Join South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) for the premiere of Dakota Life: Greetings from Wessington Springs on Monday, March 31 at the Historic 1905 Opera House. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and attendees will be provided with refreshments and an opportunity to enter drawings for SDPB items that night. The screening will begin at 7 p.m.
The Wessington Springs premiere airs on SDPB April 10 at 8 p.m. CT.
In an exciting announcement made last spring, South Dakota Public Broadcasting (SDPB) had selected Wessington Springs as one of the nine towns chosen for the upcoming 27th season of Dakota Life. Touted as SDPB's flagship “magazine” television show, the program features “stories about interesting South Dakota people, places, and things.”
It all began with a community conversation with SDPB held on Tuesday, April 23, 2024 at the Springs Inn Cafe.
“With Dakota Life, we go out to the featured communities in order to connect with the individuals within before we ever touch a camera in order to learn more about the community and stories within,” explained Nathan Hofer, Director of Community Impact for South Dakota Public Broadcasting. “We want to hear what makes these communities special from the eyes of the individuals who have chosen to live there or those who grew up there. We want to build relationships with our featured communities at large and simply hear what it means to call it home.”
Hofer explained that the stories the Dakota Life team discovered in Springs have been wide-ranging and diverse, ranging from unique places/landmarks to present-day successes, from interesting historical tales to local legends.
“Our goal is to connect with members of the community to hear these stories as we do not want to assume we know the tales that each community has to tell,” Hofer explained. “Connecting with members who could share some of the unique stories with our content producers was the first step. The second is coming into the featured communities to do interviews, shoot standups and create the show based on the stories our Dakota Life team chooses to produce.”
SDPB crews have filmed in Wessington Springs several times over the past year to capture the essence of the community. With production complete, it’s time for the community to have the opportunity to take a “first look” at the screening before the show airs on SDPB.
'Telling stories of communities across the state is incredibly important and impactful. As such, we want to make sure our featured communities get to be the first to see what we have created as it is representative of much more than just one person and/or story,” he said.
The towns that will be featured in the 2024-2025 season of Dakota Life are: Pine Ridge, Garretson, Elk Point, Faith, Britton, McLaughlin, Burke, Wessington Springs and Box Elder.