As the largest city in the
Upstate, Greenville offers many activities and attractions. Greenville's theaters and event venues regularly host major concerts and touring theater companies. Four independent theaters present several plays a year.
The New York Times included Greenville among 52 places in the world to visit in 2023, highlighting the city's wide variety of restaurants. The
Bon Secours Wellness Arena brings national tours of many popular bands to downtown, and the
Peace Center for the Performing Arts provides a venue for orchestras and
Broadway shows. A planned multimillion-dollar renovation to the center's main concert hall lobby and riverside amphitheatre began in the spring of 2011.
Event venues •
Bon Secours Wellness Arena, the home of the
Greenville Swamp Rabbits of the
ECHL, is a 16,000-seat arena in downtown Greenville that opened in 1998 as the Bi-Lo Center. •
Fluor Field at the West End, home of the
Greenville Drive baseball team, the
Class-A affiliate of the
Boston Red Sox. The stadium was designed to echo many of the features of
Fenway Park, home of the parent club, including a representation of Fenway's
Green Monster standing high in left field. • Greenville Convention Center, a convention and meeting facility that was established in 1964 as the newest of a series of Textile Halls, the original dating back to 1915 as the Southern Textile Exposition. •
Peace Center, performing arts center that includes a concert hall with 2,100 seats and a theater seating 400, and a 1,200-seat amphitheater. In late 2024, the Peace Center will debut A Music Project (AMP), a $36 million project to renovate three existing buildings on its campus into live music venues. This will include the Coach Music Factory, a new 1300-person capacity music club.
Landmarks , converted into loft condominiums • Cancer Survivors Park, opened in 2018 • The Children's Museum of the Upstate, one of the first children's museums to become Smithsonian affiliated. •
Falls Park on the Reedy, a large regional park in the West End with gardens and several waterfalls, with access to the
Swamp Rabbit Trail. Dedicated in 2004, the $15.0 million park is home to the
Liberty Bridge, a pedestrian
suspension bridge overlooking the
Reedy River. The park's development sparked a $75 million public-private development, Riverplace, directly across Main Street. Falls Park has been called the birthplace of Greenville, but in the mid-20th century the area was in severe decline, and the Camperdown Bridge was built, obstructing the view of the falls. In the mid-1980s, the City adopted a master plan for the park. However, renovation accelerated under Mayor
Knox White in the late 1990s, leading to the removal of the Camperdown Bridge in 2002 and the construction of the
Miguel Rosales-designed
Liberty Bridge in 2004. While bridges with similar structural concepts have been built in Europe, the Liberty Bridge is unique in its geometry. •
Greenville County Museum of Art, specializing in American art, frequently with a Southern perspective that dates back to the 18th century. It is noted for its collections of work by
Andrew Wyeth and
Jasper Johns, as well as a contemporary collection that features such notables as
Andy Warhol,
Georgia O'Keeffe, and others. •
Greenville Zoo, established in 1960 and is located in
Cleveland Park. • Linky Stone Park: The Children's Garden, a horticultural attraction. •
McPherson Park, the city's oldest park and has a free public miniature golf course. •
Roper Mountain Science Center, home to a historic refractor telescope, eighth largest of its kind in the United States. • Runway Park at GMU, viewing location for aircraft taking off and landing with an educational amphitheater, exercise "Perimeter Taxiway", walking "Runways", aviation themed playground, a swing set, a Bi-plane "Climber", a picnic hangar and a Cessna 310 display. A cross section of a Boeing 737 fuselage serves as a park entrance. •
Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum & Baseball Library, located in the historic home of baseball player
Shoeless Joe Jackson adjacent to
Fluor Field at the West End. •
Swamp Rabbit Trail, a greenway connecting downtown Greenville to the City of Travelers Rest. On June 16, 2023, a extension of the trail was opened, connecting Cleveland Park to the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR). • Unity Park, located along the
Reedy River just west of downtown, opened in May 2022. The park features basketball courts, a baseball field, a splash pad, a 10,000-square-foot welcome center/event space and three pedestrian bridges spanning the river. Five walking trails totaling connect to the
Swamp Rabbit Trail as it passes through the park. The park merged what was once two segregated parks, Mayberry Park for Black residents and Meadowbrook Park for white residents. Just north of the park, at the intersection of West Washington and South Hudson streets, the city dedicated the Lila Mae Brock Memorial, named after the late Southernside community leader described as "the epitome of unity." •
Upcountry History Museum, the area's largest history museum and a Smithsonian affiliate.
