Festival visitors should come back to Macon

While the 35th Cherry Blossom Festival soon will be history (don’t forget Saturday and Sunday’s Mulberry Street Arts and Crafts Festival), the midstate’s spectacular array of quality entertainment will continue to pour forth.

Cherry Blossom Festival visitors may not realize it, but week in and week out our entertainment calendar remains chock full of significant events in the realm of theater, music and other arts.

Case in points: At the recent concert of the Mercer University Orchestra, NPR’s Performance Today host Fred Child was on hand to interview conductor Ward Stare (who also leads the Rochester Philharmonic). For his part, Stare revealed that he is scheduled to conduct the famed Metropolitan Opera Orchestra next season.

Of course, readers know that the Metropolitan Opera’s HD broadcasts are hosted by Macon’s Douglass Theatre. As in the case of the HD broadcasts from Great Britain’s National Theatre, the Douglass is one of the few places in the entire Southeast where these spectacular events can be seen.

Macon also boasts the Tubman Museum, billed as the largest museum in the nation dedicated to educating visitors about the history of African-Americans. For lovers of rock ’n’ roll, there’s also the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House and Rock Candy Tours, both of which are totally unique experiences.

In a community with both a symphony orchestra and a pops orchestra, plus performances at the Grand Opera House, galleries, museums and multiple colleges and universities, I could go on for pages. So, if you’re a visitor, come back. You are guaranteed not to be bored.

This is especially true for visitors from 70 miles to our north. I’m in metro Atlanta several days each month, and as I walk around downtown or on the immensely popular Atlanta Beltline, I quiz folks I encounter about some of the attractions mentioned above.

Maybe once a month do I run into someone who has visited the Ocmulgee National Monument, never mind the Tubman, or Grant’s Lounge. Why not trumpet the news to the world? Or at least to the 5.7 million folks just over an hour away?

THIS WEEK

As summer approaches, April is loaded with events, especially as the colleges and universities prepare for the end of the academic year.

“August: Osage County,” one of the best known recent dramas, just opened at Mercer University’s Tattnall Square Center for the Arts. Late in April, Wesleyan College will present “Love and Loss,” four short plays written by students.

Meanwhile, next week, Theatre Macon opens the musical “The Drowsy Chaperone,” yet another recent Broadway hit being performed in Macon. This weekend, Macon Little Theatre’s musical revue “Blame It on the Movies” closes Sunday. Yes, spring is here!

This story was originally published March 29, 2017 at 8:53 AM with the headline "Festival visitors should come back to Macon."