Free entertainment
May. 28th, 2004 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidI've been thinking about free (to cheap) local things to do, and started to come up with lots of lists and urls. Any other ideas or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Of course, in these lean funding times, any of the nonprofits listed here would be very happy if you decide to make a contribution.
I wish there were nested lj-cuts.
Public libraries are great resources, not only for books, but DVDs, CDs, books on tape, videos, computer time, (kids') story time, author talks, other lectures, book clubs, and museum passes to the biggest Boston museums. Oh, and some of them have space to feature works of local artists, too. And research librarians who will answer questions. Some have books for sale, cheap, at book sales, either a single event, or an ongoing feature.
(Cambridge PL, Boston PL, Somerville PL, Malden PL, Medford PL, Everett PL, Newton PL, etc.)
Some book stores also have author talks or readings. The ones I know that seem to have them most regularly are the Harvard Book Store and Brookline Booksmith (sometimes there's a small cover charge).
The Boston LJ free screenings community lists frequent free screenings.
The Kendall Square Theatre's free film club membership includes info on almost-weekly free screenings, also contests for DVDs.
MIT's LSC has cheap second-run movies through the year, plus sneak peeks, and international films. The sneak peeks are free, as are all the movies in the summer (or at least, they are this year, and have been in the past).
See also the links to other colleges and universities (below), which tend to have cheap screenings.
Many of the larger, well-known museums are free at certain times (or there are passes from the public library), while some of the smaller ones are free all the time (also check in the section on colleges, since many colleges have small museums as well).
The MIT Museum is free every third Sunday of the month.
The Harvard Museums (the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, Sackler) are free Saturday mornings and to Cambridge Public Library card holders, as well as to kids under 18 and those with a Harvard ID.
The Worcester Art Museum is free Saturday mornings and to kids under 17.
The Public Health museum in Tweksbury is free and open on Wednesday afternoons and by appointment.
The Children's Museum is $1/person
Fridays 5-9 pm. Most local libraries have passes for free admission.
The DeCordova's sculpture park is free (though admission to the museum costs).
The Commonwealth Museum is free.
Many libraries have free passes to the Museum of Science, though that doesn't include admission to planetarium or IMAX shows, and to the New England Aquarium.
The Museum of Fine Arts is free (well, voluntary contribution) after 4:45 on Wednesdays; also check with the library for passes.
There are a lot of other museums included in this listing.
Universities are a mine of free things, ranging from sports to lectures to concerts to...
MIT has a comprehensive calendar of events of all sorts (arts, athletics, lectures, etc), many of which are free (a cappella concerts) or have a minimal cost, such as the second run movies shown by LSC.
Wellesley College has Lake Waban, as well as a generally beautiful campus greenhouses open
to the public, an arboretum and botanical garden, and the Davis Museum as well as sports (scroll down).
Brandeis University has sports and the Rose Art Museum.
I'm sure there's lots of stuff going on at Tufts, Simmons, etc; I'm just not familiar with them.
In Cambridge, there are also the Radcliffe lectures and the Cambridge Forum lectures.
Walden Pond is beautiful, also historic, (though there are fees to park).
More accessible is the emerald necklace of public parks through Boston, including Jamaica Pond, the Back Bay Fens, the Riverway Park, Olmsted Park, Franklin Park, and the The Arnold Arboretum.
You can follow the red line of the Freedom Trail, or the Black Heritage Trail.
Mount Auburn Cemetery is famous for its famous dead people, and for its landscaping. Forest Hills Cemetery has art installations, organized by the Forest Hills Trust. And there are interesting gravestones and epitaphs.
There are summer free concerts at the Hatch Shell, also in Arlington center, and many other towns, in a variety of parks. Schedules don't seem to be up yet online (or at least, I couldn't find them yet).
Free movies, at the Hatch Shell, and if this year is like last year, there will also be free movies in a variety of Boston parks (Mondays) and Somerville parks (Thursdays).
