2-day music festival coming to Great Bear next year

A new outdoor summer music festival is coming to Sioux Falls in 2025.

Lallycooler Music Festival will be July 11-12 at Great Bear Ski Valley and is being produced by 3e Encore, a subset brand identity of Washington Pavilion Management Inc.

The idea is to create a “really special, fun, major summer music festival,” said Darrin Smith, president and CEO of Washington Pavilion Management and 3e Encore.

“Our goal is to bring people together and offer a cool summer event that is for everyone. An outdoor music festival perfectly aligns with our mission to entertain and enrich our community, and we see this festival as the start of a tradition that will grow and evolve, and that the community will be excited to embrace.”

The full lineup will include more than a dozen artists representing rock, pop, country, folk and other genres. Country artist Sam Hunt will be the headliner on the evening of July 11.

MarketBeat will serve as the event’s presenting sponsor, which will include selecting a local nonprofit jointly with the Washington Pavilion to receive a portion of the festival’s proceeds.

“A significant goal of Lallycooler Music Festival presented by MarketBeat is to create an event for the local community, supporting local businesses and boosting the local economy,” organizers said in a statement.

The name “Lallycooler” was chosen “to reflect a variety of musical genres and offer both regional appeal and a creative feel,” organizers said, adding that it’s fun to say, “funky in visual form and an actual slang term meaning ‘success.’”

Great Bear Ski Valley was chosen as the location “because of its unique, beautiful and inspiring 260-acre setting. The stage will be set near the lodge looking out at the impressive landscape of hills, grasslands, trees and hiking trails,” according to the statement.

“The ski hill will provide natural amphitheater seating, while the rest of the recreation park provides ample opportunity to spread out.”

The festival also will include local food and beverage vendors, activities for festival-goers of all ages and camping opportunities. Full weekend and one-day passes will be available for sale, and prices “will intentionally be affordable,” organizers said.

“The Great Bear team is thrilled to co-host this event with the Washington Pavilion,” said Dan Grider, Great Bear general manager. “Transforming the park, primarily known as a winter destination, into a year-round venue has long been our goal. Seeing the hillside filled with thousands of festival fans next July will be awesome.”

Updates will be posted at lallycooler.com and on Facebook and Instagram.