Things to do / Travel Guide
The eastern North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland region is still a sure bet when the sun sinks below that vast, beautiful horizon. Top-notch opera, symphony, ballet, and theater, among other performing arts shows await culture vultures looking for an evening of refined entertainment. Stick to the sand like a beachcomber and you'll find surfer dive bars, upscale, live-music bistros, and happening billiard halls and nightclubs up and down the coast, from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, all the way down to Cape Fear, North Carolina. And if you'd rather a more mellow or elegant evening out, you'll find that, too.
Entertainment on the Delmarva Peninsula
Your best bets on the Delmarva Peninsula for after-dark, after-beach entertainment are the towns of Rehoboth Beach and Dewey Beach in Delaware. A twilight stroll along the boardwalk and Rehoboth Avenue or Wilmington Avenue in Rehoboth Beach will take you on a music tour - jazz, blues, rock and roll, folk, and acoustic guitar sounds spill out onto the street. The Rehoboth Beach Memorial Bandstand, also on Rehoboth Avenue, hosts a great assortment of free summer concerts. In Dewey Beach, try the area along State Road 1 for friendly and crowded deck parties, as well as nationally-known acts (Ziggy Marley and other noteworthies occasionally have bookings at venues along this stretch). Ocean City, Maryland nightlife has gotten more attention recently: the Coastal Highway and Talbot Street on the Bay offer cozy lounges and funky bars featuring live music served up with a selection of wines, local beers, cocktails, and sumptuous finger-food snacks.
Eastern Virginia Entertainment
Richmond has the Richmond Ballet (classical and modern dance), the Virginia Opera, and the Richmond Symphony, all of which perform at the beautifully restored Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts on Grace Street. National touring performing arts companies also frequent the Carpenter Center. Other Richmond performing arts venues include the historic Landmark Theater (formerly called the Mosque ), on Main and Laurel Streets, for theater and music productions as well as the behemoth, contemporary Richmond Coliseum (Virginia's largest indoor center) on Leigh Street, which seats about 12,000 and hosts a wide range events from circuses to main stage rock concerts to sporting events.
To bar hop in Richmond's most hip and happening after-dark spots, head to the somewhat rowdy (but still funky and fun) neighborhood of Shockoe Bottom, between 17th Street and 18th Street, on East Main. The neighborhoods of Carytown and Shockoe Slip are a little bit more thirty-something and mellowed out: from Wednesday-Saturday Cary Street offers microbreweries, live acoustic jazz and guitar, jigging Irish pubs, and dance clubs. Carytown's restored, 1920s Byrd Theatre offers feature movies on a regular basis and is a popular weekend haunt for university students and professors alike.
In Colonial Williamsburg, head to Chowning's Tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street, to relive the good ol' days in an 18th-century middle class pub, where you'll sate your thirst on some period rum or a hefty glass of ale, and croon along with the balladeers.
Sailors head to Norfolk, home to the world's largest naval base, which competes with Richmond's best entertainment when it comes to performing arts. The Virginia Ballet Theatre is nationally recognized, and the Virginia Opera, performing at the Harrison Opera House, is considered to one of the biggest and best opera companies in the U.S. The Virginia Symphony has been bowing and strumming for more than seven decades and boasts some of the nation's best music directors. If you are looking for nocturnal Norfolk fun, head to the trendy neighborhood of Ghent (for upscale clubs, martini bars, and lounges), or downtown to the Waterside Festival Marketplace, where you'll find nearly 40 bars and clubs, dueling pianos, hi-tech billiard halls, and DJ-spun dance clubs. If you are looking for raucous and rowdy, Waterside will give you a little of that, too - folks regularly dance on the bars, and the bartenders know how to mix up some of the sailors' stiff-drink favorites. Norfolk's event calendar is generally published in the weekly Port Folio, a free, widely-distributed newspaper.
In Virginia Beach, you can hum and hoedown your way up and down Shore Drive, Atlantic Avenue or Pacific Avenue for local bands, night clubs, and comedy. In the summer, the Virginia Beach boardwalk hosts Beach Street USA, offering regular concerts, theater, and street performers along Atlantic Avenue, seven days a week. And for main stage, big-name concerts and every genre under the sun, try the 20,000-seat, open-air Verizon Wireless Virginia Beach Amphitheater at Princess Anne Road.
North Carolina Shore Entertainment
The Crystal Coast Jamboree, on Arendell Street in Morehead City, is a unique live musical revue featuring comedy, bluegrass, dance, gospel, and just about any other upbeat and fun musical genre you can imagine. Considered the “Best on the Coast,” if you like catchy tunes and belting vocalists, this is your venue.
Walk up and down Cape Fear River after sundown for Wilmington's best nightlife and entertainment. Also in Wilmington is the famed Thalian Hall, billed as one of the “oldest and most beautiful theaters” in the country, offering a wide range of performing arts including nationally-known vocalists, theater productions, and music ensembles. The Kenan Auditorium at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, is another favorite venue with a year-round calendar featuring the North Carolina Symphony, the Wilmington Symphony, as well as other performing arts and music groups.
|
|
|