Shopping/Art Galleries in Downtown Champaign 

Wind Water & Light 10 Main St

Wind Water & Light Gallery features the works of over 160 local and natrional artisans. Fiber arts, jewelry, glass, pottery, wood works, books, judica and more. Nominated for NICHE Magazine's best new store in 2006, a great place to shop while in Downtown Champaign. For more information go to   www.windwaterlight.com

Sports 

If you’re a college sports fan, you’ve got to check out a University of Illinois basketball or football game.

Family Activities 

Visit Curtis Orchard for some apple-picking or yummy cider donuts. 

 

Around UIUC Campus Sites 

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has lots of things to do around campus:

  • Krannert Center for Performing Arts - amazing place to catch a variety of shows from productions by the drama, opera, and music departments, to those by visiting orchestras or dance/ballet companies. T he Krannert Center Student Association does tours of the building during the week.
  • Assembly Hall - usually has a pretty good schedule of popular bands coming through for concerts. also where the basketball games are played.
  • Krannert Art Museum - second largest public art museum in the state of Illinois -  a hidden gem on the campus -  a wonderful collection of fine art and the large sculptures are truly amazing
  • Engineering Open House (EOH) - a big 'science fair' held by the College of Engineering, one of the top engineering schools in the country, every March. The whole Engineering campus opens it's doors to the public to show off lots of fascinating and fun student projects as well as some of the research labs.
  • College of ACES Open House - held the same weekend as EOH, the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences opens it's campus with lots of interesting student projects and labs
  • Beckman Open House - also held the same weekend as EOH and ACES Open house, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology opens many of it's research labs to the public. The Beckman Institute cultivates some of the highest quality leading-edge interdisciplinary research in Biological Intelligence, Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction, and Molecular & Electronic Nanostructures.

Nightlife 

Campustown bars - all are 19+ entry, right in campustown, and have very cheap drink specials pretty much every weeknight so usually full with college students. Some of the good ones to checkout include:

  • Legends Bar & Grill - good food and great place to watch the basketball games
  • Murphy's Pub - good place to grab a burger and a beer
  • Joe's Brewery - great dance scene especially on weekends
  • It's Brothers Bar & Grill - nice place but usually overcrowded on weekends because they have no cover for 21+
  • White Horse - famous for the Wednesday night Karaoke

Downtown bars:

  • Rocks - nice sports bar quite close to campus. great place to watch UIUC basketball. good food too.  
  • Guido's (02 Main) - nicer than campus bars and usually draws an older crowd as it's 21+. Pretty good food too.
  • Blind Pig - great little british pub style place.
  • Chester Street Bar - great dance local. a popular gay and lesbian hangout.
  • Highdive - nice place, usually has live music shows come through as well as good djs for dance nights.  
  • Bacaro - sort of a wine bar / restuarant type place. Very mod atmosphere and menu. Staff is very helpful if you know nothing about wine.
  • Barfly
  • Brass Rail 

Bars in the sister city of Urbana - bary entry age is 18+ but there are fewer bars:

  • Canopy Club - 18+ entry, great place to see live music and a lot of popular bands come through
  • The Office - great pub/bar atmosphere. another good place for grabing some food and a beer.