Bonnie Raitt attends the SNL50: The Anniversary Special at Rockefeller Plaza on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

CHAUTAUQUA – The Chautauqua Institution is making some major changes to their event structure for the fall, and possibly in the spring as well. This comes as a result of declines in tourism rates within the county and will hopefully act as a way for the institution to navigate these new challenges.

The Chautauqua Institution has begun to implement events and concerts outside of their regularly scheduled event season. One recent example of this is the performance done at the institution by music star Bonnie Raitt, which may just be the beginning of more frequent events outside of the summer season.

“Overall attendance is still down from 2019 numbers, and a big part of that this year was that our friends in Canada did not come across in the same numbers to visit Chautauqua, or likely to visit New York or the United States,” said Deborah Moore, Chautauqua Institution senior vice president and chief programming officer.

The struggles of lessened Canadian tourism is not one which the institution is facing alone. Information from the International Visitor Arrivals Program, run by the International Trade Administration, shows that slightly over seven million Canadian visitors came to the United States between January and May. This is roughly a 17% decrease from the rates for the same months during 2024. According to the ITA report the United States saw roughly 20.4 million visits from Canadians in 2024, making it the number one foreign source of tourism to the United States for that year. This only further shows the importance of protecting Canadian tourism, as it holds an incredible amount of importance to contributing to the U.S. economy as a whole as well as local economies.

Chautauqua Institution officials are looking to cut between $4 million and $6 million from the budget – or increase revenues by that much – after a possible 13% decrease in attendance this year. One way to increase revenues is more off-season events. The first such event was held recently featuring Bonnie Raitt, who had previously performed at Chautauqua in 2023.

Raitt is a singer, songwriter and guitarist whose unique style blends blues, R&B, rock, and pop. After 20 years as a performer, she broke through to the top in the early 1990s with her Grammy-award winning albums, “Nick of Time” and “Luck of the Draw,” which featured hits, “Something To Talk About” and “I Can’t Make You Love Me” among others.

The 10-time Grammy winner was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and Rolling Stone named the slide guitar ace one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” and one of the “100 Greatest Singers of All Time.”

Moore said the off-season concert went well, with the crowd happy with the performance. Moore also noted the way in which these events, which take place out of season, are more financially lucrative for the institution. This seems largely due to a greater attendance from those without gate passes, and thus a boost in ticket sales as a result.

“Because it was outside of our normal season it meant that no one had gate passes, and it allowed us to think about ticketing for the event in a way that other venues typically do, which is that we only sold single tickets for the event,” Moore said.

These are not the only changes the institution is attempting to make towards their programming. Officials are beginning to test the success rate of concessions within their events. These concessions allow for a difference from the previous food and drink regulations present at events, as concert goers would be permitted to bring their food or drinks from concessions to their seat in the amphitheater with them, according to Moore. A wide range of contents, including alcohol beverages, would be served and will hopefully provide greater financial gain for the institution from these events. The concessions plan was recently implemented at the Bonnie Raitt concern, with hopes of further implementation at future events.

“For us it was creating a proof of concept to see if this idea could work not only inside the summer, but also outside of the summer. I’m happy to report that we had a highly successful experience, and we were overwhelmed with the positive response,” said Moore on the success of the first implementation of the concessions at the recent concert. Moore noted that the institution will be looking into planning more out-of-season events, but at this time no official dates or plans are set in stone, as the institution tends to have a large out-of-season wedding business that must be considered when planning these events according to Moore.

The Bonnie Raitt event, despite being out of regular season scheduling, was successful and will inspire the consideration for future out-of-season events to take place, noted Moore, while going on to note the incredible attendance of more than 3,600 people.

“I would say that the mood was energetic and joyful,” stated Moore, going on to state that “it was not only about the concert on stage, but also about the concert experience surrounding the stage.”