VISIT CHAMPAIGN COUNTY QUARTERLY PUBLICATION OCTOBER 2014 REPORTING FISCAL YEAR 2015 | 1ST QUARTER | JULY–SEPTEMBER 2014 Telling Champaign County’s Story Telling our story to potential visitors is the key to 2 bringing them to our community. We have to have Note from Our CEO ................................ 2 a hook, something that catches someone’s interest Visitor Inquiries ....................................... 3 enough for them to spend the money to travel here. Major Events ............................................. ...................................3 But what is our story? Hotel Information 4 40 North Update ..................................... 4 It’s often asked what brings visitors to our community. Here & There ............................................. .....................5 We don’t have oceanfront attractions, mountains to Sales & Marketing Efforts 5 Marketing Numbers .............................. climb or major theme parks. Yet where Champaign ............................................6 County lacks in natural wonders, it overflows with Web Updates 6 Industry Partners .................................... unique experiences. « 27 ART LIVES HERE —Champaign 6 BARNS MAKE GREAT VENUES Agriculture; art; music; technology; sports; cuisine; shopping; County is built on the foundation of agriculture 5 and we’ve got the historic barns to prove it. But more than just being barns, they’re music venues. Held every September, the Allerton Music Barn Festival takes places in a 19th century Dutch hay barn while showcasing illustrious classical outdoors; festivals—these are our experiences. These are the stories we 26 » ART LIVES HERE BLUES, BREWS & BBQ FESTIVAL —If there’s one FESTIVALS GALORE performances. The Round Barns at the University of Illinois, on the U.S. National Register of Historic thing we love in Champaign County, ALLERTON MUSIC BARN FESTIVAL Places, is hosting its first opera, giving a rustic it’s a music festival. Champaign Park District’s reinvigorated Mariposa atmosphere for the audience. Music Festival takes over Downtown FRIDAY NIGHTS IN SUMMER ARE MEANT have to tell. —Maybe you were just planning Champaign every July with nationally 7 FOR MUSIC recognized bands like Braid, Jessica Lea on having drinks in Downtown Champaign, Mayfield, Cornmeal, PHOX and locals but then much to your surprise, a local like Common Loon andSummer The Curses. Stage Shut Dixieland band starts up on the corner of down Campustown with Main & Neil St. That’s Friday Night Live, from the Champaign Center Partnership, a 13-week showcase for local performers every July offering kids activities along through 40 North | 88 West, Champaign side two-rocking stages. And you can’t County’s art council. Brazilian jazz, leave off Blues, Brews & BBQ, Americana, and sometimes, belly dancers, happening the last weekend in June Each August, we print and distribute 70,000 Official Champaign County Visitors entertain you and your guests from mid-May DIRTY PROJECTORS AT PYGMALION MUSIC FESTIVAL annually. With big name blues musicians to mid-August creating the perfect start to like Jason Elmore & Hoodoo Witch, your summer weekend. Nikki Hill, Curtis Salgado and Albert TOP TEN REASONS That’s Cummings, combined with mouthwatering barbecue and thirst-quenching brews, Guides. The guide serves as our primary marketing piece, getting into the hands you’ll savor your weekend. Did we FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE OUR MUSIC SCENE ROCKS mention all these festivals are FREE? HAVE A WORLD-RENOWNED PERFORMANCE CENTER AT THE CENTER OF IT ALL— The Other Guys, a male A Cappella group, it could be the right. Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is the nation’s leading educational —It could be 1 and professional performing arts complex. Built in 1969 by architect Max Abromovitz who STUDENTS SUPPLY THE SOUND later designed Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, Krannert Center features Foellinger Great University of Illinois Wind Symphony or the Parkland College Choir. Either way, the entertainment you’re of leisure travelers, conference attendees, sports families, group motorcoach Hall, an acoustically perfect space. Krannert Center hosts over 300 performances a year, seeking is provided by students whose passion is music. In our book, there’s no better kind. 8 — Original indie rock 10 KRANNERT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS with the 2014–2015 lineup featuring the likes of Wynton Marsalis, the National Acrobats of LOCAL BANDS RULE KRANNERT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS the People’s Republic of China, Renée Fleming, Rosanne Cash and the Mark Morris Dance —Every and punk? Check. Live hip hop and DJs? Group. Mixed in with the dynamic performances from the University of Illinois School of LEGENDS PLAYED HERE Check. 