Entertainment in Pensacola

Entertainment in Pensacola, Florida has gone through some rought times recently because of hurricanes. From Ivan through Dennis to just barely missing the ravages of Katrina, Pensacola has either bit hit by or just barely dodged some bullets. But the city still has plenty to offer visitors when it comes to entertainment. True, I’ve written some cruel humor about my hometown and true I would rather live almost anywhere else on earth, but it’s not all bad news.

For instance, there are the beaches. I’m not a beach guy myself. By the time I reached my teens, I had pretty much done the beach thing to death. And despite the fact that our precious beaches are littered with development-development that continues despite the fact millions of dollars were lost and lives were uprooted and beach was eroded because of the hurricanes-the fact remains that there are no other beaches in this country with whiter sand. Our sugary white sand shocks most visitors. Not to mention blinding them. Seriously, on a bright sunny July day you could mistake Pensacola’s beaches for snow. So bring your sunglasses.

Pensacola is also home to the Museum of Naval Aviation. Located inside the environs of the Naval Air Station, the Museum of Naval Aviation is properly located in Pensacola. After all, we’re known as the Cradle of Naval Aviation, training just about every naval pilot to ever land a jet on an aircraft carrier. For half the year we’re also home to America’s favorite waste of taxpayer dollars, the Blue Angels. (I stole that line from Mystery Science Theater, by the way). Anyway, the Museum features actual aircraft from the earliest days of flight right up to the latest, as well as featuring some of the crafts used by astronauts on their way to the moon. The Museum of Naval Aviation also houses our Imax Theater. The flagship film is dedicated to the naval aircraft and is loud and dizzying.

If you prefer your indoor entertainment live and not so loud, there’s always Florida’s oldest community theater, the Pensacola Little Theater. The Little Theater has putting on plays for over fifty years and for the past decade or so has been housed in its own newly constructed building. A little sidenote: My wife and I met while doing a play at the old location and we actually got married on its stage.

When it comes to nightlife, two names come to mind when speaking of entertainment in Pensacola. Trader Jon’s and Rosie O’Grady’s. Trader Jon ran a bar downtown since God was a teenager and anybody who was anybody who ever visited Pensacola made it a point to stop in for a visit, including John Wayne and Prince Andrew of England! Unfortunately, Trader Jon’s demise in 2000 preceded the demise of Trader Jon’s bar not much longer thereafter.

Rosie O’Grady’s has hosted nearly as many celebrities and probably more visitors, however, and it still remains. Rosie O’Grady’s bar is actually part of the larger Seville Quarter, an entertainment complex housing eight different drinking and dining establishments under one roof. Seville is without question the destination of choice for drinking and dancing and enjoying the night life in Pensacola.

Entertainment in Pensacola is available twenty-four hours a day and comes in both indoor and outdoor versions.