What is Charlottesville like?
Charlottesville, located in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, is home to over 40,000 residents with a metropolitan population nearing 200,000. For more demographic information, see Charlottesville’s community profile and quality of life profile. Charlottesville is a small, thriving city, 120 miles from Washington DC. It has a community symphony orchestra, a light opera company, Renaissance vocal groups and it celebrates the Film Festival every fall and the Festival of the Book every spring. The downtown area is an eighteen-block, brick-paved pedestrian mall with more than thirty outdoor cafes and restaurants, numerous modern theaters as well as a cinema focusing on foreign and independent films. From April through October, Charlottesville celebrates Fridays After Five downtown, with live bands at its new amphitheater. Contemporary performers like the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Charlottesville’s own Dave Matthews Band, and the Flaming Lips have
