Rainbow City Performing Arts is announcing our "gala for all," Dance the Night Away at Benaroya Hall on March 22, 2024. This will be our largest gala ever and welcome a much broader part of our growing Rainbow City Community. By making this event more accessible, with a lower price and a more central venue, we will raise the funds needed to allow Rainbow City to achieve our full potential and continue to produce amazing music for the community. More importantly, it will be a great party and an evening filled with amazing music!
Four of Rainbow City's ensembles will perform on March 22nd. Rainbow City Concert Band and Rainbow City Orchestra will perform during our concert, Spectrum of Identity. Rainbow City Color Guard and Rainbow City Jazz Band will perform during the dance. They have performed at nearly every Rainbow City gala, and we are always excited to welcome them back to hear what new exciting charts they have for us to get moving.
Centered on Music
The evening will focus on multiple performances featuring four Rainbow City ensembles. This is a new conception of a gala that fits with who our members are and what makes for a special evening. Our members gain joy from playing music and we know you will love to hear them!
After arriving to check in and browse the lobby, guests will be seated in the acoustically perfect Taper Auditorium to hear our concert performance. In the first half, Rainbow City Concert Band will perform exciting pieces including Shout Out by Tyler Mazone and A Mother of a Revolution by Omar Thomas, written to commemorate the Stonewall Riots. We will also welcome member conductor in a moving performance of a piece she chose as the winner of our Conduct an Ensemble auction item in 2023. Our concert band has been performing for 26 years and we welcome interim director Tim Norris to direct this beautiful performance.
Rainbow City Orchestra, only in its second season back in action under the baton of Artistic Director Christopher Hanson and they are knocking it out of the park with a fun and beautiful program of music planned. We will enjoy another of Dr. Hanson's infamous mashup medleys with music from three musicals--The Greatest Showman, West Side Story, and Wicked. All three are fabulous shows that are special to our community and highlight different communities. They will close the concert with the piece Ode to Life by Leslie Adams for a gorgeous way to end the staged portion of our evening.
Following the concert performance, gala attendees will enjoy even more music and dance into the night, all in the spacious Grand Lobby. The program will kick into gear with a lively performance by Rainbow City Color Guard performing their first ever Winterguard routine, Spectrum. You'll be wowed by this performance in three parts with spinning flags, airblades, and sabers. This growing ensemble has been doing amazing work and you'll be in awe at the performance they spent all winter rehearsing.
Our evening will hit a stride when Rainbow City Jazz Band takes the stage to present some wonderful jazz tunes. Fans of the jazz band will remember their stellar performance recently at Seattle's Winterfest! Of course, they will include some of our old favorites, swing standards you know and love, but they also play charts from diverse new composers. Enjoy drinks, food, and dance as we all enjoy the company of our community.
Affordable Ticket Prices
Our gala ticket also includes a ticket to our concert Spectrum of Identity as the part of the event. A full gala ticket costs only $140 for a full night of fine musical entertainment, with drinks light food and dessert as you Dance the Night Away. This is cheaper than last year and provides a lot more value.
Attending the concert alone is another affordable option with tickets as low as $15. We also will have online-only silent auction tickets for just $10 so you can join the bidding on the wonderful items we will have available. That means you can participate in both parts of the evening for as low as $25!
We only have 300 tickets available for the gala dance, so don't delay and snatch up your tickets now at rainbowcity.org/gala by March 12!
Order of Events
- 6 pm - Benaroya Hall's Grand Lobby opens & silent auction begins
- 7 pm - Doors open to concert hall for seating
- 7:30 pm - Concert begins (no intermission)
- 9 pm - Concert ends and the Gala begins in the Grand Lobby
- 9 pm to 10:30 pm - Gala including hors d'oeuvres, drinks, performance by the color guard and jazz band, dancing, games, raffles and more!
History of the Rainbow City Gala
Rainbow City has hosted an gala almost every year since 2005, with the exception of the pandemic years, and the events get bigger and grander each year. These galas serve as Rainbow City's main fundraiser event to support the members in our musical ensembles.
"I have been involved in all of the past galas, and I am especially excited for this one because it includes so many people in our message and provides a wonderful opportunity to give!" Betsy Smith
This past year has been full of big changes for Rainbow City Performing Arts. As a previous blog post explained, Rainbow City's organization has evolved from a group of volunteers to one with a structured business model given the growth in the number of ensembles and the number of members within each ensemble! Rainbow City's Strategic Plan aims to reorganize leadership to provide more stability for all stakeholders, more support for members, and more equity for staff and volunteers.
A Great Time Supporting a Great Community
Supporting our event will also be a lot of fun! We'll have our silent auction full of unique items donated by our members and businesses in the community. But, we will also have games! The wine ring toss is back where you can win a bottle of wine. This year, we are debuting our Cornhole game... toss some bags and you might win a board of your own!
We will also have a wonderful raffle with lots of prizes to win and some moments of giving where we welcome the generosity of our community. Our goal is to raise $70,000 and we will use that funding to bring equity to work in our organization and begin to pay operational staff alongside our artistic professionals. Funds will also be used to enhance members' experiences in ensembles and to cover expenses such as rehearsal spaces, music, and equipment for performances. This use of funding will align with our mission to
"create a diverse and inclusive environment for musical expression that promotes the equity and visibility of people in the LGBTQIA+ community."
We hope you're able to join us on this exciting night of music, community spirit, and supporting another amazing season ahead for the Rainbow City community. We're growing and we're so excited you will be able to join us on this journey on March 22 at Benaroya Hall. So much value is included at multiple affordable prices. Tickets are available for the gala until March 12 at rainbowcity.org/gala. So, don't wait and act now before you miss your chance to be a part of this historic night!
Tickets for the concert alone range from $15-40 will be available up until showtime online at rainbowcity.org/identity, over the phone at 206-215-4800, or at the door. For sales of ten tickets or more, call the box office. Special youth and student seating is also available.
