Culture
Stafford Gatehouse Theatre is the town's main entertainment and cultural venue. The Met Studio within the Gatehouse is a dedicated venue for stand-up comedy and alternative live music. There is an art gallery in the Shire Hall. Staffordshire County Showground, just outside the town, is the venue for many national and local events. There is an annual Shakespeare Festival at Stafford Castle.
Victoria Park, opened in 1908, is a 13 acre (53,000 m2) Edwardian riverside park with a play park, bowling green, bird cages and greenhouses; Victoria Park has recently undergone a major re-development in places, incorporating a new children's play area, new sand and water jet area which has replaced the previous open-air paddling pool and also a brand new bmx / skateboard area. Stafford is also home to a 9 hole golf course near the town centre.
The three screen Apollo Cinema, showing mainstream releases, is in the centre of town. Stafford Film Theatre is based at the Gatehouse Theatre, and shows independent and alternative films. There is also a tenpin bowling alley at Greyfriars Place. The new Stafford Leisure Centre opened in 2008 on Lammascote Road.
Nightlife in the town consists of smaller bar and club venues such as Casa, The Grapes, The Litten Tree, The Picture House and nightclub Couture/ Noir et Blanc, most of which are in walking distance of each other. There is a big student patronage, with coaches bringing students from Stoke-on-Trent, Cannock and Wolverhampton.
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Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Our culture is ill-equipped to assert the bourgeois values which would be the salvation of the under-class, because we have lost those values ourselves.”
—Norman Podhoretz (b. 1930)
“The second fundamental feature of culture is that all culture has an element of striving.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Insolent youth rides, now, in the whirlwind. For those modern iconoclasts who are without culture possess, apparently, all the courage.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)