What We Love About Bloomington

I love Bloomington because it’s easy to have fun for $10 or less.
For $10, a student can get tickets to the opera or ballet at the Musical Arts Center or a show at the Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center. Off-campus, you can catch a show with top headliners and local amateurs at the Funny Bone Comedy Club. In the summer, Third Street Park offers plays and music for free to anyone who wants to come. IU Athletics gives free student and faculty admission to women’s basketball games. The School of Fine Arts, IU Art Museum, Kinsey Institute, Lilly Library and John Waldron Arts Center all provide free and interesting exhibits.
For the over-21 crowd, there are plenty of bars to enjoy in town that won’t break the bank. As for food, most of Bloomington’s dozens of restaurants are pretty reasonably priced — and you can get anything from Moroccan to Mexican. In particular, Baked! of Bloomington sells handmade-to-order cookies with a variety of doughs, add-ins and toppings, and they’re happy to deliver them to your door or your dorm. Across the street at Rachael’s Cafe, owner Rachael Jones offers homemade treats from vegan lasagna to coconut curry and hot chocolate made with real chocolate chips. Regular musicians, poetry readings and plenty of board games mean it’s hard to be bored while enjoying said treats.
No matter what you enjoy, Bloomington is the place to have fun on a budget.
- Allison Tyra

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If any one event embodies the spirit of Bloomington more than any other, it is without a doubt the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market. Held from April to November at Showers Common (behind the Town Hall), and from January to March in the Harmony School gymnasium, every Saturday grows into a festival of food from nearby farms. On one particular day in late August, I recall taking my sister, who was visiting from out of town, to the farmers’ market. Being from Connecticut, she had never been to Indiana and wrongly assumed the state was a fast food, chain-store landscape as monotonous as the sprawling cornfields she had flown over. But as we approached the farmers’ market, she was met with a bustling scene of innumerable white tents, an Irish fiddle band, henna-tattoo artists and, of course, a food-lover’s dream of natural, local products. 
The sense of community felt at the farmers’ market is unrivaled, as vendors and buyers have friendly interactions over the state of the butternut squash crop. Amish cheese farmers eagerly share samples of their newest flavor of goat cheese, and perfect strangers help each other identify the most perfect globule-shaped, green and red specked heirloom tomatoes. When collectively put in one place, all of these small interactions over food manifest an identifiable feeling, a spirit that fosters goodwill and friendship. Bloomington holds one of the most outstanding farmers’ markets I have ever been to, both in products and people, and it is an event that I feel entitled to share with as many friends as possible.
- Jenna Blumenfeld

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There are a slew of things to love about Bloomington, and what’s great is that chances are a festival exists that celebrates whatever it is you love.
Seriously, not to go all Apple commercial on you, but there are sizable local festivals for all sorts of culture- and entertainment-related topics.
Love arts and crafts? There’s a festival for that — Fourth Street Festival in the fall.
Enjoy both orchestral and world music? There are festivals for that — the IU Summer Music Festival and Lotus Fest in the fall.
How about film? Yep, there’s a festival for that, too — the PRIDE LGBTQ Film Festival, which also celebrates the gay and lesbian community.
There are festivals for quilting. And chocolate. And beer. And antiques. And limestone sculptures. I think you get the picture.
The point is, just about every month, Bloomington offers residents an opportunity to check out some niche interest they might never have thought would be fun (hello, Eagle Watch Weekend at Lake Monroe). And for those people who love sometimes off-center things, it gives them the chance to revel in their quirkiness with fellow fans, possibly network or whatever else it is people do at festivals.
Even if you never attend any of these festivals, as a Bloomington resident, it’s something to take pride in. To know that Bloomington offers so many unique cultural experiences and brings together people from all walks of life fairly regularly is pretty damn cool.
- Cory Barker