Tickets are sold out for the Winter Dance Party at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake at the end of this month, but there are still a handful of tickets left for the 50th anniversary concert on the Monday night after the weekend festival.
Surf Ballroom and Museum director Laurie Lietz, says there will be an all-star line-up coming to Clear Lake for the concert to honor the rockers Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens who died in a plane crash after playing at the Surf.
She says the performers were all influenced by or were connected to those who were killed Including, Grahmn Nash, bass player Tommy Alsop, and Bobby V, who took over the show at the next stop in Minnesota. Lietz says the performance will include what could become the world’s most famous house band. Lietz says it’s wasn’t too hard to get a number of the headline performers to agree to come to Iowa in the middle of winter to perform the anniversary concert.
Lietz says a lot of the people came to them, but many others couldn’t make it and will send video tributes. Lietz says you can call the Surf box office at 641-357-6151 to get tickets for the Monday night all-star concert. Tickets for the Winter Dance Party weekend sold out in just over four hours when they went on sale late last year.
The Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Arnolds Park is opening up a special exhibit this weekend commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Winter Dance Party and the plane crash. Hall of Fame executive director, Doris Welle, says the exhibit entitled "The Day The Music Died — Revisited" has all sorts of fun artifacts from rock-and-roll’s beginnings.
Welle says the exhibit will be on display through mid-December so everyone can see all the memorabilia that’s been sent in.
For more information check out the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame website .