One of the enduring and lovable qualities of Bearsville is imagining it was named for cute little bears like Milton Glaser’s illustrations. That the name actually comes from a merchant named Baehr who opened a store on the Sawkill in the 1800s doesn’t make it any less endearing.
Anchoring Bearsville for some 50 years has been the studio complex built by Albert Grossman. A larger-than-life figure, Grossman was famous for managing Dylan, Janis Joplin, and other megastars of the era.
The Bearsville name would soon be attached to Grossman’s record label, and Bearsville’s studios would attract generations of the industry’s finest talent, including The Band, of course, but also REM, Patti Smith, The Pretenders, Jeff Buckley – the list goes on and on.
Beloved local restaurants would come and go throughout the years, but music has always been at Bearsville’s heart, with the theater as its centerpiece. In 2019, the entire complex was purchased by Lizzie Vann, who had a vision to revitalize.
“The Bearsville Center is a cultural jewel in the heart of the Catskills,” Vann says. “It was falling down—another year and it would have been irreparable because the roofs would have fallen in. I wanted to save it and give Woodstock back its crown.”
The list of renovations was somewhat staggering. Mold remediation, new roofs, new electric and new plumbing were required for almost the entire complex. The ever-flowing Sawkill might provide an almost spiritual presence, but it’s no friend of the complex structurally.
“We spent over two hundred thousand trenching around every building just to stop the underground streams from destroying the foundations from below,” Vann says.
The venue had been given a new lease on life but, as with a lot of enterprises at this time, the unexpected pandemic was a potential business killer. With creativity and a dedicated team (including general manager Frank Bango and booker Mike Campbell) Vann and her crew were able to see the theater through the toughest times, but challenges remain with respect to finding the right acts that will get people to leave their houses and pack a theater.
“Our next step was to find an operator who knew how to pour the same level of love and attention into running shows as we had into revitalizing the Bearsville Center,” Vann says. “Peter Shapiro and DayGlo were the ideal candidates. We’ve also enabled a brand-new recording studio run by Pete Caigan. My dream is that musicians will record, then perform at Bearsville.”
DayGlo and Peter Shapiro are known for building venues like Brooklyn Bowl, and are also known for rejuvenating venues like Wetlands in Manhattan. Shapiro appreciates the Bearsville Theater’s history and is looking forward to help steer the venue in a new direction.
On the subject of Lizzie Vann, Shapiro says, “We appreciate her trust in us and are looking forward to a long working relationship.”
A full summer-into-fall schedule is already in place that includes international acts like Guster, The Mountain Goats, Guided By Voices, Mdou Moctar, The Beths and The Jayhawks.
While DayGlo is promoting events inside the theater, Lizzie’s team is still hard at work curating events for outside. Little “boutique festivals” are scheduled throughout the summer, including bluegrass, folk, country, and others.
Interestingly, there’s no big PA system. The outdoor stage has only monitors for the performers to hear themselves. Each patio throughout the lawn has its own little speaker to amplify the performance, almost just like a drive-in movie sound system. This might prove to be an ingenious workaround when it comes to the noise ordinance controversy in Woodstock recently, we’ll have to check in with the neighbors later!
Recently, Lizzie Vann walked me around the property with her dog, Keith Richards, leading the way. She showed me what she calls “Woodstock’s shortest nature trail” on which you will find not only descriptions of the surrounding flora, but of some of the bands who’ve recorded right here at Bearsville.
She also showed me Albert Grossman’s grave, which his wife managed to plant here before the town objected, so here it stays, an outsized presence even beyond Grossman’s years on the planet.
Inside the theater, a crew was hard at work installing new light and sound systems, gearing up for the inaugural DayGlo event this coming Saturday, Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. The band features Grammy-winner Was on bass, plus a collection of some of his favorite jazz musicians from the Motor City, which is his hometown.
Are there any shows Lizzie is looking forward to in particular?
“Todd in October,” she whispers as if it’s an exclusive. “Shhhh!”
Well, it’s on his website, so it’s not exactly an HV1 scoop, but seeing as the Bearsville studios are called Utopia to this day, it will be an event to be sure. Whether you’re a “Todd is God” super-fan or a garden variety admirer, you might want to get your tickets early.
Join the family! 
