1679 Best Performing Arts Venues in USA

A yearlong cycle of inventive puppet productions is held in a historic building featuring lots of theater and exhibit space.

This aptly named series of public concerts is inspired by a wide range of musical traditions and performed in St. John the Divine's massive, atmospheric, Gothic-style space. The program showcases composers and performers of choral and instrumental music, often to sold-out crowds.

Nearly a million people visit the nearly two-week-long fair each year, making it one of the most popular events in upstate New York. The 375-acre fairground hosts world-class musical entertainment, carnival rides and games, international equestrian competitions, 4-H animal shows, butter-sculpting contests, and assorted vendors. Free daily entertainment includes concerts, circus acts, and more.

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.

In early June, more than 300 of the nation's best artists display their works at this annual three-day street festival and show along the riverfront in downtown Columbus. Music, food, and art activities add to the festivities.

A sizable number of Greek immigrants arrived in the area of Price to work in the mines throughout the early 1900s. This annual festival in mid-July celebrates that heritage with two days of traditional Greek food, dance, and music. You can even tour the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, which hosts the event.

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.

The center's acoustically sophisticated Joan and Sanford I. Weill Hall hosts classical, jazz, avant-garde, and other ensembles and individual performers. The hall's back wall opens out for Summer at the Green concerts on a terraced lawn. The curved walls of the intimate 240-seat Schroeder Hall enhance the sounds of its 1,248-pipe organ.

New York City's local public radio stations WNYC and WQXR invite the public into their intimate (125 seats) studio for live shows featuring classical, rock, jazz, and new music; audio theater; conversation; and interviews. It's a great place to get up close with writers and newsmakers, as well as musicians and actors who might be playing Carnegie Hall, Broadway, or the Met Opera a few days later.

The vast Greensboro Coliseum Complex hosts sporting, music, and entertainment events throughout the year, including the Central Carolina Fair. Jimi Hendrix, Phish, and Garth Brooks have all performed here. It's also home to the Greensboro Swarm, of the NBA's G League, and next door to the ACC Hall of Champions.

Founded in 1980 to preserve and develop Chicano, Latino, and Native American arts and culture, the GCAC regularly stages dance, music, and theatrical performances. It also displays the art of emerging artists and holds classes in dance and music, with a unique summer theater day-camp for young aspiring playwrights, actors, and tech crew. Of the center's major annual events, the Tejano Conjunto Festival is a huge draw, bringing together more than 10,000 conjunto music lovers from all over. The annual CineFestival San Antonio presents five days of Latinx film. The GCAC is a national model that has inspired other community-based Latinx arts organizations nationwide.

Modern and comfortable, Hale Keaka's two 93-seat theaters and green room screen recent movie releases throughout the week.

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.

Relax to the instrumental music form created by Hawaiian paniolo (cowboys) in the early 1800s. Shows are Wednesday in Kapaa at All Saints' Church and Tuesday at the Princeville Community Center. If you're looking for a scenic setting, though, head to Hale Halawai Ohana O Hanalei on Friday and Sunday; it's mauka (toward the mountains) down a dirt access road across from St. William Catholic Church (Malolo Road) and then left down another dirt road.

Acclaimed for performances of baroque and classical music, Boston’s Grammy-winning Handel + Haydn Society is one of the country's oldest performing arts organizations in America. The annual performances of Handel's Messiah have been a holiday favorite since 1854, and all concerts feature antique or replica instruments ensuring the music is performed as it was the day it was written. Performances are held at Symphony Hall and other Boston venues.

The Hanger Theatre, some of the best regional theater in the Northeast, performs in a renovated airport hangar from June through August.Five plays, from comedies to musicals, are produced each summer, along with five children's productions.

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.

Set in a perfectly restored landmark built in 1890 as part of the Croton Aqueduct system, Harlem Stage is a cozy, 200-seat venue for jazz, theater, film, and dance. The performance space was founded in 1983 to give Black artists the resources and space to express themselves, something they had long been deprived of. Their live performances span a range of performance arts, from dancers to avant-garde jazz to pianists. Events are ever-changing, and the best way to see what's coming up is by checking their website.

Located in a former minor league baseball stadium, Bridgeport's amphitheater or "The Amp," as locals call it, is a new 6,000-seat, state-of-the-art music venue that attracts international touring bands like Trombone Shorty and Mavis Staples, Neil Young, Lainey Wilson, and Kings of Leon. The first view concertgoers and travelers see of the amphitheater is its main feature: an enormous tensile roof that resembles a circus tent, a nod to one of Bridgeport's most famous sons, P.T. Barnum. Local food and beverage purveyors are available throughout the venue, which is easily accessible from MetroNorth, Amtrak, and the Port Jefferson ferry. Keep an eye on their concert calendar for the seasonal schedule.

Hartford Stage presents new and classic plays from around the world in an intimate (489-seat) setting.   Box office is open Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5 pm or curtain time. Discounted parking at adjacent garage.

Screening independent, foreign, classic, and experimental films rarely seen in commercial cinemas, the Harvard Film Archive is open to the public Friday through Monday. The 188-seat theater, with pristine film and digital projection, is located in the basement of the stunning brick-and-glass Carpenter Center for Visual Arts, Le Corbusier's only American building. A division of Harvard Library, this is one of the country's largest and most significant university-based motion picture collections—more than 36,000 global audiovisual items from almost every period in film history. Tickets are $10; seniors and students, $8.

Headliners such as Neil Young, Dierks Bentley, Miranda Lambert, the Foo Fighters, and Sammy Hagar have performed at this weekend concert series.

The oldest (1844) collegiate theatrical company in the United States still has all-male casts, though women participate in the troupe's staging and production. Its single annual madcap show plays at its theater in February and March, then tours to New York and Vegas. The troupe infamously honors actors as Man and Woman of the Year in an annual awards ceremony, complete with a celebrity roast and drag-queen and boa-laden party parade through the streets of Cambridge for the chosen woman. The 2024 honorees were Barry Koeghan and Annette Bening.

The famed Hatch Chile Fest celebrates 40 years in 2012. Show that you're not a chile rube and mingle with aficionados who know their Nu Mex 6-4s (an heirloom variety regenerated from 1960s seeds) from their Big Jims (a medium-hot chile, cultivated locally). Between tastes (don't worry, some varieties are no hotter than a standard bell pepper), check out the Chile Festival Parade, play some horseshoes, or sign up for the Chile Toss contest.

Locals refer to it as "HOT," probably because the Hawaii Opera Theatre has been turning the opera-challenged into opera lovers since 1961. All operas are sung in their original language, with a projected English translation.

The orchestra is the latest incarnation of the now-defunct Honolulu Symphony, with a mission to bring international talent to Hawaiian audiences of all ages. The orchestra performs at the Neal Blaisdell Concert Hall and the Waikiki Shell.

Slickly produced and well choreographed, this gorgeous show incorporates both traditional and contemporary music and dance, along with an array of beautiful costumes. It tells the tale of Hawaiiloa, the great navigator from Tahiti, and of the celestial object—Hokulea, "Star of Gladness"—that guided him to the islands later named Hawaii. Presented under the stars at the Fairmont Orchid Hawaii on Saturdays, the luau offers several stations with a variety of Hawaiian and Hawaii Regional Cuisine dishes, and there's an open full bar for mai tais and other tropical libations.

Every February, the Heard Museum hosts the spectacular Annual World Hoop Dance Championship, with traditional music and costumes.