Arts and culture

The region has, in the last several years, developed a growing and pervasive arts scene. These include a large cluster of art galleries^[103] and shops centered around downtown Binghamton. These galleries have given rise to the First Friday Art Walk, through the efforts an association of local artists and merchants in Downtown Binghamton.^[104] These events have been drawing large crowds downtown since 2004. Artists of local prominence that display or have galleries include photorealist painter Anthony Brunelli, Orazio Salati, and Marla Olmstead, a local child who achieved fame in the art world for her abstract art.^{[105][106][107]}
The Binghamton Philharmonic is the region's premiere professional orchestra.^[108] Founded in 1955, the Philharmonic provides symphonic music to all of the Southern Tier.^[109] Concerts are performed throughout the year, with a variety of classical, pops and chamber music.^[110] The Tri-Cities Opera stages full-scale operas at the Broome County Forum. The professional company has performed since 1949, and is famed for its actor training program.^[111] Several other semi-professional and amateur orchestras and theaters exist in the region, such as the Cider Mill Playhouse.^[108]

Spiedies being grilled

Blues on the Bridge

The Roberson Museum and Science Center, at the heart of Binghamton, is home to the Binghamton Visitor's Center, the Link Planetarium, and a number of exhibits detailing the culture and history of Greater Binghamton and the Southern Tier.^[108][112] The Kopernik Observatory & Science Center observatory is the largest public observatory in the northeast United States.^[113] The Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park, in the Southside, opened in 1875, and is the fifth oldest zoo in the nation.^[114]
Binghamton is known as the Carousel Capital of the World, as it houses six of the remaining antique carousels. Two of these are within city limits, one at Recreation Park and another at the Binghamton Zoo at Ross Park.^[115] Other visitor attractions include the Phelps Mansion museum, the Cutler Botanic Garden, the Bundy Museum of History and Art, and the interactive, child-oriented Discovery Center.^[113] The Center for Technology & Innovation, a museum dedicated to local industry, is currently under construction.^[116][117]
The area is the home of the regional dish known as the spiedie. It is very popular locally, and numerous restaurants in the area serve spiedies, but they have only experienced limited penetration beyond the Southern Tier and Central New York.^[118] Spiedies are celebrated at the Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally, which is held at Otsiningo Park every August and attracts over 100,000 people annually.^[119]
Other annual events held in the city include the St. Patrick's Day parade in March,^[120] July Fest (a festival of jazz music, arts, and crafts held downtown since 1962),^[121] the 100-year-old St. Mary of the Assumption Bazaar in August,^[122] Blues on the Bridge (a September music festival that takes place on the South Washington Street Bridge),^[123] and the Columbus Day Parade and Italian Festival every October, which includes a marching band competition.^[124] Broome County is home to several festivals (including a significant concentration of ethnic celebrations due to its heritage), which in 2001 were recognized by the New York Department of Economic Development as the year's official I Love New York festival, and collectively dubbed the "Festival of Festivals."^[125] Notable former festivities include the Yegatta Regatta and the Pops on the River concert.^[126]
Residents of Binghamton typically speak the Inland Northern dialect of American English, and the region falls within a distinct set of isoglosses that also contain Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.^[127] Much of the local accent has been subject to the Northern cities vowel shift, though this has not fully taken hold.^[128] Unlike other Inland Northern cities, people in Binghamton typically refer to athletic shoes as sneakers (as opposed to tennis shoes), and to soft drinks as soda (and not pop).^[129]