On The Road

By Megan Rutherford; Emily Mitchell; Janet Kang and Valerie Marchant

Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival

Over the centuries, the pretty little town of Winchester, Va., has seen more than its share of bloodshed. In the 18th century, George Washington set up his headquarters there during the French and Indian War. In the 19th century, the town reputedly changed hands more than 70 times in the course of the Civil War and served alternately as headquarters for both Confederate General Stonewall Jackson and Union General Philip Sheridan.

Since 1924, though, Winchester has become known for its role in a more peaceable event: it plays host to the annual Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, which each spring draws hundreds of thousands of revelers, including a diverse array of celebrities ranging from comic actor Dan Aykroyd to master crooner Pat Boone. Catering to all tastes and talents, this five-day down-home extravaganza, May 3-7, features a food and crafts fair with homemade wares from applesauce and pastries to quilts and Barbie-doll dresses; a 10-km footrace; a pro-am golf tournament; a three-ring circus; jazz, bluegrass and country music; and a 3 1/2-hour parade with 50 high school marching bands.

Anyone who still has an instant to spare can journey back in time and visit some of the many local historic sites and battlefields. But beware: the Shenandoah Valley can be addictive. Country singer Irlene Mandrell, who served as honorary fire marshall in the festival last year, was so enchanted by the beauty of the countryside and the warmth of the citizenry--"I just really had a good time," she says--that she is selling her home in the Nashville, Tenn., area and moving to Winchester with her family. --By Megan Rutherford

Glimmerglass Opera

American opera and the national pastime have two things in common: devoted fans and Cooperstown, N.Y. Located a few miles from the Baseball Hall of Fame in this upstate town, the Glimmerglass Opera is famed for imaginative productions featuring young American singers on the cusp of major careers. This summer, for its 25th anniversary season, it will present four works in repertory, including the well-known--La Boheme and Salome--and the neglected: Handel's Acis and Galatea and The Glass Blowers, a 1913 operetta by John Philip Sousa. Though he became conductor of the U.S. Marine Band in 1880, Sousa always longed to write for the stage. Set during the Spanish-American War, The Glass Blowers recalls an era of unabashed patriotism and sentimentality. The 43 performances run from July 7 through Aug. 29 in Glimmerglass's charming opera house, located in a bucolic setting outside town.

This is James Fenimore Cooper country. His father founded the village on the south end of nine-mile-long Otsego Lake in 1786, and the author later described the area in the Leatherstocking Tales. Before going to the opera in the evening, visitors can swim or sail. In town, they can spend a thoughtful afternoon at Fenimore House, a 1930s mansion housing Hudson River School paintings, as well as folk and Native American art, or they can walk into America's rural past at the Farmers Museum, in a re-creation of a mid-19th century village. --By Emily Mitchell

Kansas City Jazz and Blues Festival

It was in Kansas City, Mo., in the 1920s and '30s that two of America's native music forms--jazz and blues--met and mated, producing a musical hybrid known as the Kansas City jazz style. That heritage, plus an easy ambience and stunning sunsets, makes the Kansas City Jazz and Blues Festival, on the weekend of July 21-23, the perfect place to move to the smooth sounds of today's living legends.

Visitors can listen to the players up close at Soul School, which offers six hours of workshops taught by the performers. "It gives you a chance to interact almost one on one with these great musicians," says talent-committee member Chuck Haddix. "It's interesting to hear their stories and how their music has evolved." Or watch them in concert on three stages. The performers for this year's three-day festival are still being booked, but past acts included music greats Al Green, Diana Krall, Poncho Sanchez, George Benson and Pat Metheny--and promoters promise the roster will be a pull-out-the-stops blockbuster this year in honor of the festival's 10th anniversary and the city's 150th.

After evening performances, night owls can hit the hot-spot nightclubs and casinos. Throughout the day, they can prowl the 18th and Vine historic district and learn about jazz greats Charlie Parker and Louis Armstrong at the Kansas City Jazz Museum, or drop by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum for another remarkable--and tumultuous--history lesson. --By Janet Kang

Timpanogos Storytelling Festival

Deep in the heart of high-tech, Mach-speed America lies a lovely, leafy spot where more than 10,000 people gather every summer to enjoy a leisurely, decidedly low-tech form of entertainment: the ancient art of storytelling. Dr. Stuart King is one of them. Eight years ago, the busy physician was reluctant to "give up" two whole days to accompany his wife and kids to the festival. But after listening to his first storyteller, he was hooked. Now his office staff knows not to make appointments for him during the annual event, which takes place at the foot of Mount Timpanogos in the mouth of the beautiful Provo Canyon in Orem, Utah. "It's so enriching to hear people share their sacred histories," he says. "It's the whole human experience--knowing we're not alone." His sole frustration? With five master yarn spinners weaving their magic at any given moment, he misses out on four sessions for each one he attends.

