WAAM Museum
Quail Hollow Events
Creative virtuosity and scintillating entertainments pop up around here like wildflowers in a meadow. Being an hour or two from the metro New York area helps, of course; up our river is where world-class artists of all sorts—originally drawn in by those big bright lights—have flocked for generations to refresh, recharge, and play, and they’ve established outposts where you can enjoy life-changing fun all season long.
Beyond our ever-inspirational scenery, there’s something in the air here—a rebel spirit, an accepting heart, an openness to ideas that make this a superb place to put on a show—a quality that appeals to the best performers and makers from the big city and all over the planet.
The Hudson Valley is home to a world-class audience, and that’s a love story you can help write. The hard part isn’t finding something to do; it’s choosing from among so many options. With great pride, joy, and excitement, allow us to present to you your summer lineup. Let the good times roll!
The hard part isn’t finding something to do—it’s choosing.
Maverick
1 SHADOWLAND STAGES
HISTORIC THEATER. BOLD STORYTELLING
Shadowland Stages first raised its curtain in 1920, when admission to vaudeville shows was 17 cents a head. The Art Deco theater was rediscovered in the 1980s by Broadway folk who’ve polished the physical plant till it glows and built a brilliant nonprofit around it offering great entertainment and arts education. Shadowland is one of many marvels of today’s Ellenville, and it would be fair to say that these folks saw the potential here early on and nurtured it with care and flair.
This summer, the Shadowland’s 41st season starts with The Reservoir, by Jake Brasch, on the Mainstage through June 14. The show, fresh from its off-Broadway run, tells the story of a young NYU student navigating his shaky sobriety with four grandparents who have stories of their own to tell. Who’s caring for whom? Everyone, and the way it plays out is a blend of heartache and hilarity.
In Shadowland’s Studio, you can catch a high-energy romping adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic Around the World in 80 Days, in which five actors play 39 characters in an adventurous whirlwind of a romp that will get your kids addicted to great live theater while you laugh till your stomach aches. June 19 through July 12.
Next up, from July 17 through August 9, the Mainstage will present Brighton Beach Memoirs, part one of Neil Simon’s bittersweet and hysterically funny memoir of a Brooklyn teenager’s misadventures, considered by many to be his finest work.
And from August 14 through September 13, you can rock out to Never Can Say Goodbye: The 70s Beehive Musical celebrating that era’s transformative rebel spirit to the sounds of iconic hits made famous by the likes of Gloria Gaynor, Heart, and Linda Ronstadt.
shadowlandstages.org
Ellenville, NY
Now through June 14
The Reservoir, by Jake Brasch
On the Mainstage
June 19 through July 12
Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days
At Shadowland’s Studio
July 17 through August 9
Brighton Beach Memoirs
On the Mainstage
August 14 through Sept. 13
Never Can Say Goodbye
On the Mainstage
2 Bethel Woods Center for the Arts
MUSIC, HISTORY, AND A LEGENDARY STAGE
Bethel Woods Center for the Arts is like meeting a dear old friend and finding them thriving. The dairy farm where Woodstock changed the world in 1969 has grown up to realize its exquisite potential, a blend of economic boon for Sullivan County, respect for the fact that the old hippies just weren’t gonna quit showing up no matter who told them not to, and headliners who love being able to play their hearts out in a superb amphitheater that’s been named the best in the country in a USA Today readers’ poll.
In their 20th year, Bethel Woods is bursting with nourishing joy. Grab tickets to a concert, then make plans to book a campsite and sleep over at The Campground at Bethel Woods, just like those 450,000 Woodstock attendees did—only they didn’t have lavish glamping options like Safari suites and tents, a pretty nifty upgrade for a place where even sleeping in the mud became a fond memory for many. From car, RV, and tent camping to luxury glamping experiences, you’ll be sleeping under the stars in the beautiful Sullivan Catskills, staying just steps away from the award-winning Pavilion Stage. But enjoying the music isn’t all. While you’re on campus, experience The Museum at Bethel Woods, home to relics that tell the tales of Woodstock and the 1960s. Take a guided tour with a knowledgeable docent, play a round of disc golf, browse the Museum Shop for groovy goods, and dine at Yasgur’s Farm Café.
Bethel Woods is not just home to outdoor summer concerts. All throughout the year, they host top-notch immersive kids’ camps and adult creative classes through an ever-growing arts education program and an ongoing oral history project capturing the stories of those who wandered through the grounds at Woodstock, to name just a few offerings. So come for the music and stay for the enchantment and community.
