It was 25 degrees at 6 a.m. Tuesday, with a chill in the air, as Gary Soldati pulled his truck into the parking lot at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s outdoor concert venue in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.
Four hours left until the tickets for the summer season go on sale. Even in the winter darkness, Mr Soldati, 72, of West Stockbridge, could see he was the first one there. Now all he had to do was wait: open the box office at 10 — and then start the summer.
According to the calendar, it was the first day of spring. But in New England, it would be weeks before the air became reliably mild. In the meantime, residents were clinging to signs that the cold would finally abate: a stray saffron in the yard. An extra hour of daylight. Tanglewood’s annual box office unlock.
Two miles away in downtown Lenox, locals were well aware of the day’s significance.
“You start to see a glimmer,” said Monika Pizzichemi, director at the Wit Gallery and a third-generation Tanglewood fan. “We are on the threshold, and it is coming.”
By late June, the town of 5,000 will be packed with visitors from New England and beyond, many of whom couldn’t understand summer without Tanglewood and its outdoor concerts — until the pandemic hit. The season was canceled in 2020 and halved in 2021, leading to painful economic losses for a region whose aging and shrinking population relies heavily on the economic boost the two-month festival brings.
The return of concerts brought relief, with no apparent long-term decline. Attendance of 292,000 people last summer was close to pre-pandemic levels, and program leaders expect a 5 percent increase in ticket sales this year.
Traffic can be frenetic on concert nights, but the classical music celebrities who wander through town—Leonard Bernstein was a regular, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer John Williams still are—are among the profits. The same is true of young people – budding conductors, composers and musicians – who participate in intensive summer training programs.
“For us, a frustrating but temporary traffic jam every now and then is worth it to know that all these people want to be here and share in our deep affection for this place,” wrote the local paper, The Berkshire Eagle, of Tanglewood . last summer.
On Tuesday morning, the glory of summer seemed far away as the grounds crew poured salt on the icy pavement and music fans in the parks clutched hot cups of coffee with numb hands. Most of those queuing to buy tickets were hardy locals from nearby towns. they were quick to remind anyone who complained that it was colder last year on opening day at the box office.
Mr. Soldati, the earliest to arrive, waited in his truck for more than two hours, using the time to rig fishing lures. He emerged only when he saw another early bird sink into a lawn chair in front of the cashier door. A surf fisherman who regularly battles the icy ocean in a wetsuit, Mr Soldati pulled on extra layers before taking third place in the row shortly after 8:30am.
“My wife loves Jon Batiste,” he said, explaining his mission. (Mr. Baptiste will be one of the first performances of this season, on June 28.)
Many of those who showed up Tuesday have been drawn to Tanglewood for decades and feel a deep connection to the pastoral, 500-acre campus, made up of two former Berkshires estates. They return every summer to their favorite spots on the sweeping lawn that surrounds the tent, spread out blankets and settle in for a Sunday afternoon to the thriller of Mozart or Mahler.
Leslee Carsewell, an artist from Sheffield, recalled childhood summers at Belvoir Terrace, a nearby girls’ camp, where everyone dressed up in their uniforms to watch orchestra rehearsals at Tanglewood on Saturday mornings.
“I came at 12 and it hit me,” she said, holding a long, carefully organized wish list of concert dates and seats on top of her puffy coat. “This place is in my DNA.”
With a black fur hood close at hand, Doro Lambert of Lenox had a shorter shopping list but just as enthusiastic.
“I go to hear Beethoven’s Ninth every year and it makes me cry,” she said.
Some showed up at the box office Tuesday to avoid additional online service charges or in hopes of getting better seats in person. Several seniors said they prefer to shop at checkouts because they fear online scams or stressful computer malfunctions.
Tanglewood has 5,000 covered seats and room for 13,000 on the lawn. Ticket prices Tuesday ranged from $20 for orchestra rehearsals on the lawn to $249 for the closest covered seats to see the most popular artists.
There was a little grumbling in the line about the lack of tickets for two sold-out concerts July 3 and 4 by James Taylor — 50 years after his first performance at Tanglewood in 1974 — that had been collected in advance for orchestra donors . But most buyers appeared happy.
In all, three ticket agents sold 745 tickets in five hours to 111 in-person patrons, the Boston Symphony reported. In total, around 20,000 tickets were sold on opening day.
Jonathan Cade, a recently retired local middle and high school music teacher, was among the ticket sellers. He said he was excited by the light summer vibes, but felt a pinch when customers asked for concerts late in the season, when the luxurious days of summer in the Berkshires would be dwindling.
“People are asking about tickets in August,” he said. “I don’t even want to think about August.”