Among the performers who will be on hand Aug. 31 through Sept. 2 are Susan Klein, renowned for her vivid reminiscences of growing up on Martha's Vineyard in the '50s; Diane Ferlatte, whose multicultural repertoire includes folklore from Africa and the American South; and Donald Davis, who immortalizes friends and neighbors from his Appalachian boyhood with homespun humor.

Out-of-towners with a yen to explore will not be idle. Within an hour's drive: the Sundance resort and cultural center, the caverns of Timpanogos Cave National Monument, the vintage coaches of the Heber Valley Railroad and the Mormon historic sites of Salt Lake City. --M.R.

International Choral Festival

If you were inspired to follow in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark, you might just end up in Missoula, Mont. The two explorers camped nearby, both coming and going, as they traveled an Indian trail through the Bitterroot Mountains. This part of western Montana has changed much since they passed by, of course, but its natural beauty remains. It is a good place for hiking and fishing, running rivers or relaxing at a guest ranch. And once every three years, Missoula is host to the International Choral Festival--the only place anywhere to hear so many choruses from all over the world. "It is an extraordinary kaleidoscope of culture," says Maurice Casey, a retired choral director at Ohio State University.

This year, for the July 12-16 festival, 18 foreign and U.S. choirs will give free concerts in recital and concert halls, in school auditoriums, in the town's mall and even on street corners. The final evening brings all the choirs together, many of them in their national costumes, to perform at the 8,000-seat university field house. This year there is a newly commissioned work for orchestra and a massed choir of 800 that is set to text from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. The composer is William McGlaughlin, former music director of the Kansas City Symphony and host of the National Public Radio's St. Paul Sunday. "I like writing for large forces," says McGlaughlin, "and it doesn't get any larger than this." --E.M.

Just for Laughs

The Cannes of Comedy--that's what everyone calls the Montreal festival Just for Laughs because it's the world's most important and best-attended comedy event. At the 1999 festival, 874 performers from 27 countries amused (or tried to) 1.2 million people at more than 2,000 shows that included numerous galas with such stars as Kelsey Grammer, Lily Tomlin and Denis Leary as hosts; stand-up in clubs all over the city; theatrical presentations; theme shows (relationships, X-rated, urban, gay, women only); and an improvisational tournament in English and French.

The festival this year, scheduled for July 13-23, will be even bigger. "Our goal at Just for Laughs is not only to continue to be the world's premier comedy event but also to be a cross between Lourdes and the Fountain of Youth," says the festival's chief operating officer, Bruce Hills, who is confident about the festival's happy effects on people. "We think we can cure all in Montreal in two days or two weeks!" To prove him right, be sure to attend the nightly outdoor party in Montreal's Latin Quarter, where hundreds of free events will take place. What makes the festival so unusual, according to comic writer Sean Kelly, who has composed routines for the show's galas, is "the outpouring of devotion to an American sitcom star and the very European stuff going on in the street--the contortionists, the guys making human pyramids or balancing 300 tin cans on a beach ball." Among the festival's most famous alumni are Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Chris Rock, Jay Leno and Janeane Garofalo. --By Valerie Marchant

Shaw Festival

As George Bernard Shaw once penned, "This writing of plays is a great matter," and nothing could be more the case at a Canadian theater festival named in his honor. The Shaw Festival will stage eight plays from March 31 through Nov. 11 in its three theaters in Niagara-on-the-Lake, on the Ontario peninsula, just 20 miles from the falls. Two are by G.B.S.--The Doctor's Dilemma and The Apple Cart--and the rest are by Luigi Pirandello, J.B. Priestley, Noel Coward and Oscar Wilde. Highlights of the repertory season this year include adaptations of Lord of the Flies, the 1954 best seller by William Golding, and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.

Four years ago, a Canadian civic organization designated little Niagara-on-the-Lake the country's prettiest town. It's easy to see why. There are scores of parks, gardens and historic homes. Golf courses, biking and nature trails are close by, and within an easy drive are 15 of Canada's top wineries, offering year-round tastings and tours.

Established in 1962, the festival concentrates on works by writers who were born between 1856 and 1950, the lifetime of G.B.S., and who shaped our modern theater. For most of that time, the formidable Irishman held center stage, and at this memorable festival, he still does. --E.M.