Every full moon there are tango classes on the Weeks foot bridge, and a maze walk at the Vinal St. Somerville garden.
Open Studios is one weekend/year to see works by local artists, in homes or
galleries, in a number of different cities and neighborhoods, including Somerville, North Cambridge, Cambridgeport, Jamaica Plain, Fort Point, South End, Vernon St. (Somerville), Brickbottom (Somerville), West Medford, many neighborhoods of Boston, Brookline, and more.
Art Beat, Windows Art Project, Cambridge River Festival [er, cancelled this year]Oktoberfest and Mayfair in Harvard Square.
In June, there's Boston's Dragon Boat Festival, along the Charles.
In the fall there's the Head of the Charles.
For the Fourth of July there are fireworks at the Hatch Shell. Many of the surrounding towns have their celebrations a day or two before or after, as well.
Boston's First Night includes fireworks and some other free events, though most require purchase of a First Night Button. Though a lot of the local areas rely on Boston, others have their own, notably (well, for me, anyway) Worcester.
I wish there were nested lj-cuts.
Public libraries are great resources, not only for books, but DVDs, CDs, books on tape, videos, computer time, (kids') story time, author talks, other lectures, book clubs, and museum passes to the biggest Boston museums. Oh, and some of them have space to feature works of local artists, too. And research librarians who will answer questions. Some have books for sale, cheap, at book sales, either a single event, or an ongoing feature.
(Cambridge PL, Boston PL, Somerville PL, Malden PL, Medford PL, Everett PL, Newton PL, etc.)
Some book stores also have author talks or readings. The ones I know that seem to have them most regularly are the Harvard Book Store and Brookline Booksmith (sometimes there's a small cover charge).
The Boston LJ free screenings community lists frequent free screenings.
The Kendall Square Theatre's free film club membership includes info on almost-weekly free screenings, also contests for DVDs.
MIT's LSC has cheap second-run movies through the year, plus sneak peeks, and international films. The sneak peeks are free, as are all the movies in the summer (or at least, they are this year, and have been in the past).
See also the links to other colleges and universities (below), which tend to have cheap screenings.
Many of the larger, well-known museums are free at certain times (or there are passes from the public library), while some of the smaller ones are free all the time (also check in the section on colleges, since many colleges have small museums as well).
The MIT Museum is free every third Sunday of the month.
The Harvard Museums (the Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, Sackler) are free Saturday mornings and to Cambridge Public Library card holders, as well as to kids under 18 and those with a Harvard ID.
The Worcester Art Museum is free Saturday mornings and to kids under 17.
The Public Health museum in Tweksbury is free and open on Wednesday afternoons and by appointment.
The Children's Museum is $1/person
Fridays 5-9 pm. Most local libraries have passes for free admission.
The DeCordova's sculpture park is free (though admission to the museum costs).
The Commonwealth Museum is free.
Many libraries have free passes to the Museum of Science, though that doesn't include admission to planetarium or IMAX shows, and to the New England Aquarium.
The Museum of Fine Arts is free (well, voluntary contribution) after 4:45 on Wednesdays; also check with the library for passes.
There are a lot of other museums included in this listing.
Universities are a mine of free things, ranging from sports to lectures to concerts to...
MIT has a comprehensive calendar of events of all sorts (arts, athletics, lectures, etc), many of which are free (a cappella concerts) or have a minimal cost, such as the second run movies shown by LSC.
Wellesley College has Lake Waban, as well as a generally beautiful campus greenhouses open
to the public, an arboretum and botanical garden, and the Davis Museum as well as sports (scroll down).
Brandeis University has sports and the Rose Art Museum.
I'm sure there's lots of stuff going on at Tufts, Simmons, etc; I'm just not familiar with them.
In Cambridge, there are also the Radcliffe lectures and the Cambridge Forum lectures.
Walden Pond is beautiful, also historic, (though there are fees to park).
