Lumberjack Days' cover charge experiment tames crowds

Looks like the cover charge experiment was a success.

An early look at ticket sales for this year's big Lumberjack Days concerts confirms attendance was strong and the city of Stillwater came close to fully covering its expenses.

It was the first time attendees had to pay a $10 cover charge to see the headline acts.

Lumberjack Days is an annual summer festival in Stillwater that dates to 1934 and includes free entertainment and activities. Its impressive concert lineup typically draws people from throughout the Twin Cities area.

All of the concerts used to be free, but in recent years, city leaders and organizers have struggled to strike the right balance between putting on a good show and not overwhelming Stillwater residents with massive, unruly crowds.

That struggle, coupled with the need to make up for sluggish beer sales, prompted organizers to start charging admission for the Friday and Saturday night concerts.

On Wednesday, city leaders lauded the preliminary attendance numbers, saying they indicate that the cover charge is an effective alternative to alcohol sales to fund Lumberjack Days.

According to the preliminary attendance numbers, 6,587 people attended the Friday night concert featuring the BoDeans; and 7,532 people came out to see Boz Scaggs perform on Saturday night.

Under the contract agreement between the city and the Lumberjack Days Festival Association, the city will collect 35 percent of the gate from those ticket sales. That comes to $49,417 for Stillwater, said Larry Hansen, city administrator.

In addition, the contract calls for the Lumberjack Days Festival Association to reimburse the city for providing a police and fire presence at the festival to the tune of $20,000. The association also will give the city $4,000 for police and fire expenses related to the Kids' Concert, starring Corbin Bleu.

That makes the total amount due to the city an estimated $75,000.

"It's a better model than we've had in the past," Hansen said of the cover charge. With the city's total expenses for the festival expected to be about $90,000, the gap between costs and revenue is pretty close, he said.

Hansen said he did hear from a few people who objected to having to pay the $10 fee. But those calls don't even compare to the level of outrage and concern expressed by residents in 2004 after the infamous Lynyrd Skynyrd concert at Lumberjack Days, he said. Some 55,000 people descended on Stillwater for that event, and many residents complained about rowdy behavior.

In addition to the cover charge, festival organizers tried something else new this year.

They moved the Kids Concert from a weekend afternoon to Wednesday night, giving Lumberjack Days an earlier start.

Eckberg and Hansen said they viewed the Wednesday night slot as a special exception made in order to book Bleu.

But only 2,544 people attended the concert, according to the preliminary ticket sales numbers. Having the show on a Wednesday night may have prevented some people from attending, Eckberg said.