If you loved Disney’s 1991 film Beauty and the Beast but don’t have tickets yet to the Broadway musical version that comes to Spokane’s INB Performing Arts Center this week, you should order fast. Most performances are almost sold out; your best bet for good tickets is to go either Thursday at 7:30 p.m. or Sunday at 6:30 p.m. The live, colorful musical about a provincial young woman and a prince who has been turned into a beast and must learn to love and be loved in order to be turned back features the Academy Award winning score from the Disney film, plus additional scores. This Disney musical follows the film version from 1991 closely (the original French fairy tale dates back to the 1700s).
Part of West Coast Entertainment’s Best of Broadway series, which brings Broadway shows to Spokane, this Beauty and the Beast production is a national tour that was developed by the original creators of the Broadway run that began 15 years ago. Amy Burger of KDHX Radio in St Louis, where the show recently played, wrote: “The show is a complete feast for the senses with detailed, colorful, multi-layered sets, special effects and elaborate period costumes.” If you saw the very popular 1999 show in Spokane, you’ll recognize some of the great special effects. For a video preview of the beautiful show, click here. Can’t get enough and want some Beauty on your computer? You can download a Beauty and the Beast widget and wallpaper here.
Beauty and the Beast runs January 26–29, 2012, at the INB Performing Arts Center in downtown Spokane. Click here for directions. Parking is available in pay lots (one is across the street and another is just a block away) for around $10.00. For tickets, go to TicketsWest.com. Seats are $42.50 to $92.50.
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This weekend, salons, spas, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and other businesses that aim to make you look and/or feel good (including two chocolate producers!) will gather at the 7th annual Health Beauty Spa Show to introduce you to their services. You can enjoy sample treatments for $5 each: chair massage, facial wax, paraffin hand dip, temporary tattoo, airbrush tan, vibration therapy, mini makeover, reflexology, and more. Grab a friend, your mom, or anyone who is in need of some pampering or girl time (guys are also welcome, of course) and plan to spend a few hours at this event, as it is very popular and you may have to wait a while for your treatments.
Copyright Northwest Artistic Photography
The “ultimate spa party” is a great opportunity to talk to local experts about all the latest spa treatments and to explore the plethora of high-quality local options for beauty and spa services in the Spokane area. Vendors will also be on hand with products focused on prevention, beauty, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle options. If you feel like transforming your look at the show, have before and after pictures taken for free on location by Northwest Artistic Photography. The best makeover and most glamorous transformations will win hundreds of dollars in full service treatments from Dimensions Salon.
The Health Beauty Spa Show runs January 14 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and January 15 from noon to 5 p.m. at Spokane Community College in the Lair building (off Mission street just each of Greene). Click here for directions. Admission is $7, or $5 if you bring a non-perishable food or hygiene item to donate to the YWCA shelter. Sample treatment tickets are available at the door for $5. Health and beauty professionals get in free with their license and photo ID from 4–6 p.m. Saturday night. Everyone can take advantage of the website deal for a free treatment—just print the coupon from the home page (valid after 3 p.m. Saturday or all day Sunday.) The food, by Ruth’s Catering, sounds tastier than your typical trade show fare, with homemade candy, breakfast burritos, three kinds of soup, and pulled pork sandwiches among the offerings. Hope to see you there!
Not sure what you are doing for New Year’s? Celebrate the end of 2011 at First Night Spokane. At various locations throughout downtown, all within walking distance of each other, you will find an amazing variety of shows and activities to please all ages and tastes. The cost for an admission button that covers all events is just $12, or $15 the day of the show. You can purchase them online or at many businesses throughout Spokane. First Night runs from 7 p.m. to midnight.
Several great performers will entertain you with juggling, comedy, boogie-woogie piano, jump-rope acrobatics (from Rene Bibaud, who has performed with Cirque du Soleil) and old vaudeville style clowning. Shows are at 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 p.m.
From 7 to 10 p.m., pick up a passport from one of four locations. At each location, you will receive a clue to solve before moving on to the next location. Once a clue is solved, you will receive a stamp on your passport. When you have all four stamps, drop your passport into a Yoke’s Dinosaur Egg Safari enter-to-win box to be entered into drawings for prizes.
Start your healthy resolutions a few hours early with a 5k run through downtown Spokane. Runners line up at 6:30 p.m., and the run begins at 6:45 p.m. An optional bag drop makes it easy to get your coat and purse afterward. Fill out and bring the waiver form before you go. Click here for a map of the course.
Don’t let fear of downtown parking keep you from First Night! Just park at the Riverpoint Campus just east of downtown Spokane (412 E. Spokane Falls Blvd.) in the yellow lot and catch a bus to one of several First Night venues. Buses run every ten minutes from 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Free Carousel Rides and Ice Skating
From 7 to 11 p.m., you can skate free at the Ice Palace in the heart of Riverfront Park (you still have to pay for skate rental) and take free rides on the beautiful Looff Carousel, also located in Riverfront Park.
