Phenomenology of the surf ballroom's winter dance party : affect and community at a popular music heritage tourism event

Built in 1948, the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake (Iowa, United States) was a premiere national venue during the height of the swing era. Designed in the Streamline Moderne style with a South Seas-inspired interior, it featured a cloud machine that simulated a starry night sky above the stage and dance floor. It had a beach club atmosphere purpose-built for the dance culture of the time, and regularly featured big-band greats such as Count Basie, Duke Ellington, the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Lawrence Welk. The Surf Ballroom’s architecture represented a nationwide trend among ballrooms constructed in the 1930s and 1940s. ‘The stainless steel, glass and curving lines of the Moderne reflected the prevailing music culture of “the swing” and was a stylistic reaction against the more intimate cabarets and nightclubs of the 1920s’ (McDowell 2011).