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Stampede draws country music, line dancing fans…

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Tuesday, September 3rd 2024

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Stampede draws country music, line dancing fans to Temecula

Billed as West Coast's largest country music venue, bar has "cult-like" following

Line dancers move in unison at Stampede, a country-western bar in Temecula, on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
Line dancers move in unison at Stampede, a country-western bar in Temecula, on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)
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It’s nighttime in western-themed Old Town Temecula.

A line stretches around a building as young people wait. Country tunes blare from the windows. A lighted sign announces the venue’s name: Stampede.

Welcome to the place billed as the West Coast’s largest country music venue.

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Line dancers perform in unison at Stampede, a country-western bar in Temecula, on Friday, June 14, 2024. (Photo by Anjali Sharif-Paul, The Sun/SCNG)

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Inside the country-western bar on Old Town Front Street is a massive dance floor that hosts line dancing, pool tables and a mechanical bull. It draws patrons from as far as Orange County and Los Angeles.

A favorite since 1995, Stampede is the only dedicated line dancing bar in Southern California and has what owner Brandie Newman called a “cult-like” following.

She and her husband, Ken Newman, took over in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The original owners, a group of 12 friends, found themselves too old to keep running the venue. One of them, a regular at the Newman’s Canyon Lake restaurant Canyon Cowboy, approached them about buying Stampede.

Brandie Newman, who has worked in the entertainment industry, yearned to reconnect with her Arkansas country roots. And the couple saw potential in the popular night spot.

On Thursday nights for those 18 and older, and on Friday and Saturday nights for those 21 and older, the venue draws regulars who come to hang out and showcase their dancing skills. When the DJ plays the first few seconds of a song, many jump up to dance and hit every step in unison. Their synchronized movements — jumping, stomping and twirling — are reminiscent of a school of fish.

When asked how everyone can know the steps, Brandie Newman said: “I honestly have no idea.”

“I know a couple of dances, and that’s all,” she said. “But these people know every song, and I think they practice all day together.”

She recalled that once the entire crowd cleared the dance floor for a group of girls to perform its routine.

“I was just watching in shock,” she said. “How did everyone know?”

The Stampede’s crowd is a mix of young and old, professional dancers and beginners. Dance styles are specific to country culture and include line dancing, the two-step and swing partner dancing. Though marketed as a country-western bar, its music spans from pop to country classics, with occasional live performances of jazz, blues, rock and new-age country.

Line dancing is Stampede’s main attraction, but a bucking mechanical bull at the club’s center has become its mascot.

“Those who walk in know at the end of the night they are going for it,” said Desmond Benjamin, who took a spin on the bull and fell off almost immediately.

The venue has also caught the eye of reality TV producers.

A “Vanderpump Rules”-style show centered around the employees who run the bar, is in the works, Brandie Newman said, but is still being pitched to networks.

Meanwhile the country beat goes on.

“We love our small community that shows up here every weekend,” Stampede patron Angelo Perez said. “It’s a place for friends to hang out. And, over the years, the crowds seem to get bigger and the dancing better. But we embrace it. It’s part of the energy of this place.”

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