northampton, massachusetts
october 11, 12 & 13, 2008

Come for the Art...Stay for the Weekend!
Once a quaint New England village, Paradise City's hometown of Northampton now offers visitors an elegant metropolis or sprawling rural splendor. In Northampton, you'll find museums, theaters with performers of New York City caliber, and art offerings so diverse and so prevalent that it was dubbed the 'Number One Best Small Arts Town in America' by author John Villani. You'll visit eclectic shops and a wide variety of restaurants so sophisticated they've been featured in the New York Times and Bon Appetit magazine. When you've finished shopping at Paradise City, there's no better place to spend an evening than downtown Northampton, catching jazz, blues or folk at one of the intimate clubs or dancing the night away to live rock or a cool DJ mix. Watch critically acclaimed foreign films in the city's movie houses, the Pleasant Street Theater and the Academy of Music. And at the newly renovated and grand Calvin Theatre, audiences from around New England catch performers from jazz great Wynton Marsalis to songbird Joan Baez.

More about Northampton and its visitor attractions...

Northampton's physical beauty - rolling hills, a majestic river, country roads lined with sugar maples, lush farmlands and green meadows - is magnified by nature's annual Fall Foliage spectacle. Walk to the Northampton Airport from the Festival grounds to skydive, parachute or take a hot-air balloon ride over the sparkling Autumn countryside. Hike to the top of Mount Sugarloaf for the spectacular view of the Connecticut River that has inspired artists for nearly two hundred years, drive the steep, winding road to the Summit House (once visited by Abraham Lincoln, Jenny Lind and Napoleon!) for a different view of the river, bike along a city rail trail or take your clubs to The Orchards in South Hadley, home of the United States 2004 Women's Open.

'This small city offers more restaurants and shops, certainly more galleries, theaters and performance venues than most urban centers dozens of times its size. Add two rivers, mountain views, landscaped parks and meadow walks, and you begin to see why people call it Paradise.' - Boston Globe