In the face of funding cuts, KAXE in Grand Rapids rocks on with Riverfest

GRAND RAPIDS, MINN. - Organizers of Riverfest are quick to say friends don’t let friends plan music festivals.

As fun as they are to attend, funding them can be a money pit. Most break even or go broke trying. Across northern Minnesota, music festivals have wavered over the years, namely 10,000 Lakes Festival, which burned hot for seven years in Detroit Lakes, Minn., before promoters pulled the plug in 2009. Moondance Jam, the longstanding rock festival in Walker, Minn., abruptly canceled national headliners last year because of low ticket sales, never bouncing back to what it had been for three decades.

Meanwhile, Grand Rapids has rocked on with Riverfest for 20 years. The music festival took place over the weekend featuring local musicians and national headliners Margo Price and Courtney Barnett. The festival changed names and locations along the banks of the Mississippi River throughout its history, but carried on the same mission: supporting public radio and bringing the community together.

Riverfest faces rough waters ahead, though, after steep federal funding cuts to public radio earlier this year.

“We feel kind of stronger than ever, weirdly, in spite of all this funding stuff. We’ve been doing really great work. … Riverfest is a huge part of that,” said Kari Hedlund, KAXE’s music director. “We don’t want to lose this.”

The Trump administration killed $1.1 billion in approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), citing accusations of liberal bias at NPR and PBS.

For KAXE, the first rural public radio station in the country, that meant losing $228,000 in CPB grants for its shoestring budget. Finances took another hit when the station also lost $60,000 in state legacy funding.

Listeners of KAXE in Grand Rapids and sister station KBXE, launched in Bemidji in 2012, rallied to raise nearly $200,000 in the aftermath. But the stations know that’s not sustainable.

Sarah Bignall, KAXE/KBXE CEO and general manager, said it costs $350,000 to turn on the towers and transmitters every year. That doesn’t include paying 17 employees, including three full-time reporters across northern Minnesota. It relies on 80 volunteer DJs to host a variety of shows each week.

“We’re fortunate that our community has rallied behind us and we’ve been able to fundraise to kind of help weather this initial storm,” Bignall said. “But know that going forward, we have a massive hole left in our budget.”

Bignall said rural radio is a tough business because the stations serve a large geographic area requiring a lot more wattage to put the signal out across the region. She said CPB grants were instrumental in being able to serve rural listeners in areas that lack news outlets.

In Callaway, Minn., on the White Earth Reservation, Niijii Radio is struggling. And PBS stations like Lakeland in Bemidji also fear for their future after losing $1 million in CPB grants.

“There’s going to be a Riverfest next year, but it’s true that we’re trying to figure out how to address some issues,” said City Administrator Tom Pagel.

Next year’s Riverfest will coincide with KAXE’s 50th anniversary.

Ticket sales were down this year. About 1,560 people attended Riverfest, a fraction of the record attendance of nearly 4,000 people set in 2023 when Jason Isbell headlined and folks from the metro area flocked to Grand Rapids.

Riverfest has humble beginnings and it’s much bigger than those first years when just a few hundred local folks attended.

This weekend marked the fifth annual Grand Rapids Riverfest. The event was born out of KAXE’s Mississippi Riverfest, the first iteration of the festival with a 15-year history until the pandemic hit. It came back with a new name and location in 2021, and a bigger mission to boost local businesses struggling in the pandemic’s wake.

“It’s a small town. Generations of people just know each other here,” Saxhaug said. “It’s great when we can get people to come to a smaller town and not always have to hit the major cities.”

He said rural radio stations are in trouble, and “everybody in their communities that cares about this sort of thing needs to kind of step up right now and help them out,” he said. Riverfest is just one way to show support, he said.

“It’s a pretty good ticket no matter who’s playing,” Sauxhaug said.

Riverfest this year felt defiant and more celebratory in the face of funding cuts and Saturday’s dreary weather.

Light showers throughout the day passed and a double rainbow emerged (this is, after all, the home of Judy Garland). Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett was the final act. Her set aligned with a full moon rising behind the stage and above the Mississippi River.