www.rapidcityjournal.com
STURGIS | The Buffalo Chip Campground has come a long way as a concert venue in its nearly 40 years of existence.
Owner and founder Rod Woodruff can still recall the early days, opening the gates at what was then a bare-bones campground east of Sturgis in 1981, and adding the first concerts a year later.
According to the campgrounds online history, those first acts included Susan Nelson, Johnny Paycheck and the Foggy Notion Band.
Enticing musicians to play in what was then a basic prairie venue, a portable stage with a tarp awning, wasn’t easy, Woodruff said.
“When we started, you couldn’t explain enough where South Dakota was,” Woodruff recalled.
“Even after we got the contracts done, they called us North Dakota,” he said. “South Dakota was just not on the map.”
Now 39 years later, the Buffalo Chip is announcing, on Black Friday, the first five headlining acts for what has become one the largest music festivals in the world for the 80th Sturgis motorcycle rally.
The first of what will be approximately 40 acts for the 10-day run of the rally from Aug. 7-16, 2020, includes Willie Nelson & Family, ZZ Top, REO Speedwagon, Shinedown and Puddle of Mudd.
“All of these guys are going to be the favorite of somebody,” said Woodruff, in an interview Tuesday from Colorado where he was waiting out a winter storm.
Nelson last headlined at the Buffalo Chip in 2016.
More information at www.BuffaloChip.com