and music by DJ Irie; $125.

SUNDAY:

• Globalbeat, noon-8 p.m.: Gospel, reggae, rumba, cumbia, calypso, konpa, samba and hip-hop performances by local musicians and performers on eight stages. Free, but wristband passes will be distributed beginning at 10 a.m. at the Globalbeat tent at North Bayshore Drive and NE 14th Street, across the street from the CCPA, for those who have not already obtained wristbands from the offices of the county commissioners.

• Miami Carnival Parade & Festival, 9 a.m.-11 p.m.: The 22-year-old festival held last year at Bicentennial Park features more than 25 Mas bands (costumed groups of carnaval revelers who parade through the streets) and steel drum bands, dozens of DJs from Miami, Orlando, Atlanta and New York, and soca stars. Along Northeast First Avenue and 17th Street, two blocks northwest of the CCPA. The parade steps off at noon at Northeast Second Avenue and 35th Street and all the festivities are free.

Road Closure for the Miami Carnival Parade & Festival

Sunday, October 8, noon to 6 p.m.
NE 2nd Ave from 36th to 29th Streets
NE 2nd Ave from 12th to 11th Streets
13th Street from North Bayshore Drive to NE 2nd Ave.

What about Parking?

There 2,448 parking spaces within about a 10-minute walk of the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House and the Studio Theater. The lots include 1,697 self-parking spaces and 751 valet spaces. Self-parking, at $15, is in covered garages or paved and lighted surface lots around the center. Valet parking is $20 (free for Lexus drivers).

Walking times to surface lots range from two minutes for a lot just across Northeast Second Avenue from the Ballet Opera House to nine minutes for patrons parked at the far end of the Omni parking garage.

Metrorail and Metromover will be kept running late enough to accommodate center audiences.

Patrons can park at any Metrorail station, ride to the Downtown Government Center station and transfer to Metromover, which will drop them off on the south side of the Omni, a block from the center. The ride from Metrorail's southernmost terminus near Kendall Drive to the center is 30 to 40 minutes. The same is true from its northern terminus in Hialeah.

Metrorail is $1.50 each way; Metromover is free. Parking at Metrorail stations is $4.

By car, the center can be accessed via Interstate 95 from the north or south, turning east on I-395, exiting onto Biscayne Boulevard and going two blocks north.

Security in the Carnival Center itself is provided by a private firm; parking lots are patrolled by private guards working for the Miami Parking Authority. Miami police provide security on the streets, with backup from Miami-Dade officers.

(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)