More accessible is the emerald necklace of public parks through Boston, including Jamaica Pond, the Back Bay Fens, the Riverway Park, Olmsted Park, Franklin Park, and the The Arnold Arboretum.
You can follow the red line of the Freedom Trail, or the Black Heritage Trail.
Mount Auburn Cemetery is famous for its famous dead people, and for its landscaping. Forest Hills Cemetery has art installations, organized by the Forest Hills Trust. And there are interesting gravestones and epitaphs.
There are summer free concerts at the Hatch Shell, also in Arlington center, and many other towns, in a variety of parks. Schedules don't seem to be up yet online (or at least, I couldn't find them yet).
Free movies, at the Hatch Shell, and if this year is like last year, there will also be free movies in a variety of Boston parks (Mondays) and Somerville parks (Thursdays).
Every full moon there are tango classes on the Weeks foot bridge, and a maze walk at the Vinal St. Somerville garden.
Open Studios is one weekend/year to see works by local artists, in homes or
galleries, in a number of different cities and neighborhoods, including Somerville, North Cambridge, Cambridgeport, Jamaica Plain, Fort Point, South End, Vernon St. (Somerville), Brickbottom (Somerville), West Medford, many neighborhoods of Boston, Brookline, and more.
Art Beat, Windows Art Project, Cambridge River Festival [er, cancelled this year]Oktoberfest and Mayfair in Harvard Square.
In June, there's Boston's Dragon Boat Festival, along the Charles.
In the fall there's the Head of the Charles.
For the Fourth of July there are fireworks at the Hatch Shell. Many of the surrounding towns have their celebrations a day or two before or after, as well.
Boston's First Night includes fireworks and some other free events, though most require purchase of a First Night Button. Though a lot of the local areas rely on Boston, others have their own, notably (well, for me, anyway) Worcester.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-05-28 10:19 am (UTC)Also, the museum at DeCordova is free to residents of Lincoln. It's also free to residents of Hanscom (or, at least I was able to get in that way once).
decordova
Date: 2004-05-28 10:25 am (UTC)Next free friday is June 11.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-28 10:31 am (UTC)artbeat, kendall screenings
Date: 2004-05-28 10:28 am (UTC)the kendall screenings only allow you one free film per month, so, you need to work with someone else and swap out free screeninngs. (or have multiple email addresses that can be convincingly different people. e.g. cthulhia@anything-else probably wouldn't work for me...)
Re: artbeat, kendall screenings
Date: 2004-05-28 10:33 am (UTC)Free theater
Date: 2004-05-28 10:46 am (UTC)Most of the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club's performances in the Loeb Ex[perimental Theatre] are free, just ask for up to 4 tickets at the main ART box office. Showing up just before curtain (usually 7:30) also works, especially since many people will get more tickets than they end up needing.
There are sometimes staged readings of new plays (I've seen some at the Boston Playwright's Theatre, at Brandeis, and at Wellesley), which tend to be free; they want you for your feedback. (Which I tend to find a lot of fun)
Re: Free theater
Date: 2004-05-28 11:26 am (UTC)Observatories
Date: 2006-09-27 02:42 pm (UTC)DeCordova
Date: 2007-11-10 10:03 pm (UTC)The DeCordova is now charging for park admission, but the price includes museum admission.
-Johnny
Re: DeCordova
Date: 2007-11-12 02:34 pm (UTC)Milky Way Lounge
Date: 2007-11-12 03:09 pm (UTC)Also, the Milky Way Lounge has free pool after 6pm Mondays and free bowling after 9pm Mondays.
You might want to check http://activityinfo.com/johnnys-activities.xls for more ideas, just search for the word 'free'. Although free stuff is good you may want to target something like "day trips of more than 4 hours of fun for less than $15, including transport"... things subway accessible ($4) that cost $11 or less, or things commuter rail accessible ($12) that are completely free, such as the Singing Beach in Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts.
-Johnny