Dolly Parton Played Upstate New York for 48 Years. She Never Really Left.
Dolly Parton died Tuesday at 80. From the 1968 State Fair in Syracuse to her final tour stop at Artpark in 2016, she played upstate New York for forty-eight years – and through the Imagination Library, she is still arriving in the same counties every month.
The 10 Greatest Concerts in Utica/Rome History
For four days in July of 1999, the eyes of the entire music world were fixed on a decommissioned Air Force base in Rome, New York — and then they watched it burn. They came by the hundreds of thousands, somewhere between 200,000 and a quarter-million people at its peak, to the old runways of […]
Selling Fast: Upstate NY Concerts Where the Good Seats Are Going (Late August 2026)
August is the shortest month on the Upstate concert calendar — not on the clock, but in the way it vanishes. The amphitheater season hits its peak, the marquee names stack three and four deep across a single weekend, and the tickets that looked wide open in June quietly turn into obstructed-view, upper-terrace, singles-only. The […]
The 10 Greatest Concerts in Saratoga Springs History
On the last Thursday in June of 1985, the traffic on the Northway stopped moving. It stopped because 40,231 people were trying to reach the same lawn at the same time — the largest crowd the Saratoga Performing Arts Center had ever held, or has held since. They came for the Grateful Dead, and they […]
The 10 Greatest Concerts in North Country History
From Phish’s 70,000-strong Clifford Ball to the night Frampton Comes Alive! was recorded at SUNY Plattsburgh, a young Bob Dylan in Canton, and the Grateful Dead in the Miracle on Ice rink — the 10 greatest concerts in North Country history, ranked.
Built on a Wastebed, Filled by Headliners: The Ten-Year Story of Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview
On September 3, 2015, Miranda Lambert played the first-ever concert at a brand-new amphitheater built atop a capped Superfund site on Onondaga Lake. Ten years, three names, and roughly 200 artists later — the concert history of Syracuse’s Empower FCU Amphitheater at Lakeview.
From Cornfields to Center Stage: Three Decades of Concerts (and Championship Boxing) at Turning Stone
New York’s first legal land-based casino opened on Oneida Indian Nation land in 1993 — and grew into one of Central NY’s most reliable stages. From Tim McGraw’s 2004 Event Center debut to Laila Ali, Mike Tyson, and championship boxing, the story of Turning Stone.
For One Dollar: How Schenectady Saved Proctors From the Wrecking Ball
Seized for back taxes and marked for demolition, Proctors was saved for a single dollar in 1979 — and turns 100 this December. From Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington to Mariah Carey’s 1993 NBC special, the century-long story of Schenectady’s vaudeville palace.
From Air to Steel: 45 Years of Stadium Rock at Syracuse’s Dome
From the Rolling Stones in 1981 and The Who’s 43-year attendance record to Metallica breaking it in 2025 — the concert history of Syracuse’s Carrier Dome, now the JMA Wireless Dome.
The 50 Greatest Music Festivals in Upstate New York History
From Watkins Glen’s 600,000 and the Woodstock trilogy to the Clifford Ball, Camp Bisco, GrassRoots, and beyond — the 50 greatest music festivals in upstate New York history, ranked.