80s and 90s cover bands? Check. Music, Krannert Center sets the bar high. BECAUSE SOMETIMES, MUSIC OUTSIDE great musician has to start Parrotheads? Check. Country rock? Check. —We’ve got incredible somewhere. Turns out, a lot of SOUNDS BETTER 9 If there’s a musical genre you want to hear, travelers and international professionals. Telling these stories becomes more 3 indoor spaces but there’s something to be them got their start here. Do any of we’ve got an incredible local band covering SPEND A FEW FALL DAYS said for enjoying music outside. How about these artists or people sound familiar? REO it at any number of our clubs, bars, theaters — LISTENING TO INDIE-ROCK enjoying a concert surrounded by the 90 Speedwagon, Ludacris, Allison Krauss, Hum, and outdoor venues. So get up and dance, 2 BANDS, LARGE AND SMALL high-tech companies at Research Park?OUTSIDE Poster Children, Elvis Brothers, The Didjits, jam or chill out to our music scene. You never Celebrating its tenth year, Every summer you can unwind at Head East, Dan Fogelberg, Irving Azoff, Jack know who’s going to be the next legend. 90S DAUGHTER Pygmalion Music Festival important when you understand the diversity of individuals we are reaching. at Research Park with family-friendly McDuff, Braid, Starcastle, Headlights, and too returns with a vengeance to programming in an eco-friendly space. Or many more to list. Champaign-Urbana taking over OUTSIDE AT RESEARCH PARK SOUSA ARCHIVES AND CENTER FOR AMERICAN MUSIC multiple venues, SXSW style. Alto Vineyard’s Wine Amongst the Vines concert series 236 Harding Band Building, 1103 S. Sixth St., Champaign From September 25–28, 2014, sip Illinois wine at 217-244-9039 | library.illinois.edu/sousa you can revel in tunes from from May–September featuring a variety of local and regional musicians. All KRANNERT CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music holds diverse 500 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana | 217-333-6280 | krannertcenter.com CHVRCHES, American Football, those are unique, but sometimes, nothing beats a good beer garden. Fat City collections of personal papers, archival records and museum artifacts , just off the beaten path, will not only make sure you don’t go What Lincoln Center is to New York and Kennedy Center is to documenting America’s music heritage from the nineteenth century POSSIBILITY PIER AT RIVER BEND FOREST PRESERVE Panda Bear, Real Estate, Tycho Bar & Grill thirsty, they’ll make sure you’re properly entertained with live music in their lively Washington D.C., Krannert Center is to ALLERTONthe Midwest—a PARK magnificent & RETREAT CENTERto the present, as well as scholarship produced by nationally and and dozens more. Coinciding showcase for the performing arts. KCPA is a premier educational and outdoor space. 515 Old Timber Rd., Monticello internationally recognized composers, musicians, conductors and with this unbeatableOUTDOOR lineup, professional performing arts complex and is the setting for over 300 In previous versions of our guide, we grouped attractions and events —It’s a crisp fall Saturday Nowafternoon; Blooming 217-333-3287 | allerton.illinois.edu inventors. The Center is home to the world’s largest concentration of you’ve got the Made Fest, a Be at peace with nature in performancesChampaign each year. A professionalAt laboratory Allerton, a for world the Universityof natural ofbeauty original awaits compositions by John Philip Sousa, one of many significant WE HAVE MARCHING BANDS two-day curated marketplace Illinois dance, theatre, opera and musicyou. departments, Built as a privatethe Center residence also in 1900,historical today collections that document the American band movement and you’re tailgating waiting for Fighting Illini Football to kickCounty’s off, and abundantthe gardens. From early featuring handmadeSPACES and drumline and sousaphones take the field. There’s hosts internationally famous artists suchAllerton as Emmy Park Lou and Harris, Retreat Herbie Center is a historicalthe early evolution of electronic and avant-garde music. Hours: Mon, Tu, vintage sellers, and the 4 Marching Illini spring through fall, our gorgeousHancock, gardens the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,treasure Mark owned Morris by the Dance University of Illinois.Th, Fr 8:30 a.m.–noon and 1:00–5:00 p.m., Wed 10:00 a.m.–noon Literature Fest with authors and nothing quite like that flash of brass. The turf also welcomeswill hundredsleave you inspired. Just Group,west of and is home to the Champaign-UrbanaBefitting Symphonya splendid andGeorgian Sinfonia manor andhouse, 1:00–5:00 p.m. Can be opened with special appointments. FREE. de Camera. the formal gardens feature extensive plantings by broad interests—arts & culture, family-friendly, sports & outdoors, poets Peter Orner, Audrey Petty, of bands every fall for the