History
In early February 1961, Albany newspaperman Duane La Fleche noted a wire service report about a group hoping to entice the New York Philharmonic to make Stowe, Vermont its summer residence. La Fleche proposed that the group stay in New York State and perform in Saratoga Springs. Local civic, cultural, and legislative leaders, who had previously considered a Saratoga Arts Center an interesting possibility, began to design the facility. Within a week, they held their first meeting; within a month they were focusing on Saratoga Spa State Park as the site, had won the support of State Conservation Commissioner Harold Wilm, and began discussions with both the New York Philharmonic and New York City Ballet.
By summer 1963, contributions from Rockefeller Brothers Fund and New York State supplemented community support to create Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In June 1964, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller mounted a bulldozer to break the first yard of ground. More than 410 workdays followed: 300 workers clocked 136,000 hours to complete the 5,100-seat, 10-story amphitheater (original layout of the venue did not include a festival lawn; the lawn, which holds 20,000, was added later).
Harry Belafonte was the first non-classical performer to perform at SPAC, in 1967. Then on September 1, 1968 The Doors gave a performance at SPAC, which began a tradition of bringing top pop and rock acts to the amphitheater including Jackson Browne (who recorded "Rosie" backstage in 1977), The Pretenders, Santana, Tina Turner, Guns N' Roses, Coldplay, Rush, KISS, Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, Aerosmith, Toby Keith, Train, Maroon 5, Ray LaMontagne, Pearl Jam, Phish, John Mayer, Tom Petty, The Cars, The B-52's, Def Leppard, Heart, Journey, John Mellencamp, Elton John, and Grateful Dead (1983 being considered one of their classics).
Past presidents of SPAC include Margaretta "Happy" Rockefeller and Lillian Bostwick Phipps. Currently, the President of the non-profit corporation also acts as the executive director. In the non-profit world this is not unusual.
Read more about this topic: Saratoga Performing Arts Center
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