The Comedy Show at the Spokane Masonic Center
Four comedians will perform in the ballroom. Show times are 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 p.m.
You can also check out plenty of live music, theatre from Stage West Community Theatre and the Spokane Community College Players, Spokane Theatre Ballet, improv comedy from Blue Door Theatre, and much more! Check out the full schedule on the website.
The holiday season is upon us, and there are plenty of fun things to do around Spokane with the kids that will create great memories, help keep everyone from succumbing to cabin fever, and maybe even start new holiday traditions in your family. Here are just a few great family outings that will entertain everyone without blowing your budget.
The MAC Museum of Art and Culture is putting on living history performances in its largest exhibit, the Campbell House, during the two weeks around Christmas when most kids are out of school. The Campbell House is a turn-of-the-20th-century English Tudor Revival mansion designed by renowned Spokane architect Kirtland Cutter. You can see the house decorated for the holidays and learn about the times in which it was built and the daily life of the Campbell family from December 21 through January 1 on the days the MAC is open (the MAC is right next door to the Campbell House) from 12–4 p.m.
New for this year: Check out the just-opened Interpretive Center to create your own Campbell House experience and connect the past and present with interactive computers and hands-on exploration, and you can also take a horse-drawn carriage ride. Admission is free for MAC members or $7 adults/$5 students and seniors, which includes both museum entry and a tour of the Campbell House. For more information, call the admissions desk at 509-363-5355. The MAC is located in Spokane’s gorgeous historic Browne’s Addition neighborhood at 2316 W. First Ave.
A friend with three children in elementary school shared this story:
My kids had been out of school on break for three days and they were driving me crazy—fighting, not listening, whining, throwing tantrums. Suddenly I realized that for the past two months it had been go-go-go, with football practice, dance lessons, after-school activities, and homework every day, and now they suddenly had nothing to use up their energy. So I loaded them into the Suburban and took them to Mt. Spokane to go tubing. Those kids played HARD and wore themselves out and had a great time. They couldn’t stay awake on the ride home, and after that, I recognized my children again and things were back to normal.
Enough said? The hill has been moved and newly constructed this year at Lodge 2, just north and downhill of the parking lot and Ski Patrol building. With several lanes, a new tow-rope to haul tubers back up the mountain, a limit of 50 participants per session, and plenty of snow, the Children’s Choice Tubing Hill is great for families and safer than uncontrolled sledding in parks. The hill is open weekends and holidays (except Christmas and Christmas Eve), for the remainder of the season, with sessions beginning at 10 a.m. and the last session starting at 2:30 p.m. One-and-a-half hour sessions are $10 for everyone 42” and over. Kids under 42” are free but must ride with a paid adult. Check conditions before you come up. Mt. Spokane is 28 miles from downtown Spokane; click here for directions.
Horse and Carriage Rides through Downtown Spokane
Through Christmas Eve, the Downtown Spokane Business Improvement District and Spokane Teachers Credit Union presents free old-fashioned horse and carriage rides through the streets of downtown. Just show up on Wall Street at Main Avenue on Fridays 3–8 p.m., weekends 12–5 p.m., or Christmas Eve 12–3 p.m. This is a great outing for family from out of town! Rides are given on a first-come, first-serve basis. After your ride, you will receive free candy canes and coupons for hot chocolate and coffee at participating downtown businesses. Click here to see a video preview of the ride.
The Ice Palace, one of the nation’s best outdoor ice skating rinks, is open all winter long under the Pavilion in the heart of Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. Lessons and drop-in hockey are available. Click here for hours. Admission is $4.50 for adults and $3.50 for youth/seniors/military, and skate rental is $3.50. Thursday nights are Inlander appreciation nights—get your ticket from the Inlander, a free weekly publication, to skate for $1. The Spokane Falls SkyRide, IMAX Theatre, and Looff Carousel are also open all winter if you want to spend more fun family time in the park.
By far the biggest New Year’s Eve party around, First Night Spokane is a huge, alcohol-free festival of the arts in downtown Spokane for the entire family. This year’s theme is “Dawn of Time” Year of the Dinosaur. At venues within a walkable area of downtown, you can enjoy live music, theatre, dance performances, film, dance parties, art, comedy, and a fireworks show. There are plenty of activities for kids, including face painting, bookmark making, magic shows, free ice skating and carousel rides, and rolling video games. Click here for the schedule of the night’s event’s, which get started at 7 p.m.
If your family is making a resolution to exercise more, start early with the 5k Resolution Run! Runners line up at 6:30 p.m., and the run begins at 6:45 p.m. An optional bag drop makes it easy to get your coat and purse afterward. Fill out and bring the waiver form before you go. Click here for a map of the course. Admission buttons are just $12 in advance or $15 on New Year’s Eve. Kids 10 and under are free with a paid adult. Purchase tickets here or at various participating Spokane businesses.
