Dam Jam music festival has found new home after county denied access to lake. Here’s where
The show will go on for Dam Jam this July.
On Monday night, the Goddard City Council approved a special event permit allowing the two-day music festival to be hosted on 40 acres of private property at 1744 S. 183rd St. West.
The decision comes nearly two months after the Sedgwick County Commission denied organizers access to Lake Afton, where the festival was held in 2023, citing security concerns and objections to one planned musical act’s lyrics.
Now, the festival that bills itself as “the biggest lake party in Kansas” will have to make do without a lake. But event organizer CJ Wilson said what the new venue lacks in lakes will be made up for in “party.”
“It’s now Kansas’ biggest outdoor party, pretty much — dance under the stars type thing,” said Wilson, the president of A Production Company, which puts on the annual festival.
Last year, festivalgoers couldn’t swim in Lake Afton anyway because of blue-green algae.
“The lake, yeah, it was there. It was nice. But really, we didn’t get in the water, so we can produce what we produced before, just having to be a little bit more creative,” Wilson said. “Bringing in some sand, putting in some palm trees, just having a good time. And we’ll still have the beach party and the bikini contest and the dad bod contest.”
The festival will run from July 19-20 and feature artists including Brantley Gilbert, Stone Temple Pilots, Jo Dee Messina and Wheeler Walker Jr., whose profanity-laden lyricism drew the ire of several county commissioners.
“It got to the point of, we have a lot of people who bought tickets and a lot of sponsors and a lot of people that are expecting this event,” Wilson said. “We’ve invested a lot of money on artists. It came down to the point that, well, we’ve got to find a venue. And then we were embraced by Goddard and it’s just kind of like it was meant to be.”
Organizers are expecting between 6,000 and 7,000 attendees, including ticket holders from as far as California, Arizona and Wisconsin. Besides music, the festival will also feature scavenger hunts, corn hole, car shows and camping.
“We find the opportunity to be a great benefit to our community. We’re super excited to have it here,” Goddard City Administrator Craig Crossette said.
“We hope to make it a permanent fixture for years to come.”
Crossette said he was impressed with A Production Company’s security plan, which features 105 security guards on-site. Organizers also plan to hire 10 to 15 off-duty police officers and sheriff’s deputies and six EMTs.
“They checked all the boxes in that regard,” he said.
Before voting against the Lake Afton proposal, county commissioners heard from Sheriff Jeff Easter, who said if festivalgoers got out of hand, it could require an increased law enforcement presence that might deplete resources for the rest of the county.
“After going over our safety and risk assessment with the fire marshal and with the chief of police in Goddard, we’re actually oversecured for the event,” Wilson said. “We do that on purpose. Safety is just as important to us as it is to anyone else.”
Wilson said in the future, A Production Company would like to purchase property in or near Goddard to build an event center and a permanent stage.
“There’s always options on the table,” she said. “But this place is going to be great for a couple of years. We want to stay in Goddard. We’ll be very clear about that. Right now, this is the location, and who knows what the future will hold?”
Sedgwick County nixes music festival at Lake Afton, citing public safety, vulgar artist