Festivals • Artisphere, a three-day art festival held each spring. The 2019 festival featured musicians
The New Respects and
Jill Andrews and over a hundred visual artists and street performers. • Euphoria Greenville, an annual four-day culinary mid-September event series held at various city venues; the food, wine, and music festival in 2019 included an educational component and dinners by
Michelin-starred chefs. • Fall for Greenville, a three-day music and food street festival held each fall. The 2019 festival was the 37th, with hundreds of food items and tens of musical artists across six stages. • First Fridays Gallery Crawl, features more than 30 art galleries and venues opening to the public with free admission. Hosted by the Metropolitan Arts Council, it occurs the first Friday of every month from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. • The Greek Festival, a three-day festival sponsored by the Greek Orthodox Church in downtown Greenville to celebrate Greek culture. 2019's 33rd annual festival of dance, music, and food included tours of St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral. • Greenville Jazz Fest, celebrates jazz music and culture. Its inaugural event on June 3, 2023, included the Grammy award-winning
Rebirth Brass Band. • Greenville Open Studios, established in 2002, is an annual three-day local arts celebration in which 158 local artists open their studios to the public. The 2019 festival was the 18th, with record-setting attendance. • iMAGINE Upstate, weekend celebration and showcase of STEM, entrepreneurial, creative, and innovative activity in the
Upstate held each spring. The festival promotes learning as fun, through various hands-on activities, interactive shows, and experiences. • Indie Craft Parade, festival of handmade art held each September. 2019 hosted the 10th annual event, which has over 100 artists, local food, and a free photo booth. • New South Comedy Festival, a ten-day comedy festival featuring improvisational, stand-up, sketch, and musical comedy from around the country. 2018's 5th annual festival featured over 300 comedians. • SC Comicon, a two-day comic book convention held annually. The event draws thousands of attendees, many of whom dress in
cosplay. • Upstate Shakespeare Festival, hosts performances of
Shakespeare and other classic plays each summer in Falls Park. The 25th festival was held in 2019 and featured
The Tempest, performed by The Warehouse Theatre.
Visual art A number of local artists operate studios and galleries in the city, especially the Village of West Greenville near downtown. The Metropolitan Arts Council provides a number of public events that focus on the visual arts, including the First Fridays Gallery Crawl and Greenville Open Studios. Greenville has some notable fine arts museums: •
Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery, contains a diverse collection of European masterworks. •
Greenville County Museum of Art, home of the
Andrew Wyeth Collection, was founded with a significant contribution from local industrialist, Arthur Magill. It contains pieces by
Jackson Pollock, Jonathan Greene,
Georgia O'Keeffe,
Jasper Johns, and
William H. Johnson.
Music Greenville's music scene is home to local, regional, and national bands performing music in the various genres. The city is home to the
Greenville Symphony Orchestra,
Greenville County Youth Orchestra, Carolina Youth Symphony, the Carolina Pops Orchestra, and the Greenville Concert Band.
Greenville Light Opera Works (GLOW Lyric Theatre) is a professional lyric theatre in Greenville that produces Musical Theatre, Operetta and Opera. Local
a cappella singing groups include the women's Vocal Matrix Chorus (formerly Greenville in Harmony) and the men's Palmetto Statesmen chorus. Additional choral groups include the Greenville Chorale and the Greenville Gay Men's Chorus. Greenville is also home to the
Sigal Music Museum, formerly known as the Carolina Music Museum. In the 1930s the building was a Coca-Cola bottling company.
Literary arts Two literary non-profit groups are located in Greenville: The Emrys Foundation, founded in 1983 and Wits End Poetry, founded in 2002. ==Sports==