51 Best Performing Arts in Washington, USA

The last weekend in June, basketball mania descends on downtown Spokane as Hoopfest comes to town, a mega-tournament with more than 6,000 teams and 24,000 players playing 3-on-3 basketball on more than 400 courts on 45 city blocks. It's the world's largest event of its type, with 225,000 fans in attendance.

The state's largest performing arts center north of Seattle occupies a restored vaudeville-era (1927) theater with a 110-foot-tall Moorish tower and a lobby fashioned after a Spanish galleon. It is home to the Bellingham Symphony Orchestra and also presents movies, musicals, and headline performers.

A host of local film festivals, this handsome theater inside a restored historic downtown building is a great place to see diverse indie, classic, and art-house movies. The Pickford presents an outdoor rooftop cinema series in summer as well as a children's film festival in March and other themed movie showcases. It also offers a good selection of beer, wine, and snacks in the lobby. 

This intimate cinema in the heart of downtown screens first-run films, with an emphasis on foreign and indie flicks, in a charming little theater with pressed-tin ceilings and a lobby concession selling craft beer, local wine, and elevated snacks. In the elegant Starlight Room, on the third floor, retro and other interesting film screenings take place, and food and drinks are served.

Beloved by locals for its humorous, ground-breaking, and unique choices, Seattle Public Theater brings five shows a year to an intimate stage. This tiny company puts on performances worth scheduling a day around.

The symphony performs from September through June in the stunning Benaroya Hall. The group has been nominated for numerous Grammy Awards and is well regarded nationally and internationally.

Cultural activity in Tacoma centers on the outstanding—and historic—Broadway Center for the Performing Arts, which comprises three distinct venues: the gorgeous 1918 Pantages Theater, the beaux-arts Rialto, and the more contemporary Theater on the Square. One of the largest performing arts center in the Pacific Northwest, the venue hosts pop concerts, touring Broadway shows, Symphony Tacoma performances, and more.

Bavarian-themed Leavenworth amps up the holiday vibes with half a million sparkling Christmas lights throughout downtown that stay on from Thanksgiving through February. From Thanksgiving weekend to Christmas, the Christmastown festivities include caroling, live music, and food vendors outside at Front Street Park, with kids' activities, alphorn concerts, and other live performances inside at the Festhalle. Of course Santa is there too. In January, there's winter fun at the Winter Karneval every weekend, with ice carving, performances by fire dancers and alphorn players, ice skating for kids, and a celebration of the German tradition of Fasching with masks, beads, and a pub crawl.

Developed by Community Roots Housing, 12th Avenue Arts is designed to keep the arts in the neighborhood. It plays host to two theaters with rotating shows from various local troupes, including the excellent Strawberry Theatre Workshop and Washington Ensemble Theatre. The building itself also provides low-cost housing, office space for nonprofits, and holds a few restaurants.

Dedicated to launching exciting works by emerging dramatists, ACT has four staging areas, including a theater-in-the-round and an intimate downstairs space for small shows. The season runs from April to November.

The acoustics are good from every one of the main hall's 2,500 seats—great news if you want to check out the Seattle Symphony, which is based here, or any of a number of world-class speakers, musicians, and other performers who appear here throughout the year. The four-story lobby has a curved glass facade that makes intermissions almost as impressive as performances.

Enjoy the same first-run films that are playing down the street at the multiplex—minus the crowds, screaming kids, and sensory overload—at Big Picture. This small, elegant theater has a full bar (you can order refills during the screening), and it's 21 and older only.

Forget about 40-ounce Cokes and popcorn with neon-yellow butter—Central Cinema makes movie night a more elegant experience. The first few rows of this charming, friendly, little theater consist of diner-style booths; place your order for pizzas, salads, and snacks (including popcorn with inventive toppings like curry or brewer's yeast), and servers will deliver your food unobtrusively during the first few minutes of the movie. Wash it down with a normal-size soda, a cup of coffee, or better yet a cocktail or a glass of wine or beer. The theater shows a great mix of favorites and local indie and experimental films.

