Indiana - Music and Performing Arts

Southern Indiana is bluegrass country, and each summer the Bill Monroe Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival brings top bluegrass bands from around the country to the Bill Monroe Memorial Music Park, in Brown County. Held since 1966, Bean Blossom bills itself as the oldest continuously run bluegrass festival in the U.S, offering bluegrass lovers the opportunity to see about 50 bands.

In Indianapolis, the Civic Theater, founded in 1915, is the oldest continuously operating theatre in the U.S. It hosts both professional and community actors in musicals, tragedies and comedies all year.

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is one of the few classical ensembles in the U.S. that plays year-round. Though the orchestra usually performs in the city’s Hilbert Circle Theatre, it also travels the state every summer for the Symphony on the Prairie series and broadcasts concerts on radio stations in 38 states.