(Radio Iowa) – The annual Winter Dance Party starts today (Wednesday) at the Surf Ballroom and Museum in Clear Lake, the site where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper” J-P Richardson played their final concert before dying in a plane crash just north of Clear Lake in February of 1959. Jeff Nicholas is the chair and president of the nonprofit that runs the Surf Ballroom and says people from all over the nation — and world — will converge on Clear Lake through this weekend to celebrate ’50s era rock-and-roll.

“Buddy and Ritchie and The Bopper influenced so many artists like the Beatles and The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen, and just anybody that was a big time artist back in the day, and even in the current times,” Nicholas says. “It’s just really a part of American music.” Nicholas says organizers of the event appreciate the people who come each year to honor the fallen rockers and that era of music.

“We have what we have here in Clear Lake and we think it’s pretty special, but it really doesn’t mean anything until people from around the country come, and they’re really the ones, they think that we inspire them, but we think that they inspire us,” he says. “So if we put on these events and nobody came, then all of a sudden we’ve just got a building of bricks and mortar and it’s not that special, it’s not that different than anywhere else, but it’s just the history that we have here.”

Winter Dance Party participants this year will also be able to — for the first time — see the Surf’s new Music Experience Center next to the ballroom. Nicholas says it’s a combination of traditional museum space with displays and memorabilia, as well as an immersive visual experience. “You come in and it’s a surround sound and a surround video. It’s an immersive space, so there will be videos and projections on the floor and on the walls. It’s just a multi-sensory situation,” he says.

“You’ve got the music and your heart beating fast and you’ve got goosebumps. We just tell the musical story of the Surf Ballroom and wind it together with the big bands, and the country-western, and then of course that fateful night that the guys played here.” Part of the festivities include bringing students in from across the region to learn more about the ballroom and the ’50s era rock-and-roll.

“We feel, not empowered, but very significant, that very significant time in music history when the music did die for a brief moment,” he says. “We’ve taken upon ourselves to be one of many people and many venues and many organizations that continue and will continue this the legacy of this music.” For a full list of events taking place at the Surf, head to https://surfballroom.com/wdp/