By Emma Loura
A new music festival, Rock the Plains, is a week away and the event’s co-founder said tickets are limited. The Country Stampede-inspired event will take place Aug. 8 and 9 at Tuttle Creek Park.
“Preparations for this started well over a year ago, reaching out to the park and having everything taken care of that they needed, that we’re respectful of the space and that we are able to put together a top-notch event for everyone who is coming out to it,” said Coleman Younger, a Rock the Plains co-founder.
Younger said the event is “Manhattan-centric,” with local vendors and businesses helping make it possible. Rock the Plains is also working with the same audio and video professionals who are involved with a similar event called Rock the Coast.
Artists featured in this music festival include the Randy Rogers Band, Aaron Watson, Braxton Keith and Josh Abbott, as well as other artists of the Texan red dirt country genre. Younger said Rock Plains co-founder, Brandyn Steen chose the artists based on their popularity around Kansas.
“We really wanted to make sure we could capitalize, number one, on artists that we know people in Manhattan and surrounding areas would love to see,” Younger said. “But also, number two, we want artists who are going to put on a very good show.”
Younger said there are opportunities for meet-and-greets, so they also selected artists who are fan-friendly for VIP patrons who want to meet them.
“It’s coming together really well,” Younger said. “We especially want to make a good impression with the show itself.”
Rock the Plains is capped at 10,000 attendees. Younger said he expects a large turnout and there are not many tickets left.
“We still have some tickets available for general admission and I still think for VIP there are a couple as well,” Younger said. “We really want to encourage folks to go and get those now because if you try to get them up there at the gate that’s not going to be an option.”
Younger said visiting the festival’s site at Tuttle Creek Park was a nostalgic experience. He and the event’s co-founders used to attend Country Stampede performances years ago as college students. Younger also worked in the finance department for Country Stampede for 11 years. Another founding partner of Rock the Plains, Richard Jones, also worked backstage for Country Stampede.
“I think that the big advantage that we have … is that our experience out there at Tuttle Creek State Park, combined with Brandyn Steen’s experience of putting on top-notch events around the world, we were able to piece together what went great at Tuttle Creek State Park, here’s what didn’t work so great and here’s what we can do better,” Younger said.
Country Stampede relocated from Tuttle Creek to Topeka in 2019 because of flooding concerns and then to Bonner Springs in 2024 after the venue in Topeka closed down. Younger said there have not been any issues with the concert site while setting it up and organizers are working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers and Tuttle Creek Park.
“You can go out there and easily see where the stage was, you can see in your mind where all these things had been set up,” Younger said. “They’ve done a top-notch job and they’ve done so much work in the park for us.”
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