Village People to play at 125th anniversary event

Thirteen years after their last appearance in Mitchell, the band behind such hits as “YMCA,” “Macho Man” and “In The Navy” will return to the city.

Lori Essig, vice president of university relations for Dakota Wesleyan University, announced Friday morning that the Village People will perform during the college’s Blue and White Bash on Oct. 2 at the Corn Palace.

The group features Jeff Olson, a DWU alumnus and brother of local former legislator Ed Olson, as “The Cowboy.” Jeff Olson graduated from DWU in 1975 with a biology degree.

The group last appeared in Mitchell in 1997 as a part of the Corn Palace Festival. Essig said the concert will be the “culminating event” of the university’s 125th anniversary celebration.

Tickets for the event go on sale April 17.

“We hope to have a full house,” Essig said.

Essig also announced that one of this year’s Corn Palace murals will be devoted to the university’s quasquicentennial, although the exact design is yet to be determined.

The mural makes sense to Essig, given the history shared by the Corn Palace and DWU.

“We are the only university in the entire country who really has any right to ask the Corn Palace for a mural,” Essig said. “We have been so tightly linked to the Corn Palace over the years.”

Essig said DWU often held theater productions in the Corn Palace in the 1920s. The university celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1935 by throwing a banquet in the Corn Palace that drew approximately 500 people. DWU also held the Centennial Ball at the Palace in 1985.

Essig said many DWU-linked artists, including Oscar Howe, Cal Schultz and current DWU art professor Cherie Ramsdell, have designed Corn Palace murals over the years.

“We think that it’s very fitting,” Essig said.

Tags: dakota wesleyan university, village people, jeff olson, ed olson, lori essig, corn palace mural, cherie ramsdell, oscar howe, cal schultz, news