Large Events and Festivals
Augusta is host to a variety of annual events. The largest event held in the city each year is the Masters golf tournament bringing in around 250,000 visitors. One of the majors of the PGA tour, the Masters is also a major cultural influence on the city. Most semi-professional sports teams in the city are named for puns related to the tournament (the Augusta Greenjackets and the now defunct Augusta Lynx). Many establishments in the city, especially in the area around the Augusta National Golf Club, are also named in a similar manner. Restaurants throughout Augusta use memorabilia from the tournament as decor. In fact, spring break for schools within the Richmond County School System coincides with the tournament, similarly to the timing of school breaks in New Orleans and Mardi Gras.
Other annual events include the cultural festival Arts in the Heart of Augusta, the Hip hop concert Mayfest, and the arts festival Westobou. The Rock Fore! Dough Concert is a charity concert held each year to coincide with the Masters golf tournament. The CSRA Classic, a traditional style marching band competition, is also held each year in Augusta.
Each year, Augusta also hosts the Augusta Futurity, the largest horse cutting show east of the Mississippi River. In 2009, the Futurity hosted its 30th annual event.
Along with these annual events, downtown Augusta also hosts a monthly "First Friday" arts festival in the downtown Artist's Row district.
Augusta hosts an annual LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) pride parade called Augusta Pride. Augusta Pride attracted 4,000 people in 2010, its first year. The festival is rapidly growing and an estimated 7,000 people attended in 2011.
Read more about this topic: Arts And Culture In Augusta, Georgia
Famous quotes containing the words large, events and/or festivals:
“Nowadays almost all man’s improvements, so called, as the building of houses and the cutting down of the forest and of all large trees, simply deform the landscape, and make it more and more tame and cheap.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is certainly not the place for a discourse about what festivals are for. Discussions on this theme were plentiful during that phase of preparation and on the whole were fruitless. My experience is that discussion is fruitless. What sets forth and demonstrates is the sight of events in action, is living through these events and understanding them.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)