Country Stampede move shows live music booming in Kansas City area
BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. — Country Stampede, the music festival best known for its years outside of Manhattan, Kansas, is on the move once again.
The festival will be held at Azura Amphitheater (Sandstone) in Bonner Springs starting next year. The announcement comes after the festival spent five years in Topeka.
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It follows a trend perhaps, with the Kansas City metro rarely getting passed over by big acts these days.
Country Stampede organizers said move “will keep its roots in the state of Kansas while moving closer to the Kansas City metro area. This will provide a great opportunity to introduce new fans to the festival who haven’t had the opportunity to travel to its previous locations.”
Country Stampede and Chris Fritz, president at Azura Amphitheater, confirmed that camping will remain an element of the event.
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Fritz said that live music is growing beyond even his own expectations. In the near term, Azura Amphitheater is renovating the stage, making it taller with an overhang, to accommodate acts.
“You see all these shows, the production’s bigger. The sound is better. They’ve got video. It’s just an enhancement that can’t be duplicated on a screen,” Fritz said.
Along with the growing interest, there’s been a revenue bump, with Kansas City estimating big numbers from the big acts that came through this summer. That includes $16 million from Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour finale and $48 million rippling from Taylor Swift’s two nights at Arrowhead Stadium.
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Even the T-Mobile Center is feeling the love, setting an attendance record with Zach Bryan’s final show there this year.
“It’s like, live music — at one point they thought it was going to shrivel. It has not shriveled. ’21 was great. ’22 was great. ’23 was great. ’24 seems almost insane, like still,” Fritz said.
There’s been no word on headliners yet for 2024’s Country Stampede. Tickets are not yet on sale.