Sarasota, FL events today, tomorrow, this weekend and few days after it are listed below. If interested to attend selected Sarasota event, feel free to check for tickets.
Entertainment in Sarasota, FL
Sarasota has many musical, dance, theatre, circus and other performing arts venues, including the Sarasota Ballet, Sarasota Opera, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, the Sarasota Players, the Banyan Theater Company, The Westcoast Black Theatre, the Urbanite Theatre, Sarasota Contemporary Dance, Sarasota Orchestra, La Musica, Jazz Club of Sarasota, Sarasota Youth Opera, Circus Arts Conservatory and many others.
Theatrical venues include Florida Studio Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, The Players Theatre, Urbanite Theatre, and the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.
Sarasota is the home of the Sarasota Orchestra, which was founded by Ruth Cotton Butler in 1949 and known for years as the Florida West Coast Symphony. It holds a three-week Sarasota Music Festival that is recognized internationally and boasts it attracts renowned teachers and the finest students of chamber music. Sarasota also boasts a symphonic chorus, Key Chorale, and professional vocal ensemble, Choral Artists of Sarasota. The Jazz Club of Sarasota is one of the largest and most active jazz clubs in the United States and has promoted jazz events in Sarasota for 39 years. Elvis Presley, Tommy Dorsey and Gregg Allman each played concerts in Sarasota.
Joe Perry, of Aerosmith, Brian Johnson, of AC/DC, Dickey Betts, of the Allman Brothers Band, Donald Dunn, of the Blues Brothers and Graeme Edge, of the Moody Blues have all settled in Sarasota.
Sarasota and the Cultural Coast are home to fine art, film-making and decorative arts. Fine art, fine art galleries, artist collectives, film-making and many decorative arts are practiced in Sarasota and Cultural Coast.
Sports in Sarasota, FL
In 1937 the Municipal Auditorium-Recreation Club was built with funds provided by the Works Progress Administration, the municipal government, and local residents and business owners. It became a center for sports, entertainment, and recreation. The sports activities have ranged from badminton, basketball, boating, lawn bowling, and shuffleboard, to tennis. The auditorium hosts clubs for cards, dancing, games, gardening, and numerous hobbies as well as having become the community meeting place for commercial and educational shows and the venue for local schools and charities to hold events and dances. Tourists are attracted to exhibitions provided by local businesses as well as vendors from national circuits. This building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places because of its architecture and for providing the enormous range of community activities that are scheduled at it every week.
Sarasota also is home to Ed Smith Stadium, where the Baltimore Orioles currently have spring training. The Orioles also have minor league facilities at Twin Lakes Park. The agreement with the Orioles also places a Cal Ripken Youth Baseball Academy in Sarasota. Previously, Ed Smith Stadium was the spring training home of the Cincinnati Reds and the minor league Sarasota Reds.
The warm climate helped the Sarasota area become a popular golf destination. John Hamilton Gillespie was an early pioneer of the game in Sarasota. The Sara Bay course in the Whitfield area was designed by golf architect Donald Ross. Bobby Jones was associated with the community course in Sarasota. Many courses dot the area, including the one originally laid out for the hotel John Ringling planned on the southern tip of Longboat Key.
About Sarasota, FL
Sarasota is a city in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is at the southern end of the Tampa Bay Area, north of Fort Myers and Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2018 Sarasota had a population of 57,738. In 1986 it became designated as a certified local government. Sarasota is a principal city of the Sarasota metropolitan area, and is the seat of Sarasota County.
The islands separating Sarasota Bay from the gulf near the city, known as keys, include Lido Key and Siesta Key, which are famous worldwide for the quality of their sandy beaches. The keys that are included in the boundary of Sarasota are Lido Key, St. Armands Key, Otter Key, Casey Key, Coon Key, Bird Key, and portions of Siesta Key. Previously, Siesta Key was named Sarasota Key. At one time, it and all of Longboat Key were considered part of Sarasota and confusing contemporaneous references may be found discussing them.
Longboat Key is the largest key separating the bay from the gulf, but it was evenly divided by the new county line of 1921. The portion of the key that parallels the Sarasota city boundary that extends to that new county line along the bay front of the mainland was removed from the city boundaries at the request of John Ringling in the mid-1920s, who sought to avoid city taxation of his planned developments at the southern tip of the key. Although they never were completed in the quickly faltering economy, those development concessions granted by the city never were reversed and the county has retained regulation of those lands.
The city limits had expanded significantly with the real estate rush of the early twentieth century, reaching almost 70 square miles (180 km2). The wild speculation boom began to crash in 1926 and following that, the city limits began to contract, shrinking to less than a quarter of that area.