This performance and education venue run by the Cornish College of the Arts hosts public music and theater programs, produced by students and professionals, throughout the year in a 432-seat auditorium on the Seattle Center Campus.

Farms and processing plants in Quincy throw an open house on a Saturday every September so consumers can get a closer look at where their food comes from. There are exhibits, food booths, and a farmers' market.

Since 1983, contestants have been racing human-powered contraptions through sand, mud, and saltwater in the hope of winning the most coveted prize: the Mediocrity Award for finishing in the middle of the pack. The race takes place the first full weekend in October. Festivities include a parade, an art contest, and a fundraiser "Koronation" Ball on Saturday night.

The association of small farms and food stands in Green Bluff (about 20 miles northeast of downtown Spokane) presents several festivals as orchard fruits come into season. Strawberries are celebrated in late June and early July, cherries in July, peaches mid-August through Labor Day, and apples late September through late October. There are also holiday festivities in November and December.

This writers' haven has classes and readings by Northwest luminaries and authors on their way up. From Q&A sessions with local novelists to lectures by Pulitzer Prize winners, community writing sessions to guided memoir classes, this organization uses its building to encourage and enable everyone's literary side.

Sequim has been celebrating the introduction of irrigation water to its once-parched prairie since 1896. The fest, held in May, features an antique-car show, Friday art walk, family fun day, parade, and a Logging Show with an arm-over-arm tractor pull competition, a lawn-mower demolition, and fireworks.

Held during two weekends in mid-January, this festival in downtown Chelan and nearby Manson celebrates winter with an ice slide, Ice Bar, live music, wine and winter ale tastings, ice carving, wine walk, polar bear dip, children's activities, ice sculpture, and fireworks over the water.

A community hub that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022, the Central District's Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (LHPAI) offers a gathering place for Seattle's Black community—even as it's become more dispersed—through a variety of programming like classes, film screenings, readings, and theater. Housed in an elegant historic domed building, LHPAI also hosts the annual Seattle Black Film Festival in the spring.

The monthlong celebration over three weekends in May in the Bavarian-style village of Leavenworth features traditional German dancing, including an old-world maypole dance, a Festzug ("Grand March") where townspeople dress in Bavarian attire, and alphorn concerts. It all kicks off Mother's Day weekend. Professional chainsaw carvers creating German-inspired carvings to sell are another highlight, along with live music.

The home of the Seattle Opera and the Pacific Northwest Ballet is an opulent, glass-enclosed structure reflecting the skies and the Space Needle nearby. The facility houses two auditoriums and a four-story main lobby area where several artworks are on display. Look for Sarah Sze's An Equal and Opposite Reaction, an enormous sculpture of found objects, hanging over the stairs at the north end of the Kreielsheimer Promenade.

National and international companies perform October through May at the University of Washington's Meany Hall. The emphasis is on modern and jazz dance and generally innovative, diverse performance art.

A cornerstone of the city's independent film scene, the two screening rooms here show classic repertory, cult hits, experimental films, and documentaries. Workshops, curated film series, and festivals fill the schedule.

Show off your "chicken dance" and other oompah moves at one of the most exuberant American celebrations of this German beer festival, complete with German food, German music, German dancing, and, of course, beer. Lodgings fill up fast during this celebration held over three weekends in late September and October. Since 2022, Leavenworth has had two separately-run Oktoberfests. This one is presented by Projekt Bayern, which produced Leavenworth's original Oktoberfest. The expanded festival moved to Wenatchee temporarily but runs shuttles between the two towns. The City of Leavenworth's Oktoberfest is more low-key, taking place downtown in a few beer gardens, and highlighting local beers along with German ones ( www.leavenworth.org for details).

From mid-August through mid-September, concertgoers enjoy chamber music at the historic Wheeler Theater in Fort Worden State Park.

Since 1978, On the Boards has been presenting contemporary dance performances, as well as theater, music, and multimedia events. The main subscription series runs from September through May, but events are scheduled year-round.