Blossom Music Center

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Blossom Music Center, located in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, is the summer home of the Cleveland Orchestra and also hosts a full summer schedule of popular music acts and symphonic performances. For symphonic concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra, American conductor Jahja Ling served as Blossom Festival Director from 2000 through the 2005 season. Leonard Slatkin was the Festival Director from 1992 through 1999.

Blossom Music Center is named after the family of Dudley S. Blossom, who served as president of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1936 to 1938. The venue is distinctly different from others like it around the country due to the site's natural parabolic setting, the pavilion's sloping wooden roof, and the area's natural wooded surroundings. The facility designed by architect Peter van Dijk is located on 800 acres (3 km²) of natural woods inside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, about 10 miles (16 km) north of downtown Akron and 33 miles (53 km) south of downtown Cleveland. In 2003, the venue underwent a $17 million renovation. Grand-daughter Katherine Jean Blossom Heffernan (born May 9, 1982) broke ground there as part of the ceremony.^{[citation needed]} The amphitheater seats 6,051 people, with space for about 17,100 more on the lawn.

One of the United States' premier amphitheaters, the venue has hosted many of the biggest names in popular and classical music, including Joshua Bell, Leonard Bernstein, Jimmy Buffett, Itzhak Perlman, the Kinks, James Taylor, Dave Matthews Band, Journey, Def Leppard, Green Day, and Pearl Jam. The popular music concerts are managed by Live Nation. The annual Carnival of Horrors is held at Blossom every October, including The Fun House, The Freakshow in 3-D, and The Wicked Woods.