Manatee Players’ parking lot set to open in November

Bradenton’s most talked-about parking lot is set to open next month.

The lot across the street from the Manatee Performing Arts Center is on schedule to open in November. The performing arts center bought the land, which was hilly and home to a long-vacant apartment building and a few other structures, with help of a loan from the city.

After what a center officials called “a few hiccups,” the parking lot, which will have room for more than 200 parking spaces, is back on schedule. It should definitely be open before the Dec. 1 opening of “Beauty and the Beast” in Stone Hall and “It’s a Wonderful Life” in the Bradenton Kiwanis Theater.

A crosswalk with one of those push-button traffic signals will be built so patrons can get across Third Avenue West safely. That should be completed by Dec. 1 also.

Near the main entrance to the center, there will be a new artsy-looking bike rack.

Valet parking will still be available, and the shuttle from the parking garage to the west of MPAC will remain at least for the time being.

In non-parking MPAC news, the seldom-used door on the west side of the building is being enhanced. It will eventually serve as a sort of VIP entrance for people who rent skyboxes in Stone Hall.

Sarasota Ballet hosts new event

You may have to skip a car payment or two to afford tickets, but there’s an event coming to the Sarasota Opera House on Jan. 8 that sounds pretty amazing.

It’s called “Celebration of Two Worlds” and it features performances by internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica Von Stade, composer and pianist Jake Heggie and dancers Gillian Murphy, Marcelo Gomes and Daniil Simkin (all of whom are principal dancers of American Ballet Theatre), plus members of the Sarasota Ballet company and other dancers from ABT.

It’s all put on by the Sarasota Ballet. In a press release, the company calls the event its “gift to the community.”

Tickets start at $500, though — and there’s no word on how high above that they’ll go — so it’s likely to be a budget-breaker for a lot of people.

The Sarasota Ballet is planning on making “Celebration of Two Worlds” an annual event, so if you can’t make the first one you can start saving now for tickets to the 2018 event.

For additional information and reservations to this one-of-a-kind event, contact Development Director Janet Ginn at 941-225-6504 or email her at jginn@sarasotaballet.org.

Mavis in the Sunshine

It’s a matter of individual taste, of course, but it’s hard to argue with the organizers of the Sunshine Music Festival when they say the 2017 lineup is one of their best ever.

The festival is Jan. 14 in St. Petersburg’s Vinoy Park. As always, the fabulous Tedeschi-Trucks Band is the headliner.

But TTB is far from the only big-name act at the festival. Dave Mason, who was a member of Traffic, Fleetwood Mac and several other classic bands, and has had a long solo career highlighted by the hit “We Just Disgaree,” is slated to play, as is solo artist and frequent Grateful Dead sideman Bruce Hornsby. Other acts on the lineup include Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (a Grateful Dead tribute act), jam band Railroad Earth, the great Southern rock-blues band the North Mississippi Allstars and Texas duo Greyhounds.

That’s all pretty great, but the best news is that Mavis Staples will be at the festival. Staples is a true icon of American music, and at 77, she’s still putting on fiery shows. She talks a lot during her performances, so you might wish for more songs and fewer stories, but her stories are pretty entertaining.

Sunshine is always a very well-run festival, comfortable and friendly. The weather’s usually good in mid-January, too.

Tickets are available now for $59.95 general admission; $99.95 reserved and $229.95 for VIP (plus service charges, of course). 800-745-3000 or livenation.com.

This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 5:12 PM with the headline "Manatee Players’ parking lot set to open in November."