Every summer for the past 33 years, people throughout Fairfield County and beyond have come to Westport's Levitt Pavilion with picnics, blankets and lawn chairs to enjoy the high-quality, free-of-charge evening's entertainment. The Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts is a non-profit, open-air summer festival where a variety of entertainment is presented virtually every night in a beautifully landscaped amphi-theater, located on the banks of the Saugatuck River. The Pavilion was the idea of the chairman of Westport Parks & Recreation. He brought the idea to the Kiwanis Club and the Westport Young Woman's League. To raise seed money, the two groups sold discount booklets with products and services donated by at least 40 local businesses, mostly members of the Downtown Merchants Association.

Meanwhile, architect Bruce Campbell Graham donated his services in designing and, later, supervising construction of the Pavilion. The Westport Weston Arts Council, joined with the Kiwanis and Westport Young Woman's League, solicited $25,000 of the funds needed for construction from Mortimer and Mimi Levitt.

The town donated the landfill site and the expensive site preparation. Glendinning companies donated thousands of cubic yards of bank run gravel. The Westport News was generous with its coverage. The Pavilion was finished largely with donated construction supplies and volunteer labor, mainly from Kiwanis, Rotary and Lions Club members (their out of pocket expenses were approximately $56,000).

In 1973, the first year of operation, the Pavilion produced 36 free events. Through the generosity of corporate, organization, and individual Friends of the Levitt Pavilion, 50 to 60 nights of free entertainment are presented every season. Over the past 33 years, the Pavilion has grown to be a major cultural force in the region, playing host to such stellar performers as Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, The Gipsy Kings, Tony Bennett, the Chieftains and Judy Collins, while still providing a stage for emerging talent.