Pictured is a vendor serving customers at Chautauqua Institution during their previous food festival. This year, the Culinary Week at Chautauqua will feature attractions from the Scandinavian and St. James Italian Festivals during one-day pop-ups of each event. Submitted photo

CHAUTAUQUA — Two beloved festivals will be featured as part of Chautauqua Institution’s upcoming Culinary Week on Aug. 24 and Aug. 25.

The pop-ups — the first of their kind — will offer favorites from the Scandinavian and St. James Italian festivals, neither of which were held for two summers due to COVID-19.

Vanessa Weinert, Chautauqua Institution director of marketing and analytics, said connecting programming with the community is something the institution is proud to focus on. “This year, the Culinary Week at CHQ will again come alive with a diverse array of food and drinks, but at Miller Park on the Chautauqua Lake waterfront, rather than on Bestor Plaza,” Weinert said. “To open the festivities, Chautauqua has partnered with the local Scandinavian Festival and St. James Italian Festival to bring you food, traditional music and dancers, and vendors. On Thursday and Friday, gather for music, multiple food trucks, craft beverages and other vendors.”

Weinert said the four-day event adds a “real and unique value to the Chautauqua patron experience as our programming begins to wind down.”

“We still aim as always to celebrate the bounty of our local region here in Chautauqua County,” she said. “For this year we thought we’d give an opportunity to some beloved local festivals to celebrate with us in lieu of their traditional gatherings, many of which haven’t been possible for the past two years. It’s a terrific fundraising opportunity for them and for us, it’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase Chautauqua County’s cultural richness.”

She said Chautauqua was “thrilled” to connect with the two beloved festivals and offer the community the chance to “enjoy the cuisine, music, and dancing these festivals offer.”

“We have always strived to represent food from many cultures at the Chautauqua Food Festival, and our Food Festival model has always evolved to meet our patrons’ needs and expectations,” Weinert said. “This is the first year where we’ve focused on one cuisine for the first two days through partnerships, so we will be watching how this year’s Culinary Week is received and making adjustments to the scaled-up version accordingly.”

This year, Chautauqua is featuring free five-hour destination passes that allow visitors to visit local establishments, such as restaurants, stores, spas, galleries, Chautauqua Cinema or other on-grounds businesses.

“(The destination passes) are free if ordered in advance online at tickets.chq.org,” Weinert said. “This is an experiment with grounds access that is designed to benefit both our Chautauqua County neighbors and our on-grounds destinations.”

Patrons using the destination pass still have to pay the $10 daily parking fee, she said.

The annual Week Nine program is a local favorite, providing a taste of the Chautauqua County region, she added.

“It’s designed for those who are staying on the grounds, visiting to attend one of our concerts that are taking place or just for those who are coming to the beautiful grounds for a meal and to listen to Bill Ward or OsbornNash in the Culinary Week Tent,” Weinert said. “In the past, many of our festival patrons had drinks and food prior to seeing one of the concerts in the Amphitheater. This year, patrons can attend the festivities by the Bell Tower and go see Old Crow Medicine Show or Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit. It really makes for a wonderful concert experience.”

The institution will also feature youth activities through the Play at CHQ programs. Weinert said children will have the ability to make ice cream, butter and other edible items. The culinary week begins on August 24th and will end on August 27th. For more information, view the schedule of events and vendors at culinaryweek.chq.org. Those who are interested in attending a concert need to purchase an event ticket to that event. Visit tickets.chq.org to see the concert schedule.