Buddy Holly Center Courtyard. The Buddy Holly Center offers free admission, as well as free trolley tours of various Holly-related sites in Lubbock, on February 3, "The Day the Music Died" (the day Holly was killed in an airplane crash along with Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson). The Center has also waived admission fees for other occasions, including for its participation in the City of Lubbock's First Friday Art Trail (on multiple occasions, including in August 2011, May 2015, and August 2015), as well as on the occasion of its 15th anniversary in September 2014. The Center has additionally hosted
Ritchie Valens been painted around Pacoima in honor of the late Ritchie Valens. In 1985, artist Manuel Velasquez (assisted by 25 students) created a 12 foot by 20 foot mural which was painted on the side of a classroom building at the former Pacoima Junior High (now Pacoima Middle School) depicting Ritchie Valens' image, records labeled with some of his greatest hits, as well as the newspaper article about the plane crash that took his life. Another mural went up in 2012 at the intersection of Van Nuys Boulevard and Amboy Avenue and was painted by Hector Ponce. A second one was