The Largest Music Festival in Motorcycling | |
Buffalo Chip Campground Logo
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Address | 20622 131st Ave |
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Location | Sturgis, United States |
Coordinates | 44.41398,-103.413749 |
Owner | Rod Woodruff |
Type | Campground, Concert Event |
Genre(s) | Examples: ZZ Top, Toby Keith, Saving Abel, Buckcherry |
Website | |
www |
The Buffalo Chip Campground is an event venue in Buffalo Chip, South Dakota, USA. It is a gathering place for motorcycle enthusiasts and music festival visitors each year, and has been since being founded in 1981. Host to a 10-day Concert Series and thousands of motorcyclists each August during the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the Buffalo Chip provides a music festival, various other forms of entertainment, and full service tent, RV and cabin camping on almost 600 acres in rural Meade County. The motorcycle and music festival also features entertainment such as beauty pageants, dance performances, bike shows and stunts, roller derby, midget bowling, military tributes and more. The Buffalo Chip has been featured on multiple television specials on the Travel Channel, Discovery and the Fox Sports Network.
The Sturgis Buffalo Chip Campground, located outside of Sturgis, SD, began in 1981 as a campground for bikers attending the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. In the early years motorcyclists roughed it in tents in little more than a pasture, however over the years the Buffalo Chip Campground installed electricity, drilled wells, installed flush toilets, shower houses, RV sites, Cabins, turned a pond into a swimming hole called the “Bikini Beach”, added 3 more stages, numerous bars, multiple food services, a convenience store, laid asphalt, erected the iron “Welcome Home Biker” entrance gates and an 8-ton buffalo sculpture with the letters “CHIP” cut out of its center 30’ above Hwy 34 at the corner of the Sturgis Buffalo Chip’s property.
The Sturgis Buffalo Chip featured Susan Nelson as the first artist to perform at its inaugural event, followed by Johnny Paycheck.
The Buffalo Chip made notable national television news coverage in 2008 when John McCain visited the Buffalo Chip Campground on his 2008 campaign trail. McCain joked that he wanted his wife to enter the Miss Buffalo Chip beauty contest held at the Buffalo Chip campground. In 2009 the Buffalo Chip made additional notable national news coverage when Aerosmith lead singer, Steven Tyler, fell off the stage.