The first time I ever experienced this city, it was for the first ever Sioux Falls Jazz and Blues Festival, way back in the 1990s.
I am sure you’ve heard of this amazing music festival before, which would bring in over 100,000 visitors every year.
That was not the case for the first festival, of course, which was much smaller and more intimate. As a small-town kid, hear the music being played at the festival blew my mind. Ever since then I knew that once day I would get out of my small town and make it to Sioux Falls, where there was culture. There was no culture in my town, but Sioux Falls had dozens of great museums, art galleries, bookstores, and everything else that interested me. When I turned 18 and was done with high school my best friend Max and I packed our few belongings into a van with the intent of starting a new life in Sioux Falls. Until we found jobs, we lived in that van, but thankfully by the second week Max had landed a great job with a local HVAC company. It was just grunt work, carrying tools and moving HVAC equipment to work sites, but the pay was decent. The following week I got a job with the same Sioux Falls contractor, and suddenly we had enough money to rent an apartment. Since then we have been working hard to save up money, so I actually don’t get to experience the culture of Sioux Falls as much as I would like.