Grand Teton Music Festival Breaks Ground on $35M Walk Festival Hall Renovation – Broadway World
The Grand Teton Music Festival broke ground Thursday morning on the renovation of Walk Festival Hall, the Festival’s beloved 50-year-old performance home in Teton Village. The $35 million renovation will preserve and refine the Hall’s celebrated acoustics while upgrading accessibility, recording infrastructure, safety systems, audience amenities and year-round usability. The groundbreaking marks a major milestone as GTMF prepares to launch its 65th anniversary summer season, taking place from July 2 to August 15, 2026.
“The Grand Teton Music Festival is a unique and beloved destination for musicians and audiences from our region and around the world,” says GTMF Executive Director Emma Kail. “The renovation of Walk Festival Hall allows us to preserve what makes the hall so special while ensuring it continues to serve musicians, audiences and our community for decades to come.”
“Astonishingly simple and bold in its original design, Walk Festival Hall is one of the great acoustics in the world today,” adds Music Director Sir Donald Runnicles. “Our musical home has enriched and inspired concertgoers for fifty years, and through this major renovation and transformation, will continue to do so for the next five decades.”
The renovation of Walk Festival Hall is a central pillar of GTMF’s historic $61 million Setting the Stage campaign, the largest fundraising initiative in the organization’s history. The campaign was created to secure GTMF’s long-term artistic excellence through investments in musician housing, musician compensation, and the revitalization of Walk Festival Hall for future generations of artists, audiences and the Jackson Hole community.
In just two years, GTMF has raised $53.5 million toward the campaign goal. The campaign has already achieved major progress in support of Festival Musicians, including more than $16 million in new endowment commitments to increase musician stipends and housing, and a landmark housing gift valued at $10 million from the Jackson Hole Housing Fund, led by Margot and Cynthia Walk, providing GTMF with 50 years of rent-free access to 18 new bedrooms for musicians. The campaign has secured $27.5 million toward the renovation of Walk Festival Hall, with $7.5 million remaining to complete the project.
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