On New Year’s Day, celebrate First Day Spokane and get free admission to the MAC Museum of Art and Culture with your First Night button plus discounted passes to play in Riverfront Park.
I’m always watching for great deals on things to do in Spokane for our Travel-Spokane.com readers. The Spokane Symphony’s Club Maestro is the best deal I’ve seen all year for live shows. If you are age 21–35, you can sign up for a free Club Maestro membership, which entitles you to purchase up to two $15 tickets for any Classics, Casual Classics, and other specially offered concerts. Ticket prices vary, but for $15, you can score seats that cost up to $44 regular price. The Spokane Symphony also offers special pre- and post-show events throughout the season for Club Maestro members.
Attending a symphony concert is a great date idea and also an excellent way to treat yourself and just chill out for the evening listening to some live, high quality music. You can dress up or down, just as you please; some people go in blue jeans, while others find the symphony a great reason to dress to the nines. Club Maestro members can buy up to two $15 tickets for each concert, and there are no age requirements for the guest, so members can treat a parent, older friend, or anyone they like for just $15.
It’s easy to sign up—I just emailed my information to tickets@spokanesymphony.org with “Club Maestro” on the subject line, but you can also mail your information to or just stop by the box office of the gorgeous, historic Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, 1001 W. Sprague Ave. in downtown Spokane. To join, you must provide your name, mailing address, email address, and a copy of your ID that shows your date of birth (I just scanned mine and sent a jpeg).
There are five Classics concerts and two Casual Classics concerts left for the 2011–2012 Spokane Symphony season. Featured composers include Mozart, Schubert, Gioachino Rossini (with William Tell Overture, the Lone Ranger theme), Beethoven, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, and more. Several of the concerts will feature outstanding guest artists from all over. Club Maestro is a great opportunity to broaden your musical knowledge, get a jump-start on New Year’s resolutions to attend more cultural events, or just learn more about some of history’s greatest musical composers for very little cash.
The NOAA National Weather Service says La Niña is back, with above-average precipitation predicted for the Pacific Northwest this late fall/winter. La Niña often brings colder winters to our area. In other words, snow is on the way, and over 6,000 skiers and snowboarders are expected to attend the Pacific Northwest’s largest equipment swap, the Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol Ski Swap, to sell their old gear and/or find some great deals on new and used gear for the coming season at the Spokane Fair and Expo Center. Items for sale include skis, bindings, boots, poles, snowboards, gloves, clothing, and accessories. This year’s SWAP, a season kick-off tradition, will be larger and better: “We have expanded into Bay 1 this year, giving us more room for more equipment and more people!” said Dan Edwards, Director of the 2011 MSSP SWAP. “The new space has allowed us to reconfigure the floorplan, which will improve traffic flow through the various departments and create a more efficient check-out system.”
There are several advantages to shopping the SWAP instead of the stores. First, you will get the best selection (over 22,000 items) and deals. Second, you can sell your old equipment for the very reasonable rate of 50 cents per item for registration plus 20% of the selling price to a huge, eager pool of buyers. Third, over 130 experienced members of the Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol will be on hand to help you find the best equipment for your skill level and price range, in addition to the participating retail shop representatives, so beginners need not fear they will be doomed to wander alone and confused amongst endless rows of seemingly similar items. Fourth, all proceeds go to offset costs for operation of the non-profit Mt. Spokane Ski Patrol, including facilities overhead, first aid and medical supplies, training costs, and administrative functions. (These are the nice people who check on you when you wipe out and lay sprawled on the hill, skis and poles scattered, which always seems to happen right under the chair lift–oh wait, maybe that’s just me.) Fifth, it’s fun to shop and mingle with other ski/snowboard enthusiasts!
There is a $5 admission fee for the show (12 years and under free). Hours are Saturday, October 29, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, October 30, 9 a.m. to noon. If you have gear to sell, drop it off Friday, October 28, from 3–8 p.m., and pick up your check/unsold gear on Sunday from 2–4 p.m. Plenty of free parking is available onsite. Cash, checks, and debit/credit cards are all accepted. There is just one central check-out area, although the gear comes from over 20 retail shops plus individuals. This year, wait times should be shorter due to improvements to the scanning and point-of-sale technology. Sunday, select items will be 25% off, but if you are looking for kids’ gear and clothing, don’t wait and get in line early on Saturday because it goes fast.
If you think you have already seen all there is to see at the fair, you’ll be happy to know that the Spokane County Interstate Fair has come up with 60 new attractions to mark its 60th silver anniversary at the Spokane County Fairgrounds. Here are just five of the most compelling:
Bedazzle Your Bra Competition: Come to Bay 3 to view entries in this new competition of creatively decorated bras. This exhibit is put on by the Home Arts Department and the Susan G. Kohmen Foundation to raise awareness about breast cancer.
