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"Hot damn, we don't have this back in Lubbock!"*This place has tremendous cultural diversity, with some sort of special event almost every week. If its not one of our famous music festivals, you may come upon an art fair, holiday celebrations, or any number of other things. The chances are good that there's something on the local calendar to interest you. We have two weekly publications which provide up to the minute information on local events. The first is the Monterey County Weekly, which can be found at nearly any streetcorner, gas station, grocery store, or hotel lobby. The other is a tabloid insert in the Monterey County Herald called GO. Both publications come out every thursday, telling everything you need to know for the weekend and beyond. |
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First, the Entertainment:The Big Exciting Places:Our two largest and most significant cultural venues are Carmel's Sunset Center, and Monterey's Golden State Theater. Here's the scoop on each:
Another important venue is the Montery County Fairgrounds in Monterey. The site hosts a wide variety of events all year 'round. The most significant being the Monterey County Fair in August and the Monterey Jazz Festival in September. In Carmel, the aforementioned Sunset Center, brings in entertainers of all types, big names and small names, from all over the world. Now and then there'll be a concert at the Carmel Mission. Mr. Toy especially enjoys the Bach Festival and Christmastime choral programs there, for which the building's acoustics are especially well suited. On Alvarado Street in downtown Monterey we now have two terrific venues for live entertainment. Monterey Live is a big city style nightclub which features local and out of town musicians on a nightly basis. Its all topped off with a little food and drink. Admission prices range from low to moderate, depending on the evening's program. You can't miss it because its right across the street from the grand and glorious Golden State Theatre. Then there are the annual festivals. The Monterey Jazz Festival (September) and Carmel Bach Festival (late July - early August) are the biggest and most famous. There's also an annual Monterey Dixieland Festival (March), the Monterey Bay Blues Festival (June) the Monterey Bay Reggae Fest (September), and the Old Monterey Seafood & Music Festival (September or October). If you're here for New Years Eve, our First Night Monterey celebration is the place to be, with countless choices of entertainment scattered throughout downtown. There are also plenty of smaller events throughout the year, too numerous to mention here. The Monterey Jazz Festival also sponsors an annual high school jazz competition in April. The music is every bit as good as the big festival in September, but all the events are free! The winners of the competition will appear at the regular festival in September. If you can't make it to this year's festival, why not listen to a few old ones? Jazz Festival CDs may be obtained from the Monterey Peninsula Toy Box Store, along with the works of other local musicians. Unfortunately, while Monterey is home to the world's longest running jazz festival, the town still has no decent jazz clubs. There are, however, a number of exceptional jazz musicians who perform at a variety of mediocre (often cramped) venues. The aforementioned Monterey County Weekly and GO can give you the specifics in the clubs listings. |
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Tourist
Attractions |
If
live theatre is your cup of tea, this is the place to be. We
have a number of excellent theater companies on stages big and small.
Mr. Toy has attended and enjoys the following spots. This is not a
complete list by any means.
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| Finally, we should mention, you can acquire the works of a mildly famous local photographer without leaving the comfort of your chair. Visit Mr. Toy's Photo Gallery and have a look around. You can even have a piece of the Monterey Peninsula delivered right to your door without ever setting foot in Monterey! It'll help support this website, and save you the travel expense. | ||||||||||
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*NB: The quote at the beginning of this page was inspired by a friend of ours who, many years ago, upon first visiting the central California coast, made that very comment every time he saw something new, even though he was not from Lubbock. No offense is intended towards the fine town of Lubbock. In the event Lubbock residents manage to take offense anyway, please note that Mr. Toy does not subscribe to any form of political correctness and thus will make no accommodation for them. He expects that true Texans, if they are as thick skinned as they claim to be, would agree that it is not worth wasting time over. |
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