“Hot town, summer in the city/Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty/Been down, isn’t it a pity/Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city”
Thankfully things have changed a lot since The Lovin’ Spoonful penned those lines over 40 years ago. Temperatures may be the same (or even warmer), but almost all major cities now offer extensive, and well-attended, summer arts activities and festivals. We list many of them under each city.
Summer is still a great time however to get out of the city and re-learn what having green below and blue above is like – and for arts buffs few activities are more enjoyable and complete than a good theater, music or multi-art summer festival. You are surrounded by fellow enthusiasts, prices can be inexpensive, especially if you book early or become a member, and you can frequently walk from one event to another as well as to local restaurants and wherever you are staying. The only hard trick is figuring out how to get to the Festival as many of them are in relatively remote rural locations. Usually a call to the Festival’s office (or the local tourist bureau) can get you an answer to those questions as well as others such as “where is a nice reasonable B & B or self-catering cottage?”
If any of these festivals interest you, then go to their website and sign-up for email updates – which is the best way to find out about discount tickets.
View SummerArts in a full screen map
Classical Music:
- Aspen Music Festival and School (Aspen, CO)
- Austin Chamber Music Center Festival (Austin, TX)
- Berkshire Choral Festival (Sheffield, MA)
- Blossom Music Festival (Cuyahoga Falls, OH)
- Bowdoin International Music Festival (Brunswick, ME)
- Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival (Vail, CO)
- Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (Santa Cruz, CA)
- Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival (North Eastham, MA)
- Carmel Bach Festival (Carmel, CA)
- Caramoor International Music Festival (Katonah, NY)
- Chamber Music Conference & Composers’ Forum of the East (Bennington, VT)
- Colorado Music Festival (Boulder, CO)
- Deer Valley Music Festival (South Park City, UT)
- Eastern Music Festival and School (Greensboro, NC)
- La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest (La Jolla, CA)
- Marlboro Music (Marlboro, VT)
- Mendocino Music Festival (Mendocino, CA)
- Midsummer Mozart Festival (San Francisco, CA)
- Moab Music Festival (Moab, UT)
- Monadnock Music (Peterborough, NH)
- Mostly Mozart Festival (New York, NY)
- Music@Menlo (Atherton, CA)
- Music From Angel Fire (Angel Fire, NM)
- Newport Music Festival (Newport, RI)
- Norfolk Chamber Music Festival (Norfolk, CT)
- Ojai Music Festival (Ojai, CA)
- Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival (Santa Fe, NM)
- Sitka Summer Music Festival (Sitka, AK)
- Sun Valley Summer Symphony (Sun Valley, ID)
- Yellow Barn Music Festival (Putney, VT)
College Art Museums:
- Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC)
- Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, MA)
- Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin, OH)
- Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Berkeley, CA)
- Blaffer Gallery (Houston, TX)
- Blanton Museum (Austin, TX)
- Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery (Greenville, SC)
- Bowdoin College Museum of Art (Brunswick, ME)
- Butler Institute of American Art (Youngstown, OH)
- Cantor Arts Center at Stamford University (Stamford, CA)
- Chazen Museum of Art (Madison, WI)
- Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College (Winter Park, FL)
- Fleming Museum at the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT)
- Hammer Museum, UCLA (Los Angeles, CA)
- Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA)
- Hood Museum of Art (Hanover, NH)
- Lowe Art Museum (Miami, FL)
- Middlebury College Museum of Art (Middlebury, VT)
- Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (St. Louis, MO)
- Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI)
- Nasher Museum of Art (Durham, NC)
- Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO)
- Neuberger Museum of Art (Purchase, NY)
- Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State (University Park, PA)
- Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, NJ)
- Saint Louis University Museum of Art (St. Louis, MO)
- Spencer Museum of Art, U of Kansas (Lawrence, KS)
- Syracuse University Art Galleries (Syracuse, NY)
- University of Arizona Museum of Art (Tucson, AZ)
- University of Mississippi Museum (Oxford, MS)
- Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Salt Lake City, UT)
- Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery (Nashville, TN)
- Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art (Santa Barbara, CA)
- Williams College Museum of Art (Williamstown, MA)
- Yale Center for British Art / Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT)
Dance:
Jazz:
- Atlanta Jazz Festival (Atlanta, GA)
- Burlington Discover Jazz Festival (Burlington, VT)
- Chicago Blues Festival (Chicago, IL)
- Chicago Jazz Festival (Chicago, IL)
- Detroit International Jazz Festival (Detroit, MI)
- DuPont Clifford Brown Jazz Festival (Wilmington, DE)
- Healdsburg Jazz Festival (Healdsburg, CA)
- Jazz Aspen Snowmass (Aspen, CO)
- Newport Jazz Festival (Newport, RI)
- Oregon Festival of American Music (Eugene, OR)
- Sacramento Music Festival (Sacramento, CA)
- W.C. Handy Music Festival (Florence, AL)
- Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival (Rochester, NY)
Multi-Art:
- Appalachian Summer Festival (Boone, NC)
- Artown (Reno, NV)
- Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival (North Adams, MA)
- Bard Summerscape (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY)
- Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival (Manchester, TN)
- Chautauqua Institution (Chautauqua, NY)
- Crested Butte Music Festival (Crested Butte, CO)
- Days & Nights Festival (Carmel Valley, CA)
- Festival Del Sole (Napa Valley, CA)
- Grand Teton Music Festival (Teton Village, WY)
- Grant Park Music Festival (Chicago, IL)
- International Festival of Arts and Ideas (New Haven, CT)
- Lincoln Center Festival (New York, NY)
- Music Mountain (Falls Village, CT)
- Princeton Festival (Princeton, NJ)
- Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, SC)
Opera:
- Castleton Festival (Castleton, VA)
- Central City Opera (Central City, CO)
- Glimmerglass Festival (Cooperstown, NY)
- Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (St. Louis, MO)
- Santa Fe Opera (Santa Fe, NM)
- Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre (Logan, UT)
Theater:
- Adirondack Theatre Festival (Glens Falls, NY)
- Alabama Shakespeare Festival (Montgomery, AL)
- American Players Theatre (Spring Green, WI)
- American Shakespeare Center (Staunton, VA)
- Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (Abingdon, VA)
- Barrington Stage Company (Pittsfield, MA)
- Berkshire Theatre Festival (Lenox, MA)
- Colorado Shakespeare Festival (Boulder, CO)
- Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, WV)
- Creede Repertory Theatre (Creede, CO)
- Goodspeed Musicals (East Haddam, CT)
- Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (Garrison, NY)
- Idaho Shakespeare Festival (Boise, ID)
- Illinois Shakespeare Festival (Bloomington, IL)
- Jenny Wiley Theatre (Prestonsburg, KY)
- Marin Shakespeare Festival (San Rafael, CA)
- Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, OR)
- Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (Center Valley, PA)
- Powerhouse Theater Festival (Poughkeepsie, NY)
- Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, MA)
- Shakespeare in the Park (New York, NY)
- Shakespeare Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA)
- Shaw Festival (Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario)
- Stratford Festival of CanadaGoodspeed Musicals (East Haddam, CT)
- Texas Shakespeare Festival (Kilgore, TX)
- Theater at Monmouth (Monmouth, ME)
- Utah Shakespearean Festival, (Cedar City, UT)
- Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum (Topanga, CA)
- Williamstown Theatre Festival (Williamstown, MA)
Venue:
- Blossom Music Center (Cuyahoga Falls, OH)
- Hollywood Bowl (Hollywood, CA)
- Mann Center for the Performing Arts (Philadelphia, PA)
- Ravinia (Highland Park, IL)
- Saratoga Performing Arts Center (Saratoga Springs, NY)
- Tanglewood Music Festival (Lenox, MA)
- Wolf Trap Foundation For the Performing Arts (Vienna, VA)