Things to Do in Coatesville

After practicing a new way to combine balls with baskets during the pro lacrosse clinic, both newbies and enthusiasts of the sport can kick back and enjoy the sights and sounds of the LXM Fan Experience. When the blades of grass settle, Wale will get them jumping again with tracks like his Billboard-charting singles "Pretty Girls," "Chillin," and more. By then, the crowd should be plenty amped for the main event—the LXM PRO Lacrosse Game. On the field, dozens of the sport's best players, including Kyle Harrison and Joe Walters, will split into two teams and go goal-for-goal and stick-for-stick as they play for sheer love of the game—inspiring the crowd's aspiring youth athletes with rocket-powered passes, last-second catches, and thrilling goals. There's no cap for today's Groupon, so feel free to bus in with a team or carpool in with a family.

As more theaters converted to high-quality digital projection, FunTime Cinemas knew it had to keep up with the times. There was one small problem: the cost. Independent from the industry behemoths, the community-focused FunTime Cinemas needed some help to fund the conversion and maintain its affordable ticket prices. So it reached out to its patrons through the Dollars for Digital campaign, which helped raise enough money for all three theaters to become 100% digital. The updated projection allows FunTime to continue showcasing the newest major releases, as well as special one-time screenings of smaller features, with crisp picture and sound at deeply discounted prices.

When Brian McInerney reflects on the humble beginnings of Wheel Fun Rentals, he points to his childhood passion for bikes. "As far back as I can remember, I had a real love affair with bicycles," he recalls. During a trip to Italy in 1987, Brian's affinity for cycling blossomed into a full-fledged obsession when he spotted locals' transporter of choice, the surrey. Inspired, he began importing the Italian four-wheelers to a rental business in the U.S. that eventually expanded into Wheel Fun Rentals, now a nationwide web of shops that also loans out bikes, electric cars and mopeds, and man-powered watercraft. Atop bicycles and surreys built for solo riders or entire families, patrons embark on self-guided tours of major U.S. cities. Led by maps and lists of nearby sites of historical or cultural significance, riders zoom down bike paths and safe, lightly trafficked streets. Adventuresome athletes can also compete in activities such as surrey scavenger hunts and blindfold obstacle courses navigated via shouted instructions from a seeing teammate or exceptionally long rounds of trial and error.

Several decades of disparate architectural styles stand at the corner of 69th and Ludlow: an old-fashioned radio tower atop the Doric columns of a faux-classical cupola atop a streamlined marquee that broadcasts the year the Tower Theatre opened as a music venue: 1972. That's when it began helping introduce the world to such acts as David Bowie, Genesis, and Bruce Springsteen. Inside, red lights glow over an auditorium done up in the 1920s style of the movie palace that originally filled the venue, with marble pillars, Italianate archways, and an enormous light fixture that resembles an old film reel from the days before movies were beamed from computers into audiences' brains.

Awarded Best Movie Night by Philadelphia magazine in 2011, Cinema 16:9 projects theatrical run movies along with independent, foreign, and classic films in surround sound and full HD projection. Comprising two screens and 100 comfortable stadium-style seats, the theater also welcomes visitors to BYOB while catching a flick.

With a passion for historic movie theaters—and a simultaneous disappointment with the unoriginality of major multiplexes—founder David Titus has created a modern moviegoing experience that maintains the uniqueness and charm of Golden Age movie theaters. Along with an eclectic list of screenings, the theater features creative programming such as Terrible Tuesday, during which audiences mock terrible films; 8-Bit Warrior Wednesday, at which attendees play classic NES and SuperNES games on the big screen; and Dinner and a Movie, which includes discounted movie tickets and discounted meals at great local restaurants.

For those who like to watch movies at home, the theater’s movie-rental program features more than 3,000 titles on DVD and Blu-ray. All-out cinephiles can benefit from the theater’s membership program, which offers plans with unlimited movie tickets and rentals. The theater also hosts private movie screenings for birthday parties and challenging knitting parties and boasts a full concession stand that doles out organic and local foodstuffs in eco-friendly containers.

Presented by Gourmet Shows, the annual Taste Philadelphia Festival of Food, Wine, and Spirits showcases hundreds of local chefs, restaurants, and vendors. More than 200 tasting stations pepper the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center, including the Taste of Italy Pavilion, where attendees can sample cheeses and wines from Europe’s boot-shaped peninsula. On the expo's stage, meanwhile, local chefs and culinary personalities teach onlookers their cooking techniques and favorite recipes during demonstrations. Attendees will have the chance to watch the likes of Michael Giletto, an award-winning chef whose food is a fusion of international cuisines, and Bethenny Frankel, best-selling author and star of Bravo's Bethenny Ever After, for an additional cost. Other educational events include beer seminars from award-winning writer Gary Monterosso and wine seminars that explain why, despite popular opinion, grape soda doesn’t complement veal as well as chardonnay does.