Cleveland Entertainment

Nicknamed the ‘Rock and Roll Capital of the World’, Cleveland offers a vast selection of entertainment options. Despite images of guitars, smoke and fire rock concerts and exhibitions only account for a small sampling of the north coast's entertainment scene. The venues are numerous and activities, while falling a bit short of what you might find in New York, Las Vegas or Los Angeles, are nonetheless plentiful.

Nightlife

In Cleveland, nightlife is concentrated on both banks of the Flats and in the fashionable Warehouse district. In Ohio City, across the river, Market Avenue bustles with sidewalk cafés in the summertime. The Flats, located on the banks and at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, used to be the trendy district to head to for nightlife and entertainment, but it no longer rules the party scene in Cleveland. Still, a few remnants of the Flats remain; the Nautica Entertainment Complex houses several establishments in an old converted electric plant on the West Bank of the Flats.

Cleveland has a large college-student population downtown, particularly in University Circle and in some eastside suburbs.  Numerous college students as well as nearby high-schoolers and other liberally-minded people, tend to gather in Coventry Village in Cleveland Heights on Coventry Road, just south of Mayfield Road.

Theatre and music

The ‘Rock and Roll Capital’ is not just about music, as it has a number of venues hosting the performing arts. Several of these can be found at the aptly named Playhouse Square, the site for plays, musicals, concerts and a variety of other revues. The Allen Theatre, State Theatre and Hanna Theatre bring in top travelling performances as well as playing host to local shows.

Away from downtown, several places feature a variety of entertainment choices. The Carousel Dinner Theatre in Akron offers exactly what its name implies; diners enjoy fine meals and performances simultaneously. 

From such major locales as Gund Arena, the Cleveland State University Convocation Centre and Blossom Music Centere down to the smallest local places like the Odeon; the city features plenty of venues for performers and fans to share an evening's entertainment. 

The Cleveland Orchestra is one of the world's finest performing groups. Catching them playing a home gig is the hard part, as the orchestra's players are routinely touring the world. Blossom is the summer home of the orchestra, with performances held on a weekly basis at a minimum.

Festivals

From mid-May until mid-September, Cleveland and the surrounding area come alive with dozens of festivals, many of which celebrate northeast Ohio's rich ethnic heritage.

• Cleveland St Patrick's Day Parade must be one of the largest St Patrick's Day parades and one of the most authentic Irish-American festivals in the USA. Celebrations start very early downtown, and all bars and pubs here get packed wall-to-wall (March).
• Tops Great American Rib Fest, held each year at Memorial Day weekend, is the unofficial start of the Cleveland summer festival season. This popular four-day event, held at the Tower City Amphitheatre, features well-known entertainers, rib outlets from around the world, kid's activities and lots of fun (May).
• University Circle's Hessler Street Festival goes back to 1969. The two-day street fest features food, live music, crafts, dancing in the streets and poetry readings. Held on Saturdays and Sundays in late May, it's a celebration of the best of the era.
• Tops Kids Festival is held in mid-July at the Tower City Amphitheatre. It features dozens of pavilions with hands-on kid’s activities including face-painting, crafts, video learning and more. There's also live music, food and lots of fun.
• Held in mid-August, the Little Italy Festival is one of the city's most popular festivities. Centred around Mayfield and Murray Hill Roads, the Feast of the Assumption features a parade, plenty of Italian food, carnival rides in the parking lot of Holy Rosary Church and live music.
• Slavic Village Harvest Festival is held in the heart of the city’s historic Warszawa neighbourhood, which is home to one of the largest Polish-American communities in the country. The history, traditions, music and food of this community are showcased at the festival, where visitors enjoy dancing the polka, riding the trolleybus, sampling tasty dishes and toe-tapping to the music (August).