A few highlights of the 2026 summer season include James Taylor (June 18), Wynonna Judd and Melissa Etheridge (June 28), Santana and The Doobie Brothers (July 4), Buju Banton and Stephen Marley (July 12), Billy Strings (July 31), Jeff Dunham and Gabriel Iglesias (August 8), and Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival (August 29), among many more. Get your tickets now; they’ll be selling briskly after the well-deserved love from USA Today.
bethelwoodscenter.org Bethel, NY
Bethel Woods Presents:
June 18
James Taylor
June 28
Wynonna Judd & Melissa Etheridge
July 4
Santana &
The Doobie Brothers
July 12
Buju Banton &
Stephen Marley
July 31
Billy Strings
August 8
Jeff Dunham &
Gabriel Iglesias
August 29
Willie Nelson’s
Outlaw Music Festival
Where music, memory, and magic meet under the open sky.
3 maverick concerts
MUSIC IN THE WOODS SINCE 1916
Meanwhile, in the geographically correct Woodstock, the arts are juicy and delicious, as they have been ever since the early years of the 20th century, when a bunch of world-class talents decided the Catskills were the perfect home for their many flavors of inspired cosmic lunacy and brilliance. Here, too, you’ll find rich history combined with educational vitality as a backdrop to some of the best fun a human can possibly have. Today’s Woodstock arts scene is collaborative, vital, and delectable.
Maverick Concerts fills its calendar with chamber music, world-class jazz, and world, contemporary, and family programming, all of it brought to you in an intimate, historic 1916 hand-built concert hall with fabulous acoustics, nestled in the woods as if Nature Herself had placed it here. This year, they’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence as only Maverick can, with wonderful pianists (Angela Hewitt, Reed Tetzloff, Brian Zeger, Henry Kramer, Carter Johnson, and Anthony Ratinov) who will all be making classical magic; Bill Charlap, Isaiah J. Thompson, and Fred Hersch are the headliners of the jazz joy. String quartets will include the Danish, Escher, Pacifica, Catalyst, Verona, KASA, Callisto, and Borromeo; and the American Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, and the Harlem Chamber Players will be here too.
Then there’s a whole other side of Maverick: the Americana and creative-scene artists from the neighborhood and beyond. This includes the July 4th celebration, All Songs Lead Into One, presented by guitarist and composer Joel Harrison and Friends. The venue will also be hosting the genre-defying string duo ARKAI, who will be making their Maverick debut, and back again this year will be standouts like artists from the Creative Music Studio with cofounder Ingrid Sertso, legendary saxophonist Paul Winter with pianist Henrique Eisenmann, and acclaimed bansuri master Steve Gorn, who will lead another evening of Indian classical “Ragas” with guest musicians from the subcontinent.
As if that weren’t plenty, the Maverick hosts free Family Saturdays with names like Windsync, Carnival of the Animals, pianist Carter Johnson narrating The Story of Babar, and the Azkana Trio.
maverickconcerts.org
Woodstock, NY
Maverick Presents:
July 4
All Songs Lead Into One
Joel Harrison & Friends
Family Saturdays (Free):
Windsync, Carnival of the Animals,
The Story of Babar, Azkana Trio
Summer Season Highlights:
Angela Hewitt, Reed Tetzloff, Brian Zeger,
Henry Kramer, Carter Johnson, Anthony
Ratinov (piano)
Bill Charlap, Isaiah J. Thompson, Fred
Hersch (jazz)
String Quartets:
Danish, Escher, Pacifica, Catalyst, Verona, KASA, Callisto, Borromeo
Featured Artists:
ARKAI (debut)
Creative Music Studio artists
(with Ingrid Sertso)
Paul Winter & Henrique Eisenmann
Steve Gorn — Indian Classical “Ragas”
4 WOODSTOCK Byrdcliffe Guild
A LIVING ARTS COLONY
Woodstock has been a mecca for visual artists ever since people used to hop on a train or stagecoach with sketchbooks in their pockets and excitement in their hearts, headed into the outback to get deep with nature’s infinity of forms. The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, ardently embracing all disciplines in a collaborative spirit, began in 1902 on Mount Guardian as a “textbook example” of a utopian arts and crafts community, and has been going strong ever since.
Byrdcliffe will be in top form this summer, with open-studio events, play readings, and tours of White Pines, where founders Ralph and Jane Whitehead lived. Highlights include a July 19 screening of the art documentary With Peter Bradley, followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, Alex Rappaport. The film’s been described as a “stunningly beautiful and sensitive portrait of a major painter, curator and thinker,” who worked in relative obscurity before being rediscovered in 2019 by Byrdcliffe program director Robert Langdon.
In August, Byrdcliffe will spend a weekend celebrating the iconic band The Fugs, with performances on August 14 and 15, and a screening of The Fugs Film documentary on August 15, followed by a discussion with director Chuck Smith and founding Fug Ed Sanders.
woodstockguild.org
Woodstock, NY
July 19
With Peter Bradley (film screening)
August 14–15
The Fugs — Live Performances
August 15
The Fugs Film (screening)
Followed by discussion with Chuck
Smith & Ed Sanders
A living legacy of art, craft, and creative community in the Catskills.
