By Emma Loura, The Mercury
A new music festival announced this week is bringing “red dirt” and Texas country styles of music to Tuttle Creek State Park this summer, standing on the shoulders of Manhattan’s live music traditions.
Rock the Plains’ executive producer Brandyn Steen, a K-State alumnus, hopes it will become an annual event.
“My two co-execs and I all went to K-State,” Steen said. “We all got to experience the Stampede days there at Tuttle Creek, so our goal with the event isn’t to replace Stampede by any means. Stampede was a pillar in the community for 20-plus years and if we can even accomplish even half of what they did, we will be successful.”
Country Stampede left Manhattan for Topeka in 2019 because concerns about flooding at the concert site, but officials later announced that Topeka would be the event’s permanent home. Last summer the event moved to Bonner Springs.
Steen said he and his team want to create a similar live-music experience.
“We don’t want to replace the event,” Steen said. “We just want to provide the community with another environment similar to that to go out and listen to some live music by the lake and make some awesome memories like we all had the chance to do.”
Steen said Rock the Plains will feature artists like the Randy Rogers Band, Aaron Watson, Braxton Keith, and the Josh Abbott Band, and others who are pillars of the red dirt country and Texas country subgenres.
“For year one, we want to focus on Red Dirt country music, Texas Country music and independent country music,” Steen said. “Manhattan, Aggieville, they love their country music.”
For the first year, Steen said he plans to keep it at a manageable size, with 8,000 tickets available for sale.
“For the first year, I want it to be an amazing customer experience,” Steen said. “I want for everyone to have a great time and it allows us to have the first year under our belt to really build up for year number two.”
The ticket sales went live on Friday. Steen said they have been selling well on the Rock the Plains website so far. Steen and his colleagues have been working directly with its Manhattan partners, including Tuttle Creek State Park, the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce and K-State to manage the event as smoothly as possible.
“We’ve had an amazing response so far,” Steen said. “The response from the community has been great.”
The music festival will be Aug. 8-9 at Tuttle Creek State Park.
