Downtown at Sundown in Brookings, SD

For seven weeks out of the summer, community members, businesses, and visitors all come together in one city block to enjoy live music, mingle with friends and family, fill their bellies with local grub, bounce around in the bouncy houses and simply revel in a hot summer night under the stars. Downtown at Sundown is more than just an outdoor concert series. It brings everyone together under one star-filled roof. Patrons look after kids (that aren’t their own) bouncing in the bouncy houses, pick up trash (even if it’s not theirs), and reach out to new members in the community over an ice-cold local brew. We’ve coined this our cultural melting pot because so many different people from different backgrounds, and economic status are all coming for one reason — to enjoy a free night out and listen to some great music.

Stories About Downtown at Sundown

One of the reasons Downtown at Sundown was able to get off the ground was because of the commitment and support from the City of Brookings and First Bank & Trust. It may seem like an easy ask, but what we’re doing in Brookings (specifically with Downtown at Sundown) has never been done before, so we were asking our city officials and our biggest sponsor to take a leap of faith (a large pot of money type of faith). Without knowing what kind of success or failure Downtown at Sundown would be — they invested, because supporting their community is important to them, in more ways than one.

In Brookings, we’re all family. We’re a small community of 23,000-plus and we truly believe in our people. We’re all here to support each other and champion our successes, but we’re also not afraid to fail and take that extra leap. First Bank & Trust has been with Downtown at Sundown since its inception in 2014 and continues to be our biggest supporter — and we all had no idea what the future would hold, if Downtown at Sundown would flop or not. Their motto is “bank easy,” and they’ve made this process easy for us.

Nothing in our community is ever accomplished alone. It takes a team. It takes a family. So as much as anyone would like to say, oh it’s just a outdoor music festival — we would all beg to argue, it’s much, much more than that. Everyone who’s involved believes in the event, believes in the community and believes in us. We’re in this together and the growing success of Downtown at Sundown is proof. Our Midwestern state of mind is naturally to help our neighbor, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the support we’ve received from our local community.