This year’s Florida Film Festival features a record breaking 168 films respresenting 31 countries. Running from April 13-22, films will be shown at the following venues – Enzian Theater, Regal Winter Park Village 20, Winter Garden Theater, and Central Park on Park Avenue.

   Every year the Florida Film Festival premieres the best in current independent and foreign cinema. And this year they are saluting their 21st anniversary by bringing you more of the best. With cutting-edge films, 100 visiting filmmakers, plenty of special guests, and non-stop events, this festival will do everything to ensure 10-days of Film, Food, and Fun.

Thurston House, North Orlando’s only bed & breakfast accommodation, is just a short stroll away from the Enzian Theater, the major hub of all the activity. Book now!

Thurston House front parlour

The date is coming and you have no idea what to get for your Mom or the Mother of your children. They deserve nothing but the best! Be creative this year and give the gift of a Maitland Winter Park getaway. Our premier North Orlando bed & breakfast is the perfect combination of a secluded hide away, yet minutes from wonderful things to do and great places to eat in Central Florida.

It’s easy to do, just purchase a gift certificate online, available in any dollar amount you wish to give. It can be sent directly to her, or e-mailed to you. Then prepare yourself for the heart filled and very sincere exclamations of thanks!

Lady Gaga - The Monster Ball Tour

The Monster Ball Tour, the latest from Lady Gaga, arrives in Orlando on 4/15/2011. The show is at the new Amway Center, just minutes from our North Orlando lodging, Thurston House.

Enjoy the thrill of this lively show, and later spend the night in the peace & quiet that our Maitland Winter Park bed & breakfast is well known for.

Hair

Coming to Central Florida and the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center – Hair! Show dates are June 21-26, and go on sale May 6th. Plan ahead for this fabulous show! Buy your tickets, reserve your room now at North Orlando’s finest bed & breakfast Thurston House in Maitland, and prepare to be entertained!

New Hope for Kids is an amazing organization, and is based in Maitland Central Florida. Both this event and New Hope for Kids are just minutes from our North Orlando lodging, Thurston House Maitland Bed & Breakfast.

Saturday, October 23 – 7:00 – 10:00 pm

Enjoy live blues and jazz under a starry sky inside Leu Gardens’ 50-acre botanic oasis located in the heart of Central Florida featuring the velvety sounds of the Nightly Blues Band, soulful voice of Selwyn Birchwood and Don Soledad Group.  Each band will feature favorite songs as well as originals. Pack a dinner picnic basket full of your favorite foods/drinks and bring chairs or blanket for this outdoor event.  Vendors selling coffee and pastry. 

Serene Cubbedge Room

This yearly Fall event is one of our favorites! We set our chairs up in “our” place, grab a glass of wine and stroll the many luminary lit paths. What a great way to spend the evening! The only thing that could make it better would be to end the day in your beautiful Thurston House guest room, the only bed & breakfast in Maitland and Winter Park.

Art Under the Stars in Maitland

The Fall is when things start to get busy again in Central Florida. There is a variety of upcoming events very near to Thurston House B&B in Maitland -

10/1-10/3 - 34th Annual Art Under the Stars – Maitland Rotary Arts Festival 

10/8 – Groovy In The Grove – Maitland History’s 12th Annual Benefit Auction

10/9-10 – 37th Annual Winter Park Autumn Arts Festival

10/23 – Leu Gardens Jazz & Blues Stroll

11/6-7 – Rollins College Family Weekend – Sorry, already full!

11/15 – Taste of Maitland – 13th Annual Maitland Chamber of Commerce event

12/2 – Christmas in the Park – Yearly Winter Park Tiffany event

12/4 – Maitland’s Season of Light

And there is much more coming up…..Keep tuned! Click here to book your favorite room for your favorite event before we are sold out!

Thursday, December 2, 2010 6:15 p.m.–8:00 p.m. (Rain date December 3)

Each year, on the first Thursday of December, the Morse Museum helps launch the holiday season in Winter Park when it lights up Tiffany windows in Central Park and presents the Bach Festival Choir, Youth Choir, and Brass Ensemble in concert. This December is the 32nd annual celebration of Christmas in the Park.

Christmas in the Park

The nine leaded-glass windows installed in the park set the stage for a free outdoor concert of seasonal favorites by the 150-voice Bach Festival Choir, one of America’s premier oratorio ensembles.

Eight of the windows are memorials with religious themes produced by Tiffany Studios for the chapel constructed in 1908 for the Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged Indigent Females in New York.

The Association was founded in 1814 by a group of wealthy New Yorkers as a genteel private charity for elderly, indigent women, including widows of soldiers who fought in the War of 1812 and the Revolution. The first residence, constructed in 1838, was an alternative to the common almshouse. An expanded building was designed 30 years later by Richard Morris Hunt, architect to the rich and famous of the late-19th century.

When the residence was threatened with demolition in 1974, Hugh and Jeannette McKean bought its Tiffany chapel windows at the request of the Association board. The windows are memorials to prominent women who it is believed supported the Association in some way. The Association residence is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

Tiffany window

Tiffany Studios’ Christmas Eve window, c. 1902, in which a figure resembling Father Christmas holds the Christ child, is also on view at the event and in the Morse Museum following Christmas in the Park. The window was designed by Thomas Nast Jr.—son of the famous political cartoonist—for his sister’s home in New Rochelle, New York.

Christmas in the Park was started by the McKeans in 1979 as a way to share a part of their rare Tiffany collection with the public in an informal setting.

Every year guests at Thurston B&B in Maitland drive the short distance to attend this wonderful event!

Hosted by the Maitland Rotary – The 34th Annual Maitland Rotary Art Festival!

A fine art show and sale, 10/1 to 10/3, 6pm-10pm Friday, 10am -10pm Saturday and 10am – 5pm Sunday, surrounding beautiful Lake Lily in Maitland, Central Florida.

Night shot of the Maitland Rotary Arts Festival

This is one of the finest boutique art festivals, where only 150 artists vie for over $20,000 in awards.  The Maitland Rotary Art Festival is one of the few that offer night-time hours.  With subtle live background music and sparkling lights, the evening hours create magical experiences for artists and patrons alike. 

The Performing Arts Maitland organization provides continuous live entertainment during the show. 

Thurston House Bed & Breakfast is the perfect place to stay for attending this special event. Located only a 10 minute stroll away from the festivities, this renowned b&b will sooth your artistic soul!