Greater Grand Rapids, perhaps more than any other region its size, offers an incredible breadth and depth of lifestyle options. Here you will find a thriving arts community, entertainment that runs from baseball to alternative music, plus a recreational playground with unmatched possibilities season after season.
Active, Diverse Arts Community
Grand Rapids’ soul is expressed through its diverse range of museums, theater, events, and galleries attended by more than 1.5 million people annually. Their combined annual budgets exceed $12 million and all contribute to an unusually active, culturally diverse community.
Annual Festivals
Each year, ethnic and arts festivals, complete with authentic music, foods and traditions, highlight Greater Grand Rapids’ rich cultural diversity.
Entertainment
A re-born central city, combined with thriving suburban communities, make for an unusually diverse range of entertainment options, virtually any day – or night – of the week. Dining options abound – elegant, trendy, gourmet, or casual – and everything in between. The downtown area has a full range of clubs for every age group and taste – from the thriving blues and alternative music scene to jazz and dance. Grand Rapids offers multiple large multiplex movie theaters, as well as an IMAX theater. One of Greater Grand Rapids’ premier entertainment centers is Van Andel Arena. This world class, 12,000-seat venue hosts the Grand Rapids Griffins, a minor-
league hockey team of the Detroit Red Wings. The venue also attracts major national and international music, ice and celebrity performers. And if that’s not enough sports, Greater Grand Rapids is also home to the West Michigan Whitecaps, a Class A minor league baseball team of the Detroit Tigers, which plays in a facility built specifically for baseball that is the envy of the minor leagues.
Recreation
Greater Grand Rapids is a recreational wonderland. Whatever your pleasure – sailing, fishing, swimming, water-skiing – beautiful Lake Michigan, with its white-sand beaches, and the countless inland rivers, lakes and streams, make West Michigan a natural recreational haven. The rolling foothills that edge the lake offer tennis, skiing, camping, hang-gliding, and golf. With more daily-fee golf courses than anywhere in the nation, except California, Michigan is one of the world’s great golf destinations.
-taken from www.rightplace.org
Performing Groups
Concert Venues and Theaters
Museums and Parks
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
Grand Rapids Children’s Museum
Sports Teams and Events
Grand Rapids Griffins (Hockey)
West Michigan Whitecaps (Baseball)
Fifth Third River Bank Run (25k)
Grand Rapids Media
urbanplanet.org – Grand Rapids
Transportation