From professional theater productions and concerts to museums and international music festivals, the Daytona Beach area is home to a stellar selection of enriching cultural activities and attractions that are sure to please even those with the most discriminating tastes.

Sponsored by Central Florida Cultural Endeavors, a non-profit arts organization, the Florida International Festival returns to Daytona Beach on July 15-31, 2005. A biennial musical extravaganza, the 17-day festival features a variety of entertainment highlighted by performances from the London Symphony Orchestra.

One of the Daytona Beach area's most prestigious performing arts organizations is Seaside Music Theater. SMT has provided the area with year-round professional theater productions featuring a live pit orchestra for more than 20 years.

Another Daytona Beach-based performing arts organization is the Daytona Playhouse. Established in 1947 to provide a creative outlet for local thespians, the Daytona Playhouse stages plays and other theatrical performances from June to September.

Music thrives in the Daytona Beach area, offering visitors and locals a variety of free and paid musical performances.

Each spring and summer, free concerts are held beachside at the historic Bandshell, an historic landmark built in 1937 by the Federal Works Administration. The free concerts are held on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from April through October and feature jazz, Dixieland, big band, blues, folk music and other musical genres appealing to a wide range of tastes and preferences.

The Daytona Beach Symphony Society annually hosts a season of classical concerts featuring world-renown guest conductors and symphony orchestras. Each year, the society also sponsors Winterfest, a classical music festival.

Daytona Beach is home to several acclaimed museums and galleries. The Southeast Museum of Photography displays rotating and permanent exhibits highlighting cultural and historical issues. The 10,000 square-foot museum is one of only 12 museums of its kind in the U.S. and one of fewer than 30 in the world. SMP exhibitions have traveled to such respected institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Carpenter Center at Harvard, and the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford.

The Museum of Arts and Sciences, one of the finest multi-topical museum facilities of its kind in Florida, is one of Daytona Beach�s most important gems. Housing some of the finest 18th and 19th century antiquities, the largest Cuban art collection outside of Cuba, permanent and traveling exhibitions, the Center for Florida History and a planetarium, the museum offers hours of sophisticated and enjoyable entertainment.

For maritime lovers, the Daytona Beach area has one of Florida�s finest nautical museums at the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse and Museum. The museum houses maritime artifacts, educational exhibits, and a rare Fresnel Lens exhibit.

The Casements, John D. Rockefeller's former winter home, now serves as the City of Ormond Beach's cultural center and museum. Featured exhibits include the Hungarian Culture Room and one of the finest exhibitions of Boy Scout memorabilia in the U.S. Also, in Ormond Beach is the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens. Featuring rotating exhibits by acclaimed artists, this museum is set amid a lush tropical botanical garden complete with a gazebo, fountains, ponds and waterfalls.

For a free Daytona Beach area Visitors Guide filled with information on cultural events, attractions and activities, call 1-800-854-1234, 386-255-0415 or visit www.daytonabeach.com.

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Media Contact: Tangela Boyd +1 (386) 255-0415 tboyd@daytonabeachcvb.org