Best of Tucson 1996: Best Performance Venue--Outdoors

Best Performance Venue--Outdoors

READERS' AND STAFF PICK: It's free, it's centrally located and you can bring your dog. That's reason enough to convince us the Reid Park Demeester Outdoor Performance Center is the best outdoor performance venue in town. We're certain there are a lot of technical aspects we take for granted in this mammoth outdoor amphitheater near the park's Country Club Road entrance south of Broadway; but all we know is that over the past year we've enjoyed equally the Tucson Pops Orchestra's concerts under the stars, the Twelfth Night production by the Tucson Parks and Recreation Community Theatre players, the flying trapezes of Anne Bunker and ORTS Theatre of Dance, and the Bob Marley festival. Any venue that can accomodate such diverse aesthetic and technical needs must be doing something right; but we intend to keep showing up at all the free events just to make sure.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: For those fans who don't want to miss a chance to see their favorite musicians, but dread being stuck in a crowded smoke-filled room, there's an ideal alternative in St. Philip's Plaza. Come nightfall, the eclectic shopping plaza at 4380 N. Campbell Ave. takes on a whole new dimension. This sedate flower-filled courtyard is transformed into a cozy jazz club under the stars; or an enormous dance floor for Latin jazz, blues and Zydeco. Rain or shine, you can always count on the show to go on. Even on those occasional nippy spring or fall nights, jazz fans have been known to huddle together for an intimate concert under the breezeway. If you feel a need to stretch your legs, take a stroll through the surrounding shops and galleries. Enjoy a picnic dinner, glass of wine, sumptuous sweets or even yummy fat-free frozen yogurt. You'll find everything you could want to accompany the great music, all within a few steps of your seat.