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Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua
Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua (sha-ta-qwa) is a year-round non-profit performing arts organization with a rich history. They operate an intimate 900-seat, all-canvas, state-of-the-art tent theater, producing and presenting a fifty-plus night summer season of concerts, plays, lectures, and a highly acclaimed professional local troupe which performs original multi-media musicals in the tent and on tour. Tent Show Radio, a weekly one hour program which showcases live performances from the Big Top stage, is aired on public radio stations throughout the country.

It is nestled at the base of Mt. Ashwabay Ski Hill, 3 miles south of Bayfield, Wisconsin, overlooking Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Our summer schedule includes performances by renowned national, regional and touring musicians and runs from mid June to early September. On balmy summer nights the tent sidewalls can be lifted and people may sit outside and even up on the hillside. The sound is superb and on clear nights you can see the Milky Way and sometimes even the Northern Lights!

Past Performers
Luther Allison, American Indian Dance Theartre, Asleep at the Wheel, Austin Lounge Lizards, The Avett Brothers, The Barra MacNeils, Perla Batalla, BeauSoleil, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Big John Dickerson, The Big Wu, Rory Block, Greg Brown, Pieta Brown, Sam Bush, Charlie Byrd, Cafe Accordion Orchestra, Chance, Bruce Cockburn, Judy Collins, Corey Carlson, Dee Carstensen, June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash, Paul Cebar & The Milwaukeeans, Vassar Clements, Roy Clark, Cubanismo, The Del McCoury Band, Iris DeMent, Different Drums of Ireland, Edgewater Eight, Tommy Emmanuel, Michael Feldman, Ferron, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Myron Floren, Free Hot Lunch!, John Gorka, Nanci Griffith, The David Grisman Quintet, Arlo Guthrie, Merle Haggard, Hammond, Emmy Lou Harris, John Hartford, Richie Havens, John Hiatt, Hot Club of Cowtown, Annie Humphrey, Keb' Mo', Garrison Keillor, B.B. King, The Kingston Trio, Leo Kottke, Tomas Kubinek, Leftover Salmon, Gale LaJoye, Phoebe Legere, The Letterman, Howard Levy, Larry Long, Indigo Girls, Joan Baez, Gordon Lightfoot, Litttle Feat, The Lost Nation String Band, Loretta Lynn, Natalie MacMaster, Kathy Mattea, John McCutcheon, John McEuen, Don McLean, Robert Mirabal, Molly & The Makers, Moon Gypsies, Bill Monroe, Michael Martin Murphey, National Shakespeare Company, Willie Nelson, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Maura O'Connell, 132nd Army Band, Tom Paxton, Peaceful Women, Pipers Crow, Willy Porter, John Prine, Carmel Quinn, Leon Redbone, Tony Rice, Riders In The Sky, Garnet Rogers, Peter Rowan, Randy Sabien, Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women, Karen Savoca & Pete Heitzman, Ricky Skaggs, Claudia Schmidt, Earl Scruggs, John Sebastian, Keith Secola, The Second City, Corky Siegel, The Smothers Brothers, South Shore Boys, Ralph Stanley, John Stewart, Taj Mahal, Tanglefoot, Butch Thompson, Pam Tillis, Tuck & Patti, Doc Watson, Susan Werner, Cheryl Wheeler, Whitefish Livers, The Whites, David Wilcox, Dar Williams, Mason Williams, Willowgreen, Glenn Yarbrough, Yonder Mountain String Band and more.

History
A permanent Chautauqua landed in Bayfield, WI in the summer of 1986 after the talents of Warren Nelson, his partner Betty Ferris and the Lost Nation String Band attracted the attention of community leaders in Bayfield, Ashland and Washburn. The group had received rave reviews for their original musical histories produced and performed for three specific occasions: Souvenir Views for the Washburn centennial celebration; Whistle Comin’ In for the Ashland centennial; and Riding The Wind for the Bayfield all-class reunion. Audience response to Riding The Wind, presented in the Bayfield High School gym, was so overwhelming that the group was asked to add an extra performance. Bayfield resident, Mary Rice along with the MAHADH Foundation (established by Mary Andersen Hulings and A.D. Hulings) offered to build a permanent theater that would showcase the myriad talents of these creative, experienced artists.

Warren Nelson proposed a Chautauqua-style entertainment venue that would draw visitors from across the Upper Midwest to enjoy a variety of original productions, regional artists, and national headliners. The first tent and the first season topped Mt. Ashwabay in the summer of 1986, offering 42 shows with 5,218 tickets sold. Last year 26,825 tickets were sold to 74 shows!

Funding provided critical financial support, but sweat equity was just as critical. When Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua was incorporated as a non-profit corporation, officers Betty Ferris, Carolyn Sneed and Tom Lindsey devoted countless hours to administering this new entity. Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua had dozens of branch offices -- the living rooms, dining rooms, cabins and cars of everyone involved. Musicians, fans and townspeople pitched in -- literally -- to set up the tent at the beginning of the season and help keep things running smoothly throughout the summer.

A tradition of well-organized community support saved the life of Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua in 2000 when the tent burned to the ground in the middle of the night as a result of an electrical short. Shrewd planning and some good luck had provided a back-up tent. The season lost only one night of performances.

Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua continues to advance its own mission and stay true to the ideals of the original Chautauqua movement by touring during the off-season, delivering “big dang deals” (and a few “medium-sized dang deals”) to schools and community theaters throughout the region. Tent Show Radio is beamed into the homes of families on 53 public radio stations across the country. Digital images have replaced thousands of slides used to illustrate songs and stories of the past in our Chautauqua Original Musicals.

History of Chautauquas
The first Chautauqua (sha-ta-qwa) was a summer training program for Methodist Sunday school teachers in Chautauqua, New York in 1874. It eventually became a nationwide adult education movement that encompassed literature, music, economics, science, religion and public affairs.

The movement took root in the small towns that vaudeville missed, bringing culture to people who otherwise would have gone without it. Chautauquas died out in the 1920s but, in their heyday, Teddy Roosevelt described them as "the most American thing about America."