Goat Cart Rides: Ramona Mather and her goat Casper will give kids rides in the Goat Barn!
Dancing Horses: On Friday, September 16, at 2:15 p.m., watch members of Spokane County 4-H perform a dressage exhibition in the Horse Arena.
QR Code Barn Tours for Smart Phones: If you have a smartphone, you can scan a code at the entrance to each barn for a self-guided tour, which will make looking at livestock much more interesting! It’s sponsored by Big R. Stores, and you will receive a Big R. 15% off coupon for participating.
Not-So-Newlywed Contest: Tuesday, September 13, at 1:15 p.m., couples pre-selected through an essay competition will play for a grand prize at the North Stage. Play along in the audience to find out how well you know your partner!
As always, you can count on fun shows at the Grandstand: PRCA rodeos Friday and Saturday nights (September 10 and 11), compact car demolition derby and lawn mower races Sunday, September 11, two monster truck shows on the second Saturday (September 17), full-size car demolition derby on the second Sunday (September 18), and five great acts during the week: Neal McCoy, Osmond Brothers, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Switchfoot. Tickets are available at the Interstate Fair Office or at Ticketswest.com. General admission to the Fair is required for all shows.
The North Stage features a wide variety of free entertainment throughout the Fair, including regional and local musicians, comedy, hypnotism, juggling, and dancing. There are many other free entertainment events each day, such as racing pigs, kids pedal tractor racing, and demonstrations of “how it used to be” (butter churning, rope making, etc.) Click here for a complete day-by-day schedule of all that is happening.
General admission to the Fair is required for all shows. Admission is $10 for adults, $7 for kids 7 to 13 and seniors 65 and over, and free for kids 6 and under. If, for you, going to the Fair means having a blast on the carnival rides, consider going on September 12–15, when you can buy a pay-one-price bracelet for $25, good for unlimited rides all night. Otherwise, each ride is $3–$5 in single carnival tickets. Fair hours are 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. every day except September 18, when this year’s big event will wrap up at 8:00 p.m. Parking is available at the Main Gate and South Gate. If you are travelling from out of town to play at the Fair, do yourself a favor and book a comfortable one- or two-bedroom suite at Stratford Suites Hotel, Spokane’s best lodging value! Full kitchens, leather furniture, pillow top mattresses, and 50” HDTV with DVD await you.
For six days, August 31–September 5, Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane will be filled with 48 food booths (225 menu items), three adult beverage gardens, and three stages that will host 82 free concerts. Pig Out in the Park, now in its 32nd year, brings dozens of great bands from near and far to perform on outdoor stages without charging any admission fees, raising the $320,000 needed to put on this year’s event through sponsorships, restaurant participation fees, and support from over 385 local businesses.
Pig Out in the Park is open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and the music starts at noon each day. You won’t run out of new kinds of food to try even if you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the park, with everything from bacon-wrapped hot dogs to authentic Greek, Vietnamese, and Indian dishes. As Spokane’s largest cultural event, this is a golden opportunity to broaden your taste horizons for a decent price—the price cap for all items is $8.95. Picky kids (of all ages) will be happy to see plenty of tame options like Zip’s hamburgers, pizza, and of course funnel cakes.
Getting there: As Pig Out is contained in the park, street closures are not an issue; however, this very popular event means close parking will be limited. If you drive, try to carpool and arrive as early as possible. In the afternoon, expect a healthy walk if parking on the street. Parking meters are free on Sunday and Labor Day. Buses will be running all weekend, including the Arena park-and-ride shuttle, but check schedules to make sure you don’t miss the last bus home! Bicycles are a great option for this event, with places in the park and surrounding businesses to lock up. Most concert seating is on the grass. Feel free to bring your own chairs and blankets, but keep in mind that wandering through the food booths can be a little tight for carrying bulky items, so think slim folding chairs and/or backpacks. See you there!
Travel Spokane is a website built to inform Spokane visitors about the latest news, events, and opportunities in Spokane. This information is provided free courtesy of Stratford Suites. Check out their website atstratfordsuites.com
If you loved Disney’s 1991 film Beauty and the Beast but don’t have tickets yet to the Broadway musical version that comes to Spokane’s INB Performing Arts Center this week, you should order fast. Most performances are almost sold out; your best bet for good tickets is to go either Thursday at 7:30 p.m. or Sunday at 6:30 p.m. The live, colorful musical about a provincial young woman and a prince who has been turned into a beast and must learn to love and be loved in order to be turned back features the Academy Award winning score from the Disney film, plus additional scores. This Disney musical follows the film version from 1991 closely (the original French fairy tale dates back to the 1700s).![[del.icio.us]](http://www.travel-spokane.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
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