(June-September) Six thousand covered seats in a low-slung performance pavilion, and space for somewhere around thirteen thousand more on the great, sloping lawn facing the stage, all set squarely in the middle of roughly eight hundred acres of woody Cuyahoga Falls State Park: couple all of the preceding with plentiful amenities, and you begin to understand why Blossom Music Center is one of the premier venues for summer concert-going in the Cleveland area.

The Blossom offers a wide variety of musical offerings each summer, in a number of different genres; in previous years, such festivals as Lollapalooza, Ozzfest and Lilith Fair have come through. Most notably, the Blossom is the home of the Cleveland Orchestra’s annual Blossom Festival, which each summer offers ten weeks of classical concerts under the stars. Performances are given by both the Cleveland Orchestra and the festival-specific Blossom Festival Orchestra, an ad-hoc ensemble made up primarily of members of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, the Opera Cleveland Orchestra, and Apollo’s Fire.

In addition to the performance pavilion, the Blossom also has a 500-seat pavilion theater and a small art gallery on its grounds. Both are run in conjunction with nearby Kent State University; the Porthouse Theatre stages performances by the Porthouse Theatre repertory company throughout the summer, while the Eells Gallery exhibits regional and national artists during Cleveland Orchestra performances through the Kent/Blossom Art Program. Concertgoers are welcome to bring their own refreshments; there is also a full-service bar and restaurant, the Blossom Grill, where patrons can get prepackaged dinners and picnic baskets to go, as well as the Wine Shop, which stocks an assortment of wines and accessories.
– (JM)

Blossom Music Center Information

• Public Transportation: Poor
• Handicapped Accessibility: Good
• Performances/Programs: Performance schedule varies. Summer home of the Blossom Music Festival
• Ticket Prices: Vary by event and performance.