9 Best Performing Arts in Southwest Colorado, Colorado

Housed in the beautifully restored 1892 Creede Opera House, this theater stages at least seven plays, plus concerts and other events, every year between May and September. Family events are also on tap throughout the summer.

Held each year over Labor Day, the Telluride Film Festival is up there with Sundance as one of the world's leading showcases for foreign and domestic films.

This old-style-cowboy venue, about 10 miles from Durango, serves steaks, barbecued beef and chicken, and biscuits under the stars every summer evening. After supper, the Bar D Wranglers entertain the crowd with guitar music, singing, and corny comedy. Reservations are required.

From end of June to mid-August, the Crested Butte Music Festival presents a seven-week concert series featuring opera, gypsy jazz, rock, funk, indie, chamber, and classical music in various venues in town, near the ski area, and down the road in Gunnison.

Such abundant foliage carpets the surrounding mountains that Crested Butte has been nicknamed the "Wildflower Capital of Colorado." For 10 glorious days in mid-July, the town celebrates this bounty with a varied event lineup: guided hikes, wildflower identification and photography workshops, classes on medicinal plants, and four-wheel-drive tours. Check the website, because even if you can't make it on festival week, events run from June through the end of August.

You can see stage productions as well as visual arts exhibits, concerts, and films at the Durango Arts Center.

Miners built the opera house in 1913 as a venue primarily for vaudeville acts. Today the landmark opera house presents a variety of shows year-round, including live theater, concerts, and comedy acts. Over the years it has hosted performances by such popular artists as Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, and Jewel. The nonprofit Sheridan Arts Foundation operates the opera house.

The Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June has gone far beyond its bluegrass roots and is now one of the country's premier acoustic folk–rock gatherings.

This semiprofessional group performs a variety of shows year-round in various venues. Productions include popular musicals, burlesque dancers, Shakespeare-in-the-park performances, and original, experimental shows.