Surf Ballroom & Museum — Attraction in Clear Lake

What kind of historical place closes at 4PM?!?!?! And closed on weekends?? Seriously??

Not ideal for long haul road trippers. I would also NOT recommend this place for families with children. I was very glad I was not traveling with my wife and children when I stopped to visit the Surf Ballroom, for reasons I will explain.

A friend and I arrived after a 14 Hour road trip at 3:55PM. A very kind man let us come in and take a quick look “only at the hallway” and purchase items in the gift shop.

I have to take away stars because a very hostile security guard was rude, impolite, and was trying way too hard to intimidate us. At first I laughed, but then very quickly became annoyed at the way he was treating guests who were more than happy to spend money at the gift shop.

We were instructed by said guard that we were not allowed to look at the ballroom under any circumstances. Huh?!?!??! Isn’t that the only reason travelers would even set foot in Clear Lake, IA? For all the money we spent in the gift shop, you would have thought that a quick glance at the ballroom would have been OK. Apparently not.

It added a cold chill to the experience, which is already sad enough when you think about what was lost on that tragic day in 1959.

My favorite part was when I asked the security guard for directions to the memorial site where the plane crashed. He told me he had no idea how to get there. Either he’s the only person in Clear Lake that doesn’t know where the site is, or he was being intentionally rude to us. I seem to think he was being intentionally rude. If the employees of my company behaved so rudely and spoke to visitors or customers like that, they would be looking for a new place to work.

For those of us East Coasters who hear so much about Midwest friendliness, we certainly did not encounter it at the Surf Ballroom during our visit. I never imagined in a million years that there would be someone so rude and hostile to out of town visitors that have traveled great distances, who want nothing more than to pay their respects and make a pilgrimage to honor Holly, Valens, and Richardson.

For road trippers, especially families, I would NOT recommend adjusting a road trip to stop in Clear Lake to visit the Surf Ballroom. If it’s on your way, fine, just make sure you’re there WAY before the 4PM close. If it’s not directly on your route, or if you’re going to arrive between 3:30-4PM, just keep moving and skip it. It’s not worth the rude treatment. Maybe just limit it to just taking pictures outside, and then go see the crash site, which is way...

I brought my son's to the Surf Ballroom to see Flogging Molly there on September 13th. We had never seen Flogging Molly and they were not playing in Minnesota for this tour. So we decided to make the trip to Iowa to see them. I actually drove 170 miles to come to this show. It was extremely disappointing. Not the bands. All 3 bands were amazing! The Surf Ballroom has a very strict no moshing rule. They have an abundance of Security to enforce that rule. That rule ended up really making a lot of the crowd frustrated. And the bands frustrated. I am 55 years old and have been seeing punk bands since I was 15. I grew up in the pit. I have NEVER been to a punk show with no pit EVER! I talked to some of the regulars there and they all said they have never seen a pit there, EVER! Not with punk nor with rap, nothing! I honestly wonder when Buddy Holly played there did they make the crowd sit? We're they allowed to dance? Moshing is not a new form of dance. It is now 40 years old. I can say that with confidence. I was there. I have seen and experienced the evolution of the pit. What the pit has evolved into is a blast. It isn't scary. And it isn't violent. What might appear as chaos is actually fun and respect. The people in the pit watch out for each other. If someone falls they pick them up. They will guard people with their bodies. I feel ridiculous actually writing this. I shouldn't have to explain our justify moshing. I am only writing this to explain to the owners and the security. The venue has a responsibility to make sure that their customers have the best rock n roll experience available. They also have a responsibility to the band to make sure that they can give their fans the best experience available. The Surf Ballroom does none of this. They quash the rock n roll environment. I will never go back to the Surf Ballroom. My son's will never go back to the Surf Ballroom. I will never recommend the Surf Ballroom. If you want to see a band that includes a mosh pit this is definitely not the venue! It's too bad. The venue is beautiful and large and...

A great experience except on one occasion Saturday night during the 2018 Winter Dance Party. I was filming for a documentary for youth world-wide to learn about the 3 stars (Buddy, Ritchie, and The Big Bopper) and rock n' roll history in general. Friday night I was told by a security guard he could not let me into the VIP section because only certain people on the list were allowed in, completely understandable. I then contacted someone on the VIP list the next day and told them I could not get in Friday night I would like to get footage of them that(Saturday) night, and they had told me to 1) come get them from the VIP section or 2) request a security guard come and grab them. Thus, Saturday night I went to the security guard protecting the VIP entrance and asked "Sir, would you please go grab [they did not want to be named] and let them know Jack Humphrey is out here. As they had requested me to ask you at the entrance?" to which the security guard responded "Do I look like your waiter!". I was not upset that he did not go grab them, but rather anyone would talk to another human in such a way, especially a paying customer. I then went and requested to speak to the security manager to simply file a complaint. Only to discover the guard that was so rude to me was the manager of security(which was more absurd a manager would speak that way). When I asked to file a written complaint he laughed at me, but did allow me to file a complaint. I was going to upload the footage of him as I recording that night with my GoPro and caught it on video, but believe it is unfair to publicly shame someone. Another security guard(below the manger) came and talked to me after he had witnessed the event and apologized on his managers behalf saying he was sorry and I should not have been dis-respected in such a...