Full size coverFull size coverEverybody knows that the Black Hills Heritage Festival is the place to be during the first days of July.
The days offer entertainment and fun food and drink for the whole family.
The nights rock with the finest in national, regional and local acts.
By Rochelle Hagel
The Black Hills Heritage Festival will
open at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 3.
The entertainment and activities will continue until late evening
on Friday, July 6.
The festival draws between 60,000 and 70,000 visitors annually. These people are drawn by the variety and quality of the activities offered. Darla Drew Lerdal is the new executive director of the board.
“The purpose behind this festival is to create an atmosphere for sharing and celebrating the ethnic and cultural diversity of Rapid City,” Drew Lerdal said.
“This is a diverse area and it’s a challenge to meet and include all the diverse groups that are represented in Rapid City — that’s a challenge,” she said.
To that end the festival will present to attendees Lakota dancers and belly dancers, rock groups and bell choirs, fine arts and arts and crafts and much more.
To fully meet the challenge, though, Drew Lerdal said they will be reaching out to even more cultural groups in the area in the future.
“There are several culturally diverse groups represented this year, but we hope to grow that component as well,” she said. “The organization is interested in representing as many of the cultural groups in Rapid City as possible.”
Drew Lerdal said that any organized ethnic or cultural group is welcome to contact her and discuss participation in next year’s festival.
“They must be an organized group that could man a booth, facilitate an activity or do a performance,” she said.
The Black Hills Heritage Festival is a non-profit organization; run by a volunteer board. Every year, the proceeds from the festival are put back into the event to help it grow. Now in its seventeenth year, the Heritage Festival is the largest, free entertainment and arts festival in western South Dakota.
New features at the Black Hills Heritage Festival
There will be a Children’s Tent, fine arts in the Lake Stage and a special film presentation at The Journey.
The Children’s Tent will bring many community entities under one “roof” to provide entertainment for children of all ages.
South Dakota Public Television will be getting involved in the action. SDPTV’s mascot Seymour will be in the Children’s Tent on Thursday and Friday. Kids can pick up a free balloon and sing along with Willy Grigg to all their favorite PBS theme songs — like Teletubbies, Barney and Sesame Street — and do the hokey-pokey.
The Rapid City Red Dogs will be coming down at intervals to read Clifford the Big Red Dog to children from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Wednesday - Friday.
Borders Books will treat kids to storytellers, book reading, and provide arts and ethnic diversity activities. They are hosting Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. Sneve, an award-winning author of both children’s and adult literature, will read and sign books.
The Children’s Science Center will present Bubble Mania. It will offer children the opportunity to actually get inside a bubble in their bubble tank.
The Imagination Station will feature arts and crafts activities and reading activities. The Rapid City Library will also be participating.
Smatterings Gallery, under the direction of Kim Haad, will be exhibiting local art in the Lake Stage Tent before the music gets going in the afternoon. Visitors will be able to view the art from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m., Wednesday - Friday.
“It will be an eclectic display of local fine art changing daily,” Drew Lerdal said.
The festival board hopes that the fine art aspect of the festival will grow in the future, but maybe not on the festival grounds.
“The vision of the festival is to reconnect to the fine arts community and bring them in with shows at the Journey in a climate-controlled atmosphere,” Drew Lerdal said. “The artists are concerned about having their fine works out in a tent — and rightfully so.”
The Journey Museum will present Lewis and Clark: Journey of Discovery, the four-hour PBS documentary, in two parts on July 4 and 5 from 7 - 9 p.m. in the theater. As part of the Heritage Festival, it is open to the public at no charge.
The Heritage Festival features two stages — the Main Stage in the bandshell and the Lake Stage — to cover as many musical bases as possible.
The Lake Stage, a smaller, more intimate setting than the bandshell, will host local groups — everything from Scottish music to a bell choir to acoustic solo acts.
“If you look into the Lake Stage schedule we have classical, Scottish music, a bell choir, the men’s chorus,” Drew Lerdal said. “They are better during the day when you don’t have a rowdy crowd.”
“The Lake Stage for acoustic and original music is part of the festival we hope to grow,” Drew Lerdal said. “That is an important component of the culture around here.”
The Main Stage will bring national, regional and local talent to festival-goers. There are three main categories of entertainment planned for the Main Stage this year; Local Legends, Late Night and Headliners.
The Headliners include The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Spooncat!, Kelly Hunt, Kenny Putnam and Fine Pine.
The Amazing Rhythm Aces — Third Rate Romance, Amazing Grace (Used to be Her Favorite Song) — a country R&B group are enjoying a renaissance after a nearly fifteen year break from recording or touring as a group. The Grammy winning act reunited in 1996 and have been going strong ever since.
Spooncat! a funk fusion band that hails from Sioux Falls have appeared at both the Heritage Festival and the Black Hills Jazz and Blues Festival.
Kelly Hunt is a Texas blues singer who presents a high-energy show.
Kenny Putnam and Fine Pine could also fit into the Local Legends line-up if the truth be known. Putnam was a member of the Red Willow Band and is instrumental in producing the enormously popular South Dakota Acoustic Christmas every year.
The Local Legends series will feature Suspects, DD and the Fayrohs, the CounterPlayers and Swing Shift. The bands will play early time-slots that will make them accessible to families, Drew Lerdal said.
“We wanted to give credit to the players that have sustained the music scene for many years in the local area,” Drew Lerdal said. And, “we wanted to put them on early enough so that families can come out — so that kids can come and see the players they’ve heard their parents talk about for years — any of these bands could be headliners for the festival, but we wanted them in a time spot where we think everyone could see them.”
