New Tuttle Creek music, camping festival to be smaller than Country Stampede – The Topeka Capital-Journal

Taylor Swift and Luke Bryan were among performers in 2008 and 2012, respectively, at the Kicker Country Stampede music and camping festival held from 1996 to 2018 at Manhattan’s Tuttle Creek State Park.
That event tended to draw 100,000 music fans a year. It moved in 2019 to Topeka, then in 2024 to Bonner Springs.
The new Rock the Plains country music and camping festival — taking place Aug. 8 and Aug. 9 at Tuttle Creek State Park — will start smaller, with attendance being capped at 10,000 for this year’s first version, said founder Brandyn Steen.
Steen said April 30 that he hopes the festival gives Manhattan an economic boost like it got from Country Stampede. He hopes to make Rock the Plains an annual event.
„Rock the Plains is more than just a music festival — it’s a celebration of the heartland’s spirit, set in the vibrant town of Manhattan, Kansas,“ said the event’s website.
Rock the Plains is not aimed at replacing Country Stampede, said Stein, who is based in Nashville.
He said he twice attended the latter event while taking graduate courses about 15 years ago at Kansas State University.
„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,“ he told The Capital-Journal.
This year’s festival will feature performers from the genres of Texas country, red dirt country and Americana music, Steen said.
The Randy Rogers Band will be the headliner Aug. 8, with that day’s other performers being Aaron Watson, Braxton Keith, Kaitlin Butts, Curtis Grimes, Jenna Paulette, Clay Aery and DJ DU.
Casey Donahew will headline the Aug. 9 performance. That day’s other acts will be the Josh Abbott Band, Pat Green, Logan Mize, Adam Hood, Kat Hasty, Clay Aery and DJ DU.
Tickets can be purchased on the event website at rocktheplains.com. They cost $129 for a two-day pass and $465 for a package containing four two-day passes. A VIP upgrade for each two-day ticket will be available for $250.
A two-day parking pass is available for $20.
Campsites range in cost from $200 to $500 and will be available from noon Aug. 7 to noon Aug. 10.
The event will be cashless, its website said.
Organizers currently are selling only two-day passes but could begin selling one-day passes a few weeks before the festival, if necessary, Steen said.
He suggested this year’s 10,000-person attendance cap would help organizers gauge what the community wants while enabling them to still make concert goers happy.
Allowing more than 10,000 people could result in crowd control becoming a problem and „not everyone having a good time,“ he said.
Steen, 38, is involved with artist management, artist development, booking, event production, consulting and label services. His co-executives for the event are Coleman Younger and Richard Jones, both fellow K-State alumni, he said.
Steen recalled having attended the Country Stampede twice while he was in graduate school.
„It was awesome,“ he said. „I remember the heat. I remember the rain. I remember good energy and good fun. That’s kind of what we want to recreate with Rock the Plains.“
Rock the Plains will be more „community-oriented“ than Country Stampede, Steen said.
While Country Stampede has typically been held in June or July, Steen said Rock the Plains is taking place in August, which means it will face less competition from other Kansas summer festivals.
August also tends to see less rain than June and July, he said.
Steen added that while Kansas State University students have generally been out of town when Country Stampede has been held, he hopes many return to Manhattan before school starts each August so they can attend Rock the Plains.
Fall semester classes this year begin Aug. 25 at K-State.
Steen added that he likes holding Rock the Plains in early- to mid-August because that means it won’t have to compete for attention with college football games.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.

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