I am deeply disappointed by my recent experience at the Civic Auditorium. What was once a…read morerespected, community-focused venue has unfortunately declined--largely due to the behavior of its staff and ushers. The staff were rude and unprofessional, and shockingly unaccommodating toward children. This was especially upsetting given that we were attending a production specifically geared toward families and kids, Annie. Instead of being welcoming or patient, the usher we encountered was dismissive and unfriendly, making it very clear that children and teens are not truly welcome here. This venue is no longer family-friendly, despite advertising family-oriented productions. If you're bringing kids or teens, be prepared for an environment that feels rigid, uninviting, and uncomfortable. What makes this even more disappointing is my long history with the Civic. My family has donated large sums of money (we could have bought a couple homes with the amount we've donated) over the past 30 years because we believed in its mission and its role in the community. Sadly, after this experience, we will no longer be supporting it. The Civic is simply not what it once was. If you're looking for a welcoming, inclusive place to enjoy theater with your family, I strongly recommend looking elsewhere. Do not take your family to the Civic!

The ciivic theatre is a great place to support the local arts. The venue is decent size and the…read moreseating is great for a perfect view of the stage. The plays are well done. If you haven't been, go! The tickets are reasonable.

So after living here for three years I finally just found out about this massive event in Battle…read moreCreek Michigan. Advertises carnival rides/food, air shows, local shopping tents, live music, beer garden, events, fire works and hot air balloons. Of course it's hard to pass something that hosts that many things in one afternoon. The parking lot is massive, and plenty of room for everyone. The parking line was pretty long to get in, and it cost 5 bucks, but it was better than walking in my opinion. Sadly, as we were parking we were informed that a few minutes before we arrived that the jet truck had exploded during the air show, and the air show had been canceled. We decided to go anyway because there was still hot air balloons. The line to get in was very efficient and we walked right in. Ticket cost was 10 dollars per person to get into the festival. We wandered around and did some shopping. They have some pretty amazing local talent there making some some impressive things. After that, we got some food. I got a pizza from a local pizza tent which was amazing. We then got some funnel cake. Was everything I remembered from childhood. Haven't had funnel cake since I was a teenager. Food was a little pricey but anyone who has been to an event/festival in the last 5 years knows that food and drink prices are inflated to make a profit. After food we wandered through the carnival rides and decided to do the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel brought an amazing view of the grounds and showed that the event truly is a popular event in Michigan. After the wheel we decided to go get beer, find shade, and wait for the hot air balloons. The beer garden has some pretty amazing options. Aside from commercial beer they had many options of Michigan made beers. I enjoyed blood orange beer from Cheboygan. Was delicious. After a couple hours of waiting we were informed that the hot air balloons were not gonna make it for the day. We found out that the hot air balloons come flying in on one day and fly out on another and they were delayed due to weather flying in. If you can find out which is happening I recommend going on a day that they fly out and not in. Watching them fly off would be so much more exciting, and there is a higher chance of not getting to see them on a day they are flying in. The slightest winds can delay them. Overall, we were disappointed because we got no air show, and no hot air balloons. However, we did get to see a massive explosion go off. The entire air strip was covered in jet fuel from the truck earlier so they had to ignite it. The explosion felt like a meteor hit the earth. Was so loud, shook the ground, and it was instantly dark outside from the smoke. Was exciting to say the least. A definite must do event for 4th of July even without the jets and balloons. If you're going for balloons find out what day they fly out. We went because it was the 4th, but the festival is 5 days. *Note* you can bring in your own chairs, tents, coolers. We didn't know being our first year. Go prepared for an all day event and zero shade on the grounds.

My family has been to several shows here and it's always a nice time. Checking in is slightly odd…read moreto me, as they find your name and number of guests on a tablet, though it flows fine, so whatever works for them. The snack line is just past the line, so if they moved that a bit more into the hall I wonder if they'd have better sales. We will definitely be back for more shows from awesome performers!

Williams theater is inside the Gilmore theater complex. A little confusing but glad we found it…read more Here to see Spring Awakening. It was a great space.

Oh... my... god. We're driving across Michigan, I'm thinking about my new wine obsession, and…read moresuddenly the wine gods smile on us and I spot a sign for this festival that was going to be riiight on the way. YES We actually only made it the free wine tastings at the two wineries in town--St Julian's and Warner's. HIGHLY recommend St. Julian's. Yes, it's totally held in big stuffy tent in the gravel lot behind their building. Enter the tent, however, and you are basically in wine tasting heaven. They pretty much brought out every single one of their wines for the occasion. There were at least nine different stations, each featuring 4-8 wines, with laminated sheets displaying the tasting notes. There were also tasting sheets and pencils for writing notes. For a wine beginner like me, this was an amazing way to learn about a whole lot of different varietals all at once, and I loved a lot of what I tasted. The place was set up in such a way that there was absolutely no pressure to buy--in fact, sales were handled in a separate tent. Also, they were doing a 20% off sale on all bottles, rendering them cheaper than Binny's! Crazy deal on their already affordably-priced wine. After all this, Warner's was kind of a let down. The place was near empty when we arrived and it was a bit awkward with the wine attendants waiting as we tasted maybe three samples. We weren't too impressed by our selections, so we left pretty soon afterwards. The grounds were very nice though, with the river running through it. Bottom line, just go to Julian's. You will get sticky drinking many sips of wine out of tiny plastic cups and you will be happy.

