assets including Beth and Ken Lacy of Ocelco Inc.; Weichert Group with Dan Kavanaugh, Tim Bosch, Travis Banks and Todd Barnett; Steve and Cindy Clough of Just For Kix and The Teehive; Darrel and Vindy Pulak of Baxter Insurance Group; Greg and Sherry Watland and Gary's brothers Scott and Al Watland, owners of the Kentucky Fried Chicken in Brainerd/Baxter, Days Inn and Baymont Inn and Suites. With this new team assembled, Lakes Jam 2015 was now up to 15 bands and was able to secure Boston, Loverboy, Chase Rice, Lee Brice, Chris Janson and more. So many bands were added, that music on Thursday evening became a necessity and Lakes Jam morphed into a three-day event.
Johnson of Holden Electric. With this addition, we also lost an owner and said goodbye to Jerry Braam and his family as they moved away from the area. As for the talent, it was a year for comebacks with Chris Janson coming back to headline Thursday night. Chris Hawkey and LOCASH also returned making Thursday night a must not miss for all fans. Bret Michaels and Skillet stole the show on the rock side while a star-studded country night included Jake Owen, Trace Adkins and Montgomery Gentry. Lakes Jam has become a community event and the owners are proud to be a part of it. We want it to grow for the community as it benefits everyone.
Thursday night (2016) saw Lakes Jam eclipse the 20,000 three-day attendance number and word was now spreading all over the Midwest about this unique festival.
Philanthropy Lakes Jam’s main philanthropic partner is Confidence Learning Center. Lakes Jam supports many of their events including the Jaycees Ice Fishing Contest, Frozen Fore, Camp Classic Golf Tournament and Mariucci Fiesta. Raffles are held and collections taken at Lakes Jam each year with a resulting donation. In 2017, $7,500 was donated. In 2018, Lakes Jam is hoping to donate even more. 2016 brought on the arrival of Toby Keith, Chase Bryant, Styx, 38 Special and Survivor. In the whirlwind of talent buying and routing, this lineup was a homerun and will be difficult to duplicate in the future. Adding Granger Smith and LOCASH on Thursday night saw Lakes Jam eclipse the 20,000 three-day attendance number and word was now spreading all over the Midwest about this unique festival. With another year, more players were added to the Lakes Jam team: Reg and Cindy Clow of Clow Stamping and Jesse and Tana
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Lakes Jam • 2018
Talent Buying We hear all the time, “You should get this guy or you should get this gal!” Trust us, we wish it was that easy. When we look to buying talent for each year, we really don’t have a lot of choices. We have a budget we need to stay in, the band has to be performing in the same part of the country at the same time, or else you have to pay a lot more. This is called
routing. And, they can’t be playing too close, let’s say 150 miles, within a certain time before or after our event, generally 60-90 days. This is called a radius clause. Once we do sign a headliner, they then have to approve of who plays before them. We have a little leeway here, but not much. Once all said and done, then we have to make sure the blue M&Ms are ready and their toilet seat in the dressing room is almond in color! And when we do announce a headliner, for example classic rock, there aren’t many of them left. There are 15 locations, casinos and event centers, in Minnesota that regularly have classic rock. So yes, we understand, they may have played in the Midwest in the past couple of years; however, not at Lakes Jam, where the experience is completely different!
Building the Event What most people don’t realize is that it takes most of the year to put on something of this magnitude. There are a lot of moving
There are so many people needed to put on an event of this size. parts that don’t stop once the weekend is here, if anything they ratchet up a few notches. Between trying to get everyone in the facility as quickly and smoothly as possible, dealing with vendors coming in and out, getting the talent backstage, unloading their gear, setting up the venue, tearing down and cleaning up after each day so that it’s presentable for the next round of performers, all of