{"id":2221448,"date":"2026-01-04T08:13:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:13:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2221448"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:13:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:13:16","slug":"best-of-rochester-2025-arts-entertainment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/best-of-rochester-2025-arts-entertainment\/","title":{"rendered":"Best of Rochester 2025: Arts &#038; Entertainment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>And the winners are\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Movie Theater<\/strong>: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/thelittle.org\"><strong>The Little Theatre<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Vintage Drive-in Theatre | Roc Cinema | Dryden Theater | The Strand<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><strong>Best Film Festival: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/rochesterfilmfest.org\">Rochester International Film Fest<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>ImageOUT | Witness Palestine Film Festival | Anomaly<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Podcast: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/innerloopblog.com\/podcast\/\">The InnerLoop<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Crime Dawg Podcast | Your Authentic Life | Getting Real with BOSSY<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Arts + Culture Community Leader: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dunwoode.design\/\">Shawn Dunwoody<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Thomas Warfield | Bleu Cease | John Magnus Champlin<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Community Theater Company: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackfriars.org\/\">Blackfriars Theatre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>OFC Creations | Rochester Community Players | The Company Theatre<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Professional Theater Company: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/gevatheatre.org\/\">Geva Theatre<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Rochester Broadway Theatre League | Blackfriars Theatre | OFC Creations <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Published Literary Work of 2025: \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/daytrippingroc.com\/\">Day Trips Around Rochester<\/a>\u201d by Debi Bower<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>In This Moment by Various <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Festival: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/rochesterjazz.com\/\">Rochester International Jazz Festival<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Lilac Festival | ESL Rochester Fringe Festival | Corn Hill Arts Festival<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Museum: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.museumofplay.org\/\">The Strong National Museum of Play<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Memorial Art Gallery | Rochester Museum and Science Center | The George Eastman Museum<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Mural or Public Art Exhibit (2025): <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/minimysteryartmachine\/?hl=en\">Mini Mystery Art Machine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>The Power of Reading <em>at Avenue D R-Center<\/em> by Tenderchomps | Seabreeze Bowl by Kaitlin Roney | Ghost of Roseland by Benji Carr<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Live Music Venue (500 &amp; under): <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bugjar.com\/\">Bug Jar<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Abilene | Three Heads Brewing | Photo City Music Hall <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Live Music Venue (500+ Capacity): <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cmacevents.com\/\">CMAC<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Anthology | Kodak Center | Water Street Music Hall<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Drag Performer: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mrskashadavis\/?hl=en\">Mrs. Kasha Davis<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Aggie Dune | Aphrodite | Fawna<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Arts Event: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/rochesterfringe.com\/\">ESL Rochester Fringe Festival<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Corn Hill Arts Festival | M&amp;T Bank Clothesline Arts Festival | RoCo 6\u00d76 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Dance Company: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.garthfagan-dance.org\/\">Garth Fagan Dance<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Push Physical Theatre | CAT + THE COYOTE | BIODANCE<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Comedian\/Comedy Troupe: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kai_vondoom\/?hl=en\">Kai Von Doom<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Chris Thompson | Dario Joseph | Cindy Arena<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Filmmaker: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jackiephotographs.com\/\">Jackie McGriff<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Martin Hawk | Roy Hogan<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Photographer: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.montanusphotography.com\/\">Jim Montanus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Aaron Winters | Gerry Szymanski | Quajay Donnell | Richard B. Colon<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best DJ: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.djdarkwave.com\/index.php\">DJ Darkwave<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Brian Buttlett | Chreath | Ben Frazier <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Vocalist: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/danielleponder.com\/\">Danielle Ponder<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Teagan Ward | Cammy Enaharo | Alyssa Coco <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Cover or Tribute Band: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/cutmeupgenny\/?hl=en\">Cut Me Up Genny<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Cruel Summer | BB Dang | The Jackson Cavalier Tribute Band<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Original Band: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/joywavemusic.com\/\">Joywave<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Some Ska Band | Side Eye | CATATAC<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Artist: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dunwoode.design\/\">Shawn Dunwoody<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Sarah Rutherford | John Magnus Champlin | Danielle Del Plato<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Art Gallery: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mag.rochester.edu\/\">Memorial Art Gallery<\/a><\/strong> <strong>(MAG)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>ARTISANworks | Rochester Contemporary Art Center | Behind the Glass<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best Actor: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/madisenzabawaofficial\/?hl=en\">Madisen Zabawa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Daniel Mejak | Kiyomi Oliver | Carl Del Buono<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.roccitymag.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And the winners are\u2026 Best Movie Theater: The Little Theatre Vintage Drive-in Theatre | Roc Cinema | Dryden Theater | The Strand Best Film Festival: Rochester International Film Fest ImageOUT | Witness Palestine Film Festival | Anomaly Best Podcast: The InnerLoop The Crime Dawg Podcast | Your Authentic Life | Getting Real with BOSSY Best [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2221449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2221448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Best-of-Rochester-2025-Arts-Entertainment.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2221448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2221450,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2221448\/revisions\/2221450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2221449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2221448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2221448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2221448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}