As the summer months start to dwindle and fall prepares to bring a season of change, the weather has become palpable for many looking to venture outdoors and camp with friends and family. The Midwest is a paradise for campgrounds and 1.8 million people camped in some capacity in 2023 and weekend festivals featuring music and other entertainment have become hot commodities in recent years. Of course, as the demand for an outdoor camping experience rose, so did the cost of a ticket for it. How dare capitalism get in the way of a fun weekend with nature?
Thankfully, Mark Wolff of Elysian took matters into his own hands and set out to host a camping experience of his very own without charging a king’s ransom for a ticket. The aptly named Wolffstock: Party in the Pasture hosted its sixth annual gathering on a small patch of land off Tustin Lake Road in Elysian on September 13 & 14. The two day festival held roughly 200 campers ready to spend the weekend outdoors with friends and family while listening to some tunes as a variety of performances by The Paul Stewart Show, 5 Minute Major, Gary West, Family Tradition, and others provided the live entertainment throughout the afternoon and evenings.
The very first Wolffstock back in 2018 was a learning experience for everyone involved, including the Lamonts, as each member of the group would “tell 20 people about it” and word quickly got around as the group planned the event in six weeks. Soon after one Wolffstock ends, the cycle of booking bands, preparing the space for the event, and taking reservations begins again for Wolff, the Lamonts, and the “tight knit” group of friends of roughly 20 volunteers helped facilitate traffic, set up the stage and event spaces, cook a meal on both nights, and assisted Wolff additional preparations for the event.
Attending the afternoon showings of Saturday’s Wolffstock gave me a bit more insight about the event as I was greeted by two of the many people responsible for putting all of this together, Mark and Terra Lamont. The Lamonts have been a part of the event since its inception and explained how Wolffstock all began, “A group of us including Wolff would attend Country Fest in Wisconsin for many years and then over time, it started to just get a bit too spendy.” Wolff decided to commit to the familiar saying: If you can’t beat them. Join them. and worked to create an event all his own, “He (Wolff) just wanted to create an economic alternative for what just might be the last kind of hurrah for the summer.”
The land belongs to Wolff’s cousin and is a humble cow pasture that was tended to by the village it takes to host the event. Lamont joked that those attending Wolffstock would have to beware of “cow pies” while walking around. The land did provide plenty of space campers and motorhomes old and new, small and large…some people came in a pickup truck. Not surprisingly, trying to maneuver these behemoths into tight corridors comes with “some hiccups” noted Lamont, but the event granted attendees a chance to park their campers days prior to the event.
Backing up with a trailer is a strange science, so I can understand why some drivers would need a more private opportunity to park the 41 foot Gulf Stream between a couple of threes. Honestly, I’m not much of a camper or really a big fan of being outdoors; I crisp up like bacon to a hot pan, but there was a nostalgic feeling witnessing friends and family cook brats on a grill, crack a cold one with the boys, and enjoy some live classic rock playing. I’m guessing that the sunset was crazy, right? Many of the attendees of this year’s Wolffstock are close friends with Wolff and have been attending the event since it started as an “overlapping circle of friends” is the bulk of the crowd in the pasture.
Local bands like Gary West and Family Tradition were two of the four music acts on Saturday’s lineup drew crowds near the stage as folks listened to a variety of classic rock and country music. West was an especially great performer as his harmonies and his astonishing black cowboy suit and hat gave a Johnny Cashian aura to the performance. As West began to play his set, the communal space in front the stage was barren, but once the music started and he sang, many event goers exited their campers, grabbed their lawn chairs and coolers, and made a beeline to the stage for another hour or two of live music and good times with friends and family.
Much of the crowd who attended are local residents of Elysian, but Lamont noted that a few travel from South Dakota to enjoy the weekend outdoors. Wolffstock may have a humble location, but I think it brings a certain level of charm that you make the best out of a…crappy situation. It’s the resilience of wanting something for yourself that can really help spark a change for the better; I’m not sure Wolff expected this writeup to be a philosophical rambling about the will of man, but it took a village of his closest friends to make this happen. Some hard work and trust created an event celebrating its sixth straight year providing an affordable camping experience during what some may call troubling times. I’m no camper, but I like it when things I enjoy don’t absolutely wreck my wallet.
