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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSurf Ballroom’s Winter Dance Party honors Buddy Holly, celebrates rock ‘n’ roll<\/p>\n
The Winter Dance Party at Clear Lake, Iowa’s Surf Ballroom celebrates rock ‘n’ roll and honors the legacies of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, who died Feb. 3, 1959 in an airplane crash after a show at the Surf.<\/p>\n
Brian Powers, Des Moines Register<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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If the wooden dance floor sitting under the navy blue arched ceiling of the Surf Ballroom could talk, it would likely say that the music did live on at the rock ‘n’ roll oasis in Clear Lake, Iowa.<\/p>\n The walls of the green room, etched with signatures from performers, would agree. The stage has seen artists ranging from Little Richard and Roy Orbison to Alice Cooper and the Doobie Brothers.<\/p>\n Located on North Shore Drive, the Surf Ballroom was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 2021, according to the venue’s website.<\/a><\/p>\n With an expansive history, the beach-themed venue still hosts concerts and much more.<\/p>\n A tragic accident near the Surf Ballroom thrust the venue into the history books.<\/p>\n Remembered as “the day the music died,” Feb. 3, 1959, marks the day Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died after playing the ballroom. Their plane crashed into a cornfield outside of Clear Lake, Iowa. The touring trio visited Midwestern ballrooms and auditoriums for roughly three-and-a-half weeks, starting in Milwaukee.<\/p>\nWhat made the Surf Ballroom famous?<\/h2>\n