Stratford - Dramatically Different!

Summertime in Stratford – it simply cannot get better than this! Theatre, fine dining, unique shopping, beautiful gardens and parks, art and music. There is a theory that the design of heaven was based on Stratford. The famed Stratford Festival of Canada is staging 13 plays, including six penned by the Bard, in the four theatres of the Festival. Other 2004 highlights include two musicals, Guys and Dolls and Anything Goes, comedy in Noises Off, and adventure with The Count of Monte Cristo. The season runs through November 7.
  

Visitors to the Festival enjoy plays in four unique settings. The newest is the Studio Theatre, housed in the same downtown complex as the completely redesigned and updated Avon Theatre. Performances also run at the Tom Patterson Theatre. The heart of the Festival is still the famed Festival Theatre, the jewel on the banks of the Avon River. But visitors to Stratford soon come to realize that the theatre is just one of many magnificent Stratford attractions. Stratford is renowned for its sophisticated shopping district, for wonderful and unique dining spots, for its riverfront walking and cycling paths, for art and music and cultural events at every turn.

A seasonal highlight is Stratford Summer Music, an amazing festival that runs July 21 through August 1, and offers a rich and full menu featuring many of Canada’s most talented musicians. Concerts will include performances by the the St. Lawrence String Quartet, violinists James Ehnes and Andrew Chung, soprano Leslie Fagan and the Ukrainian Bandurist Male Chorus, and about a dozen other performances. Original Stradivarius instruments will be used in some performances.

Another summer-long event in Stratford is The Quilt Breast Cancer Support Project’s fifth annual exhibition and sale. The exhibit, at 55 Downie Street, runs through October; the auction weekend is November 12-14. Visit www.thequilt.com.

Visitors can get up close and personal with Stratford’s heritage by joining an Historic Walking Tour, held Tuesday through Saturday in July and August, and on Saturdays only in May, June and September. Contact the Visitors’ Information Centre.

And for garden lovers, there are two fabulous tours offered, one at the Shakespearean Gardens, near the ornate Court House, on Monday and Thursday afternoons at 2 p.m.; and one at the Festival Theatre, where head gardener Harry Jongerden conducts Tuesday through Friday morning tours.

There are other events and exhibits throughout the summer, including excellent shows at Gallery Stratford and the Stratford Perth Museum. And then there is Art in the Park, antique shows, concerts, games… the possibilities are limitless. Many visitors create their own personal celebrations, often involving leisurely strolls along the Avon, picnic lunches (the thoughtful Stratford folks have provided so many picnic tables along the river that there is never a problem finding the right place for al fresco repasts), dinners on sidewalk patios, and visits to gardens throughout the city.

And speaking of festivals, Stratford has become the quintessential year-round Canadian destination, with events like the weekend-long Stratford Book Festival and the Stratford Culinary Festival in November, and the glorious, four-day Stratford Garden Festival in early March.

Stratford is a city for lovers – lovers of theatre, lovers of fine dining, lovers of beautiful outdoor spaces, lovers of music and art, and lovers of… well, of that special other person you bring to one of the most exciting, vibrant, and enjoyable communities anywhere in the world.