Let's just start with the greatest part of the festival, the Spasmastics (sp?) playing at St…read moreJulians. They did an amazing show. They kept the crowd dancing and laughing, it was amazing. The four gents from Chicago were so incredible to do a meet and greet after the show. It was truly the best part of the event. I enjoyed the car show very much. There were some very beautiful cars on display up and down the main street. With the two good things listed Iust say that I have gone to this festival in Paw Paw a few times now and the trend is not promising. Due to new rules by the government they must use tickets to monitor the consumption of alcohol at the tastings. Understandable, but what did this mean for 2017? Five tickets for 1 ounce samples given out for a $5 cover charge. Most wine bottles are 750mL or 25.4 ounces... No wonder the wineries are excited for the festival, to sell 1 ounce samples to the public for twice the cost per ounce over them buying the bottle from a store. The cider tasting at St Julians was the best racketeering scheme of them all, same 1 ounce sample for a $1 ticket of a $3.99 bottle of cider... I would love a festival that got people to play 450% over shelf price of my product. Got to try 5 flavors out of the greater than 40 options they had on site. The carnival quality was just kind of sad. The only thing that looked halfway kept up was the food booths, which is likely only a byproduct of health code requirements. We attempted to enjoy a carnival ride twice and both times the worker was going on break. I understand work breaks, especially for someone working the Gravitron, but his attitude was completely uncalled for when we asked the simple question of how long would he be on break. It is a straight forward question that should have been answered without needing to be asked by the people standing in line to get on. Jobs have schedules, letting people know what the break schedule is would help them not waste 5 minutes in line when a "15 minute" (20 actual minute) break is coming. To wrap it all up, the police presence at the festival was just staggering. Hundreds of officers from departments all over were swarming around the festival. You could not go 20 feet without seeing another Law Enforcement Officer. The barcode scanners at the event that gather name and address of all attendees... If crime was not zero then I am concerned as to why not. In the course of walking from the carnival the sugar bear downtown, I personally counted 6 marked LEO cars and 23 officers on foot. That was even using the back trail by the river to get away from the crowds and having to walk on the roads.

Good fair. Everyone was so helpful. We were there for the Fluffy/Jeff Dunham show in the grand…read morestands. We have not been to a county fair in years. It was fun. We passed on the rides. I don't do that well. We ended up with delightful people around us for the show. Recommend to anyone wanting a county fair.

We were here for the Fall Out Boy concert on 9/18/15. It's a typical county fair. Rides, carnival…read morefood (yum! Lol!) and a lot of unfortunate looking people. They have bathrooms that are inside buildings so that's better than a port-a-potty but since it was pouring rain and the concert was outside the bathrooms were a bit muddy. There was an attendant in there doing the best she could to keep it clean and all things considered she did a great job! Concert was awesome!

This year's RAD Fest -- the 10th annual -- was phenomenal! My family hosted two dancers from…read moreDetroit, the duo known as Thank You for Coming, and as hosts were invited to grab tickets for any shows we would like to attend so I had the good fortune to enjoy much of this year's festival. There was such a wide breadth of performances, ranging comical to heartbreaking, musical to musicless (and even Saturday evening's final performance in which the audience was enlisted to provide some of the music themselves in a call and response). A few of the pieces left me goosepimply and gutted, while others stirred belly laughs. Kalamazoo is so fortunate to have a festival of this caliber in our backyard on a yearly basis.

Absolutely stunning…read more I have no shortage of good things to say about this company. I just got a sneak peek of their performance debuting next week and wow.. so eloquent, dazzling and heartfelt. I was welcomed with open arms and my experience here was so pleasant. I would love to actually take dance classes here (which they offer) so cool! The atmosphere is warm and cozy and the dancers are so talented and passionate. The event was absolutely amazing per usual and I really appreciated the time and effort they put in to let us get a peek of the full show which I am sure will be amazing. If you're considering, definitely come see a show here! The percussion to accompany their upcoming show is so unique and I left in awe. I brought my mom this time around and she was talking about it the whole way home! haha she's a big nerd and this was SO up her alley, mine too! You definitely wont regret coming to see a show here and I know I will be back! :D

It is really a little theater, get there a little bit early, if you like to have seat next to your…read morefriends! Delightful cloud to watch artistic films with. Alternative, documentary films are shown by the Western Michigan University's Western Film Society. Check the web, they only show one film a month no summer shows. $5 admission $3 for student with ID. Architecture is not like Music Box in Chicago, nor Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, but same great film audience.

We love Academy of dance. We started our two year old daughter there for their fantastic music…read moreprogram with Mr. Paul. After a few weeks my daughter kept watching their dance classes, after, her music class and pretending to be a dancer. Today was her first dance class. The program seems very well organized and my daughter loved it! The other dance classes in town do not start at 2 years old and they do not look to be as we'll organized. Come and try it out. They even let us try it before signing up! They are not on Portage Road anymore. They are off Romence by the mall.

We love ADA. We came here from another studio for our daughter to take a recreational focus in…read moredance. The instructors are professional and challenge the students to explore their highest aspirations for their love of dance. We love the studio has two performance opportunities. Our son joined their studio as early as he could at the age of two and asks everyday about when his dance day is. We can't say anything but positive words about the teachers, organization, and over dance quality. We recommend them to everyone we talk to. We can't imagine being anywhere else.