10,000 Lakes Festival put on hiatus for 2010

Photo by Reistroffer Design

​The Star Tribune is reporting that the 10,000 Lakes Festival, a popular annual jam band gathering, will not occur in 2010 and may be done for good. Though a crowd of 15,000 flocked to Detroit Lakes this summer to see headliners the Dave Matthews Band (who, honestly, we were shocked to hear could still draw such a crowd), headliners on the other two nights of the festival, Wilco and Widespread Panic, saw smaller turnouts, causing founder and promoter Randy Levy to determine that the yearly event wasn't making enough money to sustain itself.
Levy blames the economy for the festival's decline, as well as competing regional festivals like Rothbury in Michigan (who had big-name headliners Bob Dylan and the Dead on this year's bill) and Mile High in Colorado. Levy says that people are less willing to travel to destination concerts like 10KLF, but he says he still has success running metro festivals like the We Fest, Warped Tour, and Soundset.

"With the economy, people travel less," he told the Star Tribune. "It was tough for the festival business. But the lower-priced festivals like Warped and Soundset totally worked this year."

Read the full article on the Star Tribune site.

On the 10KLF website, Levy writes: "While 10,000 Lakes will be on hiatus for 2010, we believe that the music never stops. It can't, you make it possible... We will strive for better days ahead."