Last weekend I was fortunate to go to Tanglewood for the Cynthia Erivo concert. It did NOT disappoint! The weather was perfect, the company was fun and Cynthia is unbelievably engaging and talented…though she didn’t sing anything from Wicked, which was too bad.
In case you live under a rock, Tanglewood is a 500 acre estate in the Berkshires in Lenox, Massachusetts that is now the summer home for the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Boston Pops, and the host to numerous music artist programs and guest concerts for the season as well as the home of the Tanglewood Learning Institute.
The original Tappan estate house was a summer gilded age cottage and has been converted to an event venue and a museum of the history and music of Tanglewood. The Tappan family gifted the estate and grounds to the BSO in 1936.
The Tanglewood grounds are beautiful. In addition to Tappen house, there are 3 performance venues, 2 gift shops, several eateries and biergaartens, an area with lawn games, and a section of formal gardens.
The town of Lenox is so picturesque featuring a downtown of about 3 blocks of charming shops, inns, and eateries in adorable buildings all with beautiful gardens and planters.
We poked around in the shops - these are a few
The Magnolia candy shop sells all kinds of fun candies by-the-pound.
The Honeychurch shop was one of the most beautifully appointed shops I have ever seen, with a smattering of ladies clothing and cute basket purses alongside home accessories including Italian pottery, artist designed table linens, gorgeous fern artwork pieces, and this incredibly unique chandelier with flowers crafted from Italian medical journal pages.
A gift shop with this scalloped journal…be still my heart, and watercolor sketchbooks.
We frequented this charming Patisserie cafe enjoying afternoon pastry and iced lattes, and morning brioche French toast on the porch….the Lenox sparrows were quite brazen about joining us!
If you haven’t experienced a Tanglewood concert, I highly recommend it! While there are several eateries and biergaartens on the grounds, my favorite way to attend is with lawn tickets just beyond the open-sided performing shed where nearly everyone arrives with some sort of picnic from snacks to elaborate table settings.
This group had a full table set for dinner, and this party had a catering group come in ahead and set up a buffet for them.
Many people with a lot of stuff tow it in wagons and you are allowed to bring in alcohol and real candles.
Our wagon of picnic supplies for Tanglewood!
You can bring your own chairs or rent them on site for the lawn.
Popular concerts draw between 18000 and 20000 attendees and while the parking situation is abundant and organized, plan on a fair amount of time to get out of the grounds!
Our picnic theme was inspired by this bottle of rosé called “Summer in a Bottle”. The flowers on the bottle were echoed by our pink pitcher of cut flowers, battery pillar candles with a floral design, small plates with a floral border, and pastel green napkins with a crocheted border.
We assembled a charcuterie board with cheeses, fruit, and salami. This was accompanied by an assortment of gourmet crackers.
I brought the ingredients for the strawberry-whipped feta crostini and assembled them on site.
Bowls of candied ginger and dried mango were included alongside a basket of kettle corn.
A trio of sweets included almond thin cookies, chocolate covered almonds, and pistachio dark chocolate toffee.
There is a lot of camaraderie since people start arriving 4 hours before the scheduled concert when the gates open and stake out their piece of lawn with chairs and picnic blankets. We made friends with the group next to us and shared our bounty and crostini recipe :).
All in all, it was a gorgeous weekend and I highly recommend a trip to Lenox during the Tanglewood season.
We stayed overnight and visited the Naumkeg estate the next day which was really fun. I’ll be posting about that fascinating house and garden tour next week.
How are you savoring the last days of summer?