5 WOODSTOCK Artists
ASSOCIATION & Museum, OUR LOCAL LOUVRE
The Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, our “local Louvre,” has been connecting artists and the community since 1919. This summer, you can go on a variety of journeys there with European Landscapes and Landmarks From the Permanent Collection, and Far and Wide: Cityscapes Unseen. They’re also offering a solo exhibition, an immersive installation of the works of Dorothea Osborn, who explores themes of ecofeminism, time, spirituality, and the tensions between opposing forces through painting, drawing, and hybrid sculptural form.
All three of those will hang through August 9. Starting August 14, you can sink into the abstracts of Black American painter Ted Dixon, “whose practice centers on capturing fleeting moments of feeling and perception, inviting viewers to slow down in a world saturated with visual and verbal noise.” Group exhibitions starting August 14 make up the 2026 “Artist’s Choice,” featuring 25 to 40 juried works from artists who live and work within a 50-mile radius. And a presentation of studies and sketches from the museum’s permanent collection, with preliminary sketches displayed side by side with finished works, will offer a chance to study the process of making art.
woodstockart.org Woodstock, NY
Inviting viewers to slow down in a world saturated with visual and verbal noise.
WAAM Presents:
Now through August 9
European Landscapes and Landmarks
Far and Wide: Cityscapes Unseen
Dorothea Osborn: Solo Exhibition
Starting August 14
Ted Dixon — Solo Exhibition
Starting August 14
Artist’s Choice 2026:
Group Exhibition
Ongoing
Artist’s Choice 2026:
Studies & Sketches from
the Permanent Collection
6 CATSKILL Mountain Shakespeare
CLASSIC THEATER, ALIVE AND IMMERSIVE
Photo by Phil Mansfield
Photo by Rich Wade
Catskill Mountain Shakespeare was founded in 2020 by Sarah Reny, who moved to the Cats with a master’s in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and a passion for making magic happen in the hills. What’s emerged is deeply and dynamically vibrant and inclusive; the company’s Outreach Program offers Pay What You Can and Relaxed Show performances, the better to accommodate families and people of all descriptions, as well as free, professionally taught theatrical workshops for the community and an LGBTQ Summer Social.
Much Ado about Nothing, created at the very end of the 16th century, chronicles the adventures and misadventures of two young couples falling in love amid gossip, rumor, schemes, and mistaken/concealed identities, and seasons the whole thing with wild wit. There’s a reason people have roared with laughter at this one for centuries; it’s one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies.
This summer, Catskill Mountain Shakespeare will bring the Bard’s joyful chaos to the tent at the Red Barn in Hunter Wednesdays through Sundays from July 11 through 26 in an immersive and hilarious open-air celebration that brings this time-honored tale to life, overflowing with love, mischief, and community. You can linger for a post-show “talkback” with the creative team and learn all about how the magic is made.
catskillmountainshakespeare.com
Hunter, NY
July 11 through July 26 (Wed.–Sun.)
Much Ado About Nothing
At the Red Barn in Hunter
Shakespeare reimagined—joyful, immersive, and alive beneath the summer sky.
7 WOODSTOCK - New paltZ
ART & Crafts Fair A CELEBRATION OF MAKERS
The 45th Annual Woodstock-New Paltz Art & Crafts Fair will wrap summer up with an absolute blast from September 5 through 7, filling the Ulster County Fairgrounds to bursting with beauty and fun. Founders Neil and Scott Rubinstein, brothers and woodworkers, started Quail Hollow Events with the concept of a craft show run by crafters and then ran with it, resulting in what is widely considered one of the finest shows on the continent. “There is absolutely something here for everyone,” Neil’s widow Ola told us in 2019, “even if you’re not into shopping. Grab a beer or a wine, walk around and see it all, enjoy the live music. Just seeing it all is great fun.” But be warned, you may well fall in love with something and decide to make it yours, and as Ola points out, meeting the creator adds a layer of magic to the whole experience. One customer, she says, “has been coming for 15 years and bought one item every show, and now all their home decor is from the shows, and they say that knowing exactly where each item came from is just so cool.” Makers working in every conceivable medium will be displaying their best handmade stuff; you can chat with them and see how the works are made at demonstrations. There’s something for everyone here: artisanal foods and health care products; wine, beer, and spirits; and a children’s tent, where kids can dive into free play with materials donated by the artists. The entertainment tent will be filling the air with live music all weekend long.
quailhollow.com New Paltz, NY
A vibrant celebration of handmade beauty, where every object tells a story.
Woodstock–New Paltz Art & Crafts Fair:
September 5 through 7
45th Annual Art & Crafts Fair
Ulster County Fairgrounds
