13 Best Performing Arts Venues in Kalispell, Missoula, and Northwest Montana, Montana

Missoula is home to several film festivals each year, but the biggest and best of them is the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, the premier venue for nonfiction film in the American West. Over the course of a week in late February, 20,000 people watch more than 140 of the most compelling films from all over the world, dozens of them making their premieres. Most of the films are shown in the Wilma Theatre, a state-of-the-art venue with the character of a 1920s theater. For the locals, it is an annual ritual, and visitors, too, come from all over to spend a week watching films and hobnobbing with directors. This makes the cold month of February a perfect time to visit Missoula.

Mid-May through early September, the repertory group Bigfork Summer Playhouse presents Broadway musicals and comedies every night except Sunday in the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets are available online and by mail beginning in April, and by phone starting mid-May. Children's workshops and theater are held in the same facility.

Voices of the mountains blend at concerts in the new, state-of-the-art McClaren Hall. Conductor John Zoltek and his talented musicians hold a Mozart festival in late June and an outdoor weekend concert in early July, just a short drive from the splendor of Glacier National Park.

Comedies, dramas, musicals, Shakespeare in the Park, and many more performances are a sampling of the year-round schedule put on at the Hamilton Playhouse. Offerings have included "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" and "Steel Magnolias." Tickets can be purchased by calling the box office.

The Hard Grass Bluegrass Festival draws musicians from around the West for three days in late July. Ten bands from as far away as Kentucky will rip it up the third weekend in July. Youngsters under 18 can bring their acoustic-stringed instrument for the Kids Music Program. The outdoor event also includes arts-and-crafts vendors, pickers' workshops, and food stands.

Located on the banks of the legendary Blackfoot River, 8 miles west of downtown, the Kettlehouse Amphitheater has helped put Missoula on the map as a mecca for live music. This 4,250-seat outdoor concert venue allows concertgoers to enjoy their favorite bands in a beautiful mountain setting. Recent shows include Norah Jones, Robert Plant, The Decemberists, and Primus.

At the Missoula Children's Theatre, year-round productions vary from Broadway musicals to community theater for and by children from 5 to 18 years old. From October to June you can see local talent and guest artists (usually professionals) perform family favorites, and in summer there's a theater camp where kids are the stars of the productions.

Western Montana, and Missoula in particular, is a writer's place. A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean is perhaps the most well-known book set in the region, but William Kittredge, James Crumley, Richard Hugo, Rick Bass, Judy Blunt, and many others have also left their mark on Montana literature. In celebration of this history, the Montana Book Festival brings writers and readers together to pay tribute to the tradition of writing in and about the West. Previous literary personalities featured have included James Lee Burke, Jane Smiley, Charles D’Ambrosio, Gretel Ehrlich, and David Quammen. If you relish the literature of the West, you'll visit in Montana in late September.

The University of Montana's School of Theatre and Dance manages the Montana Repertory Theatre, the only full-season professional company in the state. The Rep provides the region with a steady diet of popular Broadway shows; recent showings include War of the Worlds, Room Service, and On Golden Pond.

Home of the Whitefish Theater Company, this intimate theater hosts a variety of year-round live performances and concerts, as well as classic and independent films. There are different theatrical plays almost every month, as well as a summer concert series that pays tribute to great rock 'n' roll artists.

Enjoy summer theater with the Port Polson Players. The high-quality amateur troupe puts on musicals, comedies, and dramas in a beautiful 1930s log theater.

Every summer Sunday evening from June through August at Bigfork's Everit L. Sliter Memorial Park, hear live music—from orchestral to salsa—performed by local musicians and regionally known bands at the River Bend Stage.

Ski or snowboard your way for cash prizes during the Big Mountain Pond Skim, where contestants either glide or splash their way across a man-made pond on the last day of ski season in early April. There are also prizes for the best costume and best wipeout.