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Courtesy Big Top Chautauqua
Building a Tent
Anchor Industries has made every canvas tent for Big Top since it opened in 1986. The new tent will have space for 950 seats, slightly more than the seven-year-old tent it is replacing.
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Jamey Penney-Ritter
Big Top
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Courtesy Big Top Chautauqua
Bonnie Raitt
Grammy Award-winning singer Bonnie Raitt performs at Big Top on July 8.
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Courtesy Big Top Chautauqua
Rusted Root
On July 11, Rusted Root will bring its unique blend of acoustic, rock and world music to Big Top.
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Courtesy Big Top Chautauqua
Oak Ridge Boys
The country group Oak Ridge Boys perform at Big Top on July 13.
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Courtesy Big Top Chautauqua
Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy performs at Big Top on July 19.
For nearly three decades, performers have been welcomed by fans under the canvas of Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua.
The Big Top at the base of Mount Ashwabay in Bayfield, Wisconsin, has sheltered local productions and musical legends like B.B. King, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Emmylou Harris and Richie Havens, as well as regional favorites like Greg Brown and Trampled by Turtles.
For the sixth time since the Big Top started in 1986, a new canvas will be raised this year, replacing a wind-battered seven-year-old tent. Besides being the iconic symbol of the organization, this new tent represents a dying art in the realm of tent-making, according to Jamey Penney-Ritter, marketing manager for Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua.
“Anchor Industries has made every one of our tents,” Jamey says. While Anchor has been in the canvas tent business since 1892, in the last 30 to 40 years the company has moved from canvas toward vinyl tent technology. Vinyl is preferred for most uses these days, making the availability of the specific canvas needed for the Big Top very limited. In addition, people with the knowledge to build canvas tents at this scale are retiring and there is not a lot of demand for current workers to learn those skills.
The Big Top continues to stick with the older technology because of the superior acoustical properties of the material, Jamey says. When it comes to acoustics, an element important at Big Top Chautauqua, the material makes a difference – with vinyl, sound can reverberate more inside a tent.
The new canvas tent from the Evansville, Indiana, company will be 160 feet long by 70 feet wide by 29 feet tall. The special order is expected to be delivered in mid-May. At Anchor, the tent’s construction requires 1,467 hours of work time and involves a dozen people, including five sewing operators. The cost: $140,000 (compared with the $85,000 price of the last tent).
The new tent will have space for 950 seats inside, slightly more than in the old tent. Jamey says there will be room for hundreds of music fans on the lawn outside. Unlike the last Big Top tents, the new one will be square on the end where the bleachers are set up.
Last year strong storm winds damaged the Big Top’s older tent. Over the years, other tents have been lost to fire and hail damage.
To inaugurate the newest canvas tent for its 29th season, Big Top Chautauqua’s 2014 lineup kicks off with their resident house band, The Blue Canvas Orchestra, on June 13 featuring the traditional “blessing of the new tent.” Later in the season, two icons whose work transcends generations will perform: the ageless Willie Nelson and singer-songwriter and guitarist Bonnie Raitt in her first Big Top appearance (even if seats under the tent are sold out, lawn seats may be available). Other 2014 performers whose careers mark several decades include the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Don McLean, Judy Collins, Lyle Lovett, the Oak Ridge Boys and Helen Reddy. The range of styles in the new season is reflected in shows by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Rusted Root, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Gaelic Storm.
Big Top Chautauqua also stages original shows, such as “Riding the Wind,” the flagship of its illustrated musical histories. “Riding the Wind” was created by Warren Nelson and Betty Ferris, and this year Warren (founder of the Big Top) will debut “Take Me To The Islands,” an original show about the Apostle Islands.
A nonprofit performing arts organization, Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua has a season that runs from mid-June to early September.