The Late Night roster —Toadstool Jamboree, Dred I Dred and Baby Snakes — is designed especially to please younger audience members and hold the interest of the older ones.
“The late night belongs to our younger attendees and that’s people under seventy that love crazy music,” Drew Lerdal said. “Toadstool Jamboree is a real crowd pleaser. They put out a great vibe. We know that they can handle a crowd and leave them with a good feeling. They’re young enough and alternative enough to please the youngest attendees and they are accomplished enough to hold our over 40 crowd.”
“Baby Snakes is the most under-acknowledged great rock band in our area,” she said. “What they do best is new hard rock covering the female spectrum of that rock from Melissa Etheridge to Susan Tedeschi . They’re hip enough to please the younger people and their level of musical competence will please any age group.”
Dred I Dred is a Minneapolis-based six-piece reggae and world beat band. They were hired in response to what the board heard from the community.
“It’s a need we heard from the community,” Drew Lerdal said. “They wanted a reggae component and we think it will be a spectacular conclusion to the festival.”
“You can’t have a festival anymore without including world beat music — it’s such celebration music. It just makes you feel good.”
5:30 p.m. — the Lonely Rangers - acoustic
guitar duo
6:30 p.m. — Sizzling Strings - classical string quartet
8:00 p.m. — No Clue! - guitar, flute and congas
2:00 p.m. — J.B. King - songs for the
heart
3:30 p.m. — Tamala Tally - classical harpist
5:00 p.m. — Matt Shuck - one-man jam band
6:30 p.m. — Christy Anderson - that country thang
8:00 p.m. — Sequoia - tribal hip-hop
1:00 p.m. — Steve Thorpe - granddad of
black hills folk
3:30 p.m. — Dave and Chris - juggling and comedy
4:00 p.m. — Stephanie Croff - soaring song and guitar
5:30 p.m. — Rick McBride - songs of the wild west
7:00 p.m. — Haley Bonar - alternative grrrl power
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. — CHILDREN’S
SCIENCE CENTER — Bubble Mania
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. — BORDERS EXPLORER CAMP — Willy
Grigg will MC; there will be storytelling, bookreading and
activities, as well as giveaways
10:00 - 11:30 a.m. — IMAGINATION STATION
11:30 - 1:30 p.m. — CHILDRENS SCENCE CENTER — same as
above
1:30 - 3:30 p.m. — BORDERS
10:00-10:30 a.m. — RAPID CITY PUBLIC
LIBRARY — Storytime
10:30 a.m. - Noon — IMAGINATION STATION
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. — CHILDREN’S SCIENCE CENTER
1:30-3:30 p.m. — BORDERS EXPLORER CAMP
4:00 p.m. — RED DOGS —The Red Dogs read Clifford, the
Big Red Dog and sign posters
Heritage Festival Main Stage Schedule
4 p.m. — Mike Modrick - 4-day forecast and
kick off welcome
4:05 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. — Swing Shift-jazz
7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. — Project 327 (progressive rock/jazz
bebop gospel)
10 p.m. to 12 p.m. — Kelley Hunt (female blues pianist and
band)
10 a.m. — Hot Shots Dance Group
Heartland Dance Group
11a.m. — Mallory Haley (12 year old singer/phenom)
11:30 a.m. — Care County Cloggers
Noon — Shrine of Democracy Chorus (men’s choir)
1:00 — Graffiti –four piece women’s vocal (not
confirmed)
2 p.m. — Abbey Road- Beatles only cover band (Monte Madison)
3:30 - 4 p.m. — Buffalo Dancers (Lakota dance troupe)
4 - 6 p.m. — Clason Park (oldies to 90’s rock and
country)
6:30 - 7:30p.m. — Municipal Band
8 - 9:45 p.m. — Kenny Putnam & Fine Pine (captivating
acoustic/electric music for all ages)
9:50 p.m. — Mayor Jerry Munson address
10:15 p.m. - midnight — Toadstool Jamboree (alternative
groove rock)
10 a.m. — Ecuador Manta (acoustic music
from Ecuador)
11 a.m. — Bell’s Angels (bell choir)
12 p.m. — Black Hills Pipe & Drums (Scottish music)
Walk around music July 5-6 (afternoon)
1 - 3 p.m. — Storybook Island Players
3:15 - 4 p.m. — Gypsy Belly dance group
4 - 5:30p.m. — Counter Players (acoustic and unusual
instruments)
6 - 7:45 p.m. — DD & The Fayrohs (50s-70s rock; with
special guests Ranger Band)
8 - 10 p.m. — Spooncat! (8-piece horn rhythm and blues)
10:15 - midnight — Baby Snakes (new hard rock)
10 a.m. — Yoga with Mary Hensley
11 a.m. — Nick Rottum (new country music/male vocalist)
11:30 a.m. — Dynamic Martial Arts -demo
Noon — The Willys (music for children and sophisticated
adults)
1p.m. — YMCA Twisters (Gymnastics Team)
2 p.m. — Desert Dreamers Dance Troupe
3 p.m. — Heywood (light rock and jazz from band made up of
High School Students)
4 p.m. — Meet the Red Dogs Indoor Football Team /Red Dogs
Extreme Dance Team Demo
5 p.m. — Suspects
7 p.m. — Suspects (R&B)
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. — The Amazing Rhythm Aces (Country R&B)
10 p.m. - midnight — Dred I Dred (World beat/reggae)