April 5, 2010

Cool and Warm in Oklahoma City!

Welcome! As the host of the 2010 Annual Conference of Mayors, the city stands ready and enthusiastic to roll out the red carpet and show you the modern day renaissance in Oklahoma City.

Over the past decade, the city has seen unprecedented growth, and the end is nowhere in sight. Fresh off the largest urban makeover in national history with nearly $5 billion planned or invested in new development, the city has spruced up, renovated and entered the 21st Century with what has become signature gusto.

Founded in 2001, the festival attracts filmmakers and festival attendees from around the nation. Thousands will descend on downtown Oklahoma City to enjoy national and international award-winning independent films in various venues. The kickoff event will be set in the beautiful Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

The Oklahoma City RedHawks Triple-A-Baseball Team offers exciting baseball and great family fun. The Texas Rangers top farm club features some of the rising stars in professional baseball. Games are held at the AT&T Bricktown Ballpark, designed as a throwback to baseball stadiums of yesteryear, overlooking the downtown city skyline.

Once a busy warehouse area, Bricktown is Oklahoma City's hottest entertainment and dining district. Positioned along the Bricktown Canal, this party will be set outside the corporate headquarters of Sonic Drive-Ins. You will enjoy a great selection of food from Bricktown's many restaurants. Plus, inspired by the Academy of Contemporary Music located in Bricktown, tonight's event will be a salute to Oklahoma Rock and Roll. And, there will be great activities for kids and teens, as well as water taxi rides for all.

Enjoy live music at Oklahoma's grandest hotel, where guests are enveloped in a world of luxury and festivity. It is a beautifully restored and reinvented gem that beckons, the hub of a vibrant downtown.

Oklahoma City is centered in a state steeped in country and western culture. Tonight's event at the State Fair Park will celebrate the authentic details of a true Oklahoma Hoe Down. Mouth-watering barbecue and of course live country music will be just the start. Take a peek in the Oklahoma Quarter Horse show and experience a western mainstay. Line dancing, trick ropers, horseshoe pitching and the world-famous Express Clydesdales will round out the evening.

The Rooftop overlooking the downtown skyline will be the setting for drinks and live music. The Oklahoma City Museum of Art, located in the heart of the downtown Arts District, is home to the most comprehensive collection of Chihuly glass in the world. The Chihuly exhibit will be open for a private viewing by our guests.

Prepare yourself for the psychedelic and a multi-media concert extravaganza at the Cox Arena. The world-renowned alternative rock band, The Flaming Lips, will join with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic for the first time ever. Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands are as brave, so frequently brilliant, and as deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips. An acid-bubblegum band with as much affinity for sweet melodies as blistering noise assaults, their off-kilter sound has firmly established them as true originals.

Located inside Nonna's, the Purple Bar is cozy, fun, and entirely different from anything you have ever seen. Unique lighting chases soft colors across the front of the bar and splashes down from mouth-blown glass fixtures. Nonna's is located in the heart of the Bricktown entertainment district and the plush second floor patio allows for great views of the area.

Tonight is a celebration of Oklahoma's many ties to the Broadway stage. Lyric Theater, an Oklahoma professional musical theatre company, will present a review of Rogers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!, as well as the Will Rogers Follies. This night of musical theater will be set in The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, America's premier institution of Western history, art and culture. More than ten million visitors from around the world have sought out this unique museum to gain better understanding of the West: a region and a history that permeates our national culture. The museum galleries will be open to guests for the evening.