The Stratford Festival is the reason most visitors come, and it deserves the reputation. Running April to October, it stages roughly a dozen productions a season across four theatres, with Shakespeare as the spine but musicals, classics and new Canadian work woven through. It is one of the largest classical repertory companies in the English-speaking world.
The flagship Festival Theatre on the river uses the thrust stage that Tyrone Guthrie pioneered here in 1953 — a configuration that has since shaped Shakespeare staging worldwide. Tickets are not cheap, but the rush seats released on the morning of each performance are. Book accommodation early; the town fills up.