City: Omaha, NE

Category: Tours & Attractions

Insider Pick:

Description: In 2010, Jazz on the Green—Omaha’s largest summer outdoor music series—found a new home in midtown Omaha’s Turner Park. For the first 25 years, Joslyn Art Museum played host to the jazz, but after it remodeled its sculpture garden, the series had to find a new home.Turner Park turned out to be a perfect match for big crowds and live music, and the concerts are now positioned to be more popular than ever. Regular crowds at Joslyn were around 6,000 per concert; the first season at Turner Park drew more than 50,000 people during the season.The events take place during the month of July and the first weekend in August, and the concerts are free. The park opens at 5 p.m. and concerts begin at 7 p.m. A makeshift dance floor almost always forms in front of the stage, and families, couples, and single people gather on blankets and in chairs to enjoy picnic fare, wine, and food, either brought from home or purchased from one of the many on-site vendors. Businesses around the park—especially bars and restaurants—become thriving hot spots during the month, and with more storefronts continuing to open in Midtown Crossing, the redeveloped business district adjacent to Turner Park, Jazz on the Green is posed to grow even more in the coming years.