It presents summer performances of classical music, jazz, pop and rock, country, comedy, and dance.

It holds a 50-year renewable lease with the State of New York, which owns the land, theaters and buildings that comprise the center.

In early February 1961, Albany newspaperman Duane La Fleche noted a wire service report about a group hoping to entice the New York Philharmonic to make Stowe, Vermont its summer residence.

Local civic, cultural, and legislative leaders, who had previously considered a Saratoga Arts Center an interesting possibility, began to design the facility.

By summer 1963, contributions from Rockefeller Brothers Fund and New York State supplemented community support to create Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Then on September 1, 1968, the Doors gave a performance at SPAC,[2] which began a tradition of bringing top pop and rock acts to the amphitheater including Jackson Browne (who recorded "Rosie" backstage in 1977), Whitney Houston (who filmed her televised MTV VMA performance of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody", as well as the official music video for "Didn't We Almost Have It All" on stage in 1987).

Other notable pop-rock acts that have performed at SPAC include Chicago, The Who, Bon Jovi, Phish, Pretenders, Santana, Olivia Newton-John, Tina Turner, Guns N' Roses, Coldplay, Aretha Franklin, O.A.R., Rush, Demi Lovato, KISS, Dave Matthews Band, Kings of Leon, blink-182, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, Aerosmith, Toby Keith, Train, Maroon 5, Britney Spears, Ray LaMontagne, Prince, Missy Elliott, Pearl Jam, Jay-Z, Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Avril Lavigne, John Mayer, Nicki Minaj, Sheryl Crow, 50 Cent, Paul Simon, Selena Gomez, Tom Petty, Drake, the Cars, Snoop Dogg, the B-52's, Def Leppard, the Black Eyed Peas, Ray Charles, Dire Straits, Christina Aguilera, the Beach Boys, 5 Seconds of Summer, Foreigner, Heart, Alter Bridge, Imagine Dragons, Ozzy Osbourne, Breaking Benjamin, Saint Asonia, Disturbed, Slipknot, Gojira, Three Days Grace, Chevelle, Journey, Wiz Khalifa, John Mellencamp, Elton John, Justin Bieber, Janet Jackson, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Steve Winwood and the Grateful Dead (1983 being considered one of their classics).

Well-known classical music soloists, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Yuja Wang, and Sarah Chang, annually perform major concerts at this venue.