| The weather may be cooling down, but Downtown Kalamazoo activity sure isn’t! Read about some of our exciting efforts below: | | | Downtown Winter Shopping Bag Design Contest | | CALLING ALL ARTISTS! For the first time, we are opening the design of our annual winter shopping bag to the public. Designs should be bold, original and reflective of beautiful downtown Kalamazoo in the winter. The winning artist will have their design screened on 3,000 tote bags distributed to 20+ downtown businesses, as well as win up to $250 in Downtown Dollars! Entries due by 11:59 p.m. September 30. Full contest details here. | | | Citizen Coalition Applications Opening Soon! | | | Are you passionate about Downtown Kalamazoo and its success? Apply to be on one of our Citizen Coalitions! We are looking for diverse, engaged and thoughtful members to join our People, Place, Experience and Growth coalitions in 2020. Applications open October 1, 2019. Click here for more information on Citizen Coalitions. | | | Alleyway Activation Open House | | | We need YOUR input on the next downtown Kalamazoo alley project! Join us Tuesday, September 24 from 6-8 p.m. at Cityscape Events (125 S. Kalamazoo Mall) for an open house to learn more about the next alley slated for activation: Exchange Place Alley. | | | The Kalamazoo Street Design Project continues – the City of Kalamazoo is asking the community to complete a walking audit, assessing the safety, accessibility, appearance, and connectivity of a route on a scale of 1 to 5. Input from these walking audits will be used during the hands on streets design workshop on Wednesday, October 23 which will be held at 6:30 p.m. at The Foundry (600 E Michigan Ave.). Click here for more route information and guided walking audit dates. | | | 2019 Kalamazoo Holiday Parade registration open for one more week! We are looking for organizations and businesses to bring holiday cheer to this year’s parade on November 16. Register here by October 1, 2019. | | | SkeleTour | October 5, 2019 | Bates Alley | | Downtown is getting a little spooky, and a lot silly!
This October, downtown streets will be adorned with specially-crafted, one-of-a-kind skeletons for the first SkeleTour Downtown Kalamazoo! From wild and wacky, to spooky and eerie, these life-sized skeletons reflect local businesses and organizations unique to Kalamazoo.
SkeleTour begins Saturday, October 5, with a kick off party on Bates Alley, 4 – 8pm! Bates Alley will be lined with kids activities, live music, and a professional pumpkin carving demonstration. Afterward, make sure to walk, or take the Trolley of Terror, around downtown to enjoy the wide variety of skeletons and even a Skeleton Bar Crawl. Check out the details at DowntownKalamazoo.org | | Farmers Alley Theatre
Located at 221 Farmers Alley
Meet the owners! Founded in October 2008, Farmers Alley Theatre combined two local theatre families: Brothers Adam and Rob Weiner & married couple Denene and Jeremy Koch.
Need an entertainment fix? Farmers Alley Theatre is Southwest Michigan’s only year-round professional theatre company. They produce stage plays, musicals and other forms of entertainment. With every mainstage production, there is at least one professional actor or actors who are members of Actors’ Equity Association from New York, Los Angeles or Chicago – all across the United States. Gift certificates are available throughout the year!
Looking to shop for the unique? Season subscriptions and production tickets are available for purchase at the box office or at farmersalleytheatre.com. For something more unique, buy a gift certificate starting as low as $25 or a Farmers Alley Theatre branded travel coffee mug ($15), baseball cap ($15), T-Shirt ($20) or decorative trivet ($20).
What’s New? Farmers Alley Theatre’s 12th season is about to launch with a re-imagined version of the classic musical “Camelot”. Other highlights include “It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play”, “Lost In Yonkers” by Neil Simon and “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” – a musical about the life of Billie Holiday produced in collaboration with the Gilmore Keyboard Festival.
How to be in the know? Check out Farmers Alley Theatre on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or on their website to stay up-to-date on the latest shows and entertainment.
P.S: Don’t forget to check out – all of the Theatre For Young Audiences and Spotlight Series events too! | | | | | |
