The music hall in the Basel City Casino (Staadtcasino Basel), Steinenberg 14, Barfüsserplatz (tel: (061) 225 9393; website: www.casinobasel.ch) is the musical heart of the city. This is where the Basel Symphony Orchestra (tel: (061) 205 0095; website: www.sinfonieorchesterbasel.ch) performs. The hall can seat 1,512 people, and the acoustics are among the best in the world. There are three more halls available in the casino for chamber music concerts, presentations, exhibitions, conferences and traditional company events.

The main venue for musicals and musical theatre in Basel is the modern and impressive Musical Theater Basel, Feldbergstrasse 151 (tel: (061) 699 8899; website: www.musicaltheaterbasel.ch). Theater Basel (tel: (061) 295 1133; website: www.theater-basel.ch) is Switzerland's biggest theatre company to stage productions in the three genres opera, theatre and ballet, and it has three venues in two buildings at its disposal. The Grosse Bühne, used for opera and ballet (and sometimes theatre) productions, and the Kleine Bühne, used for various kinds of smaller productions, are both housed in the company's building on Theaterplatz, while the Schauspielhaus in Steinentorstrasse is mainly for theatre productions. Kaserne Basel (tel: (061) 666 6000; website: www.kaserne-basel.ch) is an exciting cultural centre for independent theatre, dance and music located in the middle of Kleinbasel north of the Rhine. Scala Basel, Freie Strasse 89 (tel: (061) 270 9050; website: www.scalabasel.ch) is another venue where there are frequent drama, dance, music and musical theatre performances.

Pathé Küchlin, Steinenvorstadt 55 (tel: 0900 004 040; website: www.kinobasel.ch) is Basel's biggest cinema, a multiplex with eight screens located in the city centre. The same company (same phone and website) operates two other cinemas nearby: Eldorado, Steinenvorstadt 67, and Plaza, Stänzlergasse. Kitag (tel: 0900 556 789; website: www.kitag.com) also has three cinemas in Basel: Studio Central, Gerbergasse 16; Capitol, Steinenvorstadt 36; and Rex, Heuwaage, Barfüsserplatz. A wide range of international, independent, regional, cult, alternative and art films are shown at the cinemas run by the kult.kino group (tel: (061) 272 8781; website: www.kultkino.ch). They include the kult.kino Atelier, Theaterstrasse 7; the kult.kino Camera, Rebgasse 1; and the kult.kino Club, Marktplatz 34, and kult.kino Movie, Clarastrasse 2. During the summer months open-air cinemas are popular around Basel. In August there is an open-air cinema at Münsterplatz with one of the world's largest screens.