If you’re looking for something to do this weekend that isn’t trivia night or a trail walk, drive the twenty minutes down to Boonville. The Missouri River Festival of the Arts turns 51 this year, and it’s still one of the best-kept secrets on our stretch of the river — three nights of real, professional classical music inside a theater that predates the Civil War, for the price of a nice dinner out.
The festival runs Thursday through Saturday, August 27–29, at Historic Thespian Hall in downtown Boonville, a limestone theater that’s stood since 1857. Friends of Historic Boonville, the preservation group that keeps the hall running, puts the festival on every summer, and 51 years in, it’s grown into a genuine regional draw without ever losing its small-hall intimacy.
The music is under the direction of David Halen, concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, who books the three evenings each year with a mix of classical, jazz, and Broadway pieces performed by some of Missouri’s top working musicians. That’s the pitch, in short: symphony-caliber playing, a fraction of the crowd you’d fight in St. Louis, and a building with more character than most concert halls twice its size.
It isn’t only music. A companion visual arts exhibit runs alongside the concerts at the Historic Hain House, a short walk from the hall, featuring work from artists around the region — worth building into an evening if you’re making the drive anyway.
For our readers, the practical case for going is pretty simple. Boonville is close, the setting is unlike anything else on this stretch of the Missouri, and a festival with 51 years behind it has earned some trust that it’ll be worth the trip. Full nightly programs, ticket prices, and how to buy are posted at Friends of Historic Boonville’s festival page — get there early if you want a seat close to the stage; Thespian Hall isn’t a big room, and that’s exactly the point.