History
The Ann Arbor Summer Festival was incorporated in 1978 as a town and gown nonprofit organization and presented its first full season in 1984. The Festival was created to support two concurrent and complementary performing arts programs, one indoor and one outdoor, on the University of Michigan campus. The Mainstage series occurs in the Power Center for the Performing Arts and Hill Auditorium, and includes ticketed performances of music, dance, theater and comedy that are national and international in scope. The second series, Top of the Park, takes place directly outside the indoor venues and is free to the general public.
Early Festival seasons emphasized classical music and theater but have since become more popular and diverse in nature, encompassing a breadth of performance genres. Top of the Park was initially developed as a gathering place for patrons before and after the indoor performances and featured live entertainment and refreshment sales. Top of the Park soon began to attract audiences on its own and is now one of Ann Arbor's favorite community events featuring an eclectic mix of performances by local and regional artists. A selection of classic, children's and popular films are screened at dusk. Attendance at Top of the Park averages 1,500 people per night.
Read more about this topic: Ann Arbor